The thrill of wrapping presents is imagining the little face lighting up as the paper is torn away. Giving a loved one a present he or she genuinely likes or even loves is always cockle-warming, and the wrapping is an important part of the ritual.
I don't indulge in ornate wrapping. There are not too many frills and gee-gaws on my packages, and quite often I prefer plain old brown paper and string. But pushing my laptop over to one side of the desk to make room, cutting out the right sized piece of paper, fishing the sellotape out of the drawer and folding the paper into a tidy package with neat corners is a contented few minutes, if you're me.
Of course, Christmas can sometimes threaten the fun. But I've discovered that the trick to Christmas wrapping is to set aside a decent amount of time, have a drink and maybe a toothsome snack somewhere nearby, put on some Nat King Cole, and relax into it. After all, unless you're nuts you'll have bought thick rolls of cheap paper which will certainly ruin the planet, and have cut up last year's Christmas cards into little labels for the parcels. A couple of different coloured bobbins of shiny ribbon and a sellotape dispenser and you have the first festive moment of the season.
My wrapping year begins about now, with the Parental Birthday in mid-July. Then I get a little hiatus again for August, before the glut of autumnal birthdays begins in September. This year is the first time in my life I have managed to pick up the odd thing as I've been going along, and I'm looking forward to handing over those presents as they are that tiny bit more special than a book, or a DVD, no matter how carefully chosen. And most excitingly of all, this year my BF will hatch a babyBF and I'll have the opportunity to wrap the first of what I'm sure will be many over-indulgent and spoiling presents. I'm looking forward to it already.
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that is very nice of you but i am worried about the 'hatching' part. mind you it ust hurst chickens to lay eggs, as it would hurt a human to lay a chicken's egg wouldn't it and we are much bigger
ReplyDeleteI used to like wrapping presents but now i feel guilty like it is non-environmentally friendly. in fact i handed over unwrapped presents yesterday in a paper bag. no faces will light up in that scenario.
Yes, dear. I keep telling you that fags and booze and chips lead to smaller babies, so it's your own fault if you want to be all healthy and give birth to an 11lb quarterback. I'm just saying.
ReplyDeletewell, i'll go for the drugs and bring some of that elderflower and vodka concoction - that'll make laying the egg a bit easier.
ReplyDeleteMaking room on a desk? The whole floor has to be cleared. Disparate scraps of leftover paper are brought out again, in vain. But then the roll of brown paper is too narrow, so anything bigger than a shoe box has to be overlapped two, three times, creating flaps you could sail through. These flappage malfunctions are sometimes taped down, not with invisible tape, but Superdrug sellotape, the colour of golden showers. Teeth marks at both ends. Strips uneven. Corners, folding flaps over evenly, general fucked up attempts at making it even approaching looking neat and presentable. Like a parcel bomb post-detonation. The lighting up of faces never felt more ironic. I am the World's Worst Wrapper of Presents.
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