For years when I was a little kid I was a huge fan of Ann Landers. Often, being a typical know-it-all kid, I thought I could give much better advice. In fact, I really thought I could be good at it and wanted to have my own advice column when I grew up. Many times though, I thought she was brilliant and I loved when she really slammed someone who desperately needed a good chewing out.
I remember one letter written by a woman who was apparently highly upset that a relative of hers (daughter-in-law maybe?) wrapped Christmas gifts very poorly, in her opinion, and to her this was absolutely horrible, was a sign of laziness, lack of good breeding, lack of caring for one’s family and just generally ruined the entire holiday. I can’t remember the details, rather more the impression I got from it. Of course Ann put the woman in her place, as she always did so well.
I hope no one ever judges my gifts, and the feelings behind them, by the wrappings. I do enjoy wrapping gifts and I put some effort into it but I am rarely able to make them look neat and perfect. Well, never perfect but on rare occasions fairly neat. I prefer papers with an old-fashioned, traditional look, though sometimes I buy shiny, metallic wrap. I usually don’t use bows. They make packages look pretty and festive but they also make stacking them under the tree a little more difficult. The bows just get crushed.
Sometimes I wrap oddly shaped items as is but I prefer to use boxes so everything is as easy to wrap as possible and comes out looking reasonably neat and rectangular just like on a greeting card. I buy a few gift boxes but I mostly use whatever I have on hand. I use all kinds of boxes. A few times, when desperate for something to wrap a small gift in, I’ve even used match boxes and macaroni and cheese boxes and the like. I wonder what the aforementioned stuffy old biddy would have thought of that. This year I didn’t have many boxes saved. The mail order companies have been shipping most stuff in large envelopes and heavy duty plastic bags lately and this leaves me with fewer nice, free gift boxes.
Today I wrapped the last of the Christmas gifts. They’re all under the tree except for those we’re going to haul over to the relatives on Christmas Eve. Some of those are in fancy little gift bags. Those are nice for when you’re just going to hand something to someone and they’re going to open it immediately.
It’s funny how Christmas has changed for me. I was like any other kid – eagerly looking forward to Christmas morning, so desperate for the day to finally arrive I thought I would burst. This continued even into adulthood but sometime along the way I changed and now I spend almost no time thinking about what I want or what I might get. Of course I’m sure I would be sad if I got nothing because then I would feel like nobody cared but I’m not at all concerned about what I’m getting. In the days leading up to Christmas what I am most looking forward to is seeing my family open their gifts – seeing their surprised, and hopefully happy, faces. I enjoyed the shopping, now I’m enjoying looking at the shiny, colorful, somewhat sloppily wrapped packages under the tree and I’m looking forward to the smiles and laughter. That’s what makes a perfect Christmas.
December 21st, 2010 - 5:49 pm
I agree on the whole gift giving side of the equation. It’s why I have been aggravated with my family in the past years as they gradually go to giving no gifts at all. No one wants anything, no one needs anything, it’s true. But it deprives us of the looks on each others’ faces and the smiles generated by the giving of gifts. I miss that.
I hope your carefully wrapped gifts are much appreciated by the recipients and bring much joy to you and them alike.
December 21st, 2010 - 10:39 pm
We did something a wee (well, a lot) different this year. Lovely Daughter and her husband are still wearing in the “new” in their marriage and had been struggling with managing holoday visits with her family/his family, so we pre-empted Thanksgiving by announcing we’d have our Christmas celebration then, including our Christmas gifts. I like giving gifts. I even suffer other folks giving gifts to me simply for the pleasure it gives them. But Christmas gifts aren’t really that big of a deal to me personally. It’s not as though my family doesn’t give and give and give all year long.
At any rate, all gifts exchanged, unwrapped and home with respective family members at the end of Thanksgiving Day, this year. Now, they have Christmas to spend with his family (and my Wonder Woman and I will set out to visit my elderly parents for th Christmas holiday). The added bonus: celebrating Christmas w/o the “what’s in it for ___” syndrome raising its head, as well as having gotten our shopping over well in advance of most other folks.
It was different, and we may do it again. Still undecided. (Of course, we’ll definitely make sure Christmas gift giving is back on schedule for any grandchildren, but for now… )
But the wrapping? As usual, my job. Semi-neat, no bows. All fit nicely around the Grolsch swingtop-bottle tree in the bay window… *heh* And all gone now.
December 22nd, 2010 - 3:48 am
David – “It’s not as though my family doesn’t give and give and give all year long.”
Exactly. Dad helped me put a clutch in a truck. Dad and my brother both helped me put a head gasket in another truck. Mom and Dad help me to no end with my one child, including driving him from their little town in the middle of nowhere to where I live, which is a good hour of driving each way. My father gave my *wife* a fishing pole. And they are all three (Father, Mother, Brother) always offering to help out *my* family.
I feel that when December rolls around, I am owed nothing, and no gift could be as good as what I’ve already had this year.
About bows and xmas gifts: Working in a warehouse has given me insight into your stacking/bows problem. Just put them on the side. Or, if you prefer, draw a bow somewhere on the box. If you are a bow person that is.
December 22nd, 2010 - 7:33 am
We’ve been saying we got our Christmas gifts early this year – my husband got a boat and I got a Kindle – but we’re giving each other gifts anyway because we like the ritual I guess.
It’s fun. I would give more, to more people if I could. I enjoy going through a store or browsing a catalog or website and finding stuff and thinking, “Oh [X] would love this!”
December 22nd, 2010 - 7:42 am
Oh… I meant to say that my extended family on the in-law’s side are the greatest. We usually give each other gifts but if someone doesn’t give any gifts one year it’s okay. Nobody gets bent out of shape over it. Everyone just gives as they want to and as they’re able to and we all have a good time just being together. I have the greatest in-laws in the world.
December 23rd, 2010 - 10:49 pm
The world would be a better place if moire folks discovered that giving really is more enjoyable than getting, eh? Merry Christmas.