December 12th, 2019

 I am in gift wrapping mode.  Don't get in my way or you too will be swathed in colourful paper, tied up with brightly coloured ribbons and perhaps sporting a pretty bow on top your head. Maybe the tip of your nose.  Depends on my mood at the moment.

I actually really enjoy gift wrapping. Honest, I do!  Even when I was a kid I loved it.  I was the designated gift wrapper in our house.  My mom would have every gift already boxed (or bagged depending on what it was of course) and labeled who it was to and who it was from and then it was up to me to wrap it and make out the little gift tag.  I even wrapped the gifts to me!  And what's more, I never peeked. Not once!    Not because I'm That Good,  but rather because I wanted to be surprised.  The delight of surprise outweighed the desire to know what was in the box.

I know that using real gift wrap and ribbon is considered a bad thing right now. And I'm sure that ecologically speaking, it is.  Well the paper is most likely biodegradable.  Maybe it's the ribbon that's a bad thing?  All I know is, I keep hearing and reading ideas for using other things besides actual holiday appropriate wrapping paper.  And there is nothing wrong with that.

For years, to save money, (since I had none) I wrapped gifts in newspaper, paper bags, sometimes pages out of magazines (for small gifts) or even aluminum foil.  I tied them up with yarn, cotton twine, hair scrunchies or whatever else I had on hand.  And there is absolutely nothing wrong with that.  But it doesn't look very festive to me.  And now that I can afford paper, I buy it.  And I use it.  And I love it!

To be fair, all year long I save scraps of this and that.  I save ribbon from other gifts, boxes, gift bags, tissue paper, that bit of fluff that comes inside boxes to protect delicate things (I don't know what's it's called) and yes, even gift wrap that isn't totally wrecked.  So I do re-use and that surely counts in my favour. Yes?

I have a bin that slides under my bed that holds all these goodies.  As I come across things worth saving and re-using, I slide the bin out and add it to the collection.  Bows in particular are easily reused and reused and re-re-re-used.    Boxes on the other hand, don't really fit in the bin, so I have a large box in the utility room that holds boxes.  A box of boxes as it were.     Everything from shoe boxes to small kitchen appliance boxes to tiny jewelry gift boxes and everything in between is somewhere in that box of boxes.  So whenever a box is needed, I know just where to look.

Yesterday I decided to begin my Christmas gift wrapping.  All of the components start on the kitchen table.  I just plop it all there amoungst the decor I already had out.  It looks.....cheerful :) But the kitchen peninsula countertop is my gift wrap work station.  

I consider each gift carefully.  How to disguise it?  Does it require a box?  Does it need soundproofing?  Is it breakable? Who is it for?  Is it being shipped?  Is it a stocking present?  So many considerations before I even begin.

Finally, it begins.    This year most everything I am wrapping is a stocking gift. Which means multiple small things for each person.  Bearing that in mind, I try to not wrap any two the same way.   I like to use lots of different papers and colours of ribbon.  Even if those colours are not strictly Christmas colours.  Like oh say, purple, or turquoise.  Why not!

I do love Christmas stockings and in our house every single stocking gift is wrapped.  It takes FOREVER to open stocking gifts.   One person at a time, one gift at a time, 'round and 'round the circle we go.  I guess that makes me evil Santa.  Or Samta. 

Either way, I have a lot more wrapping to do so I'd best get to it!

​So,  I guess that's  a wrap on this post. teehee