@spitfire6006006 When i was a kid my family was pretty poor; we didn’t even have a car for several years there. Most of our family’s gifts were things we made, usually with newspaper for gift wrap. Sunday comics were best, they were more colorful. My dad, if he had time, would make gift wrap out of butcher paper decorated by hand with magic markers. I remember one year my dad was out in the garage every evening for a couple of weeks, with paper taped over the windows and the door locked. That year I got a hand made wooden pinball machine, which I still have up in the attic somewhere almost 50 years later.
As a very young child I remember begging relentlessly for a cowboy hat. For Christmast, my much older cousin was kind enough to provide. She wrapped it in tin foil. Form fitting tin foil. There was no question what glorious item was contained inside that shiny silver foil. It sat under the tree for two weeks taunting me.
Unfortunately my OCD and standard for precision are well beyond my gift wrapping skills. So, ya, basically every gift I wrap is annoying.
I dunno - in our house, anything that was a weird shape got put into a box before it got wrapped. Is it really an iron, or phone, or pair of shoes in that box? Better not be disappointed until you actually open it…
Not that difficult a wrap job, but in the early 90s I gave my sister a New Kids on the Block cassette tape for Christmas. I wrapped it, then wrapped that in successively larger boxes until the largest box i could find (probably 20x20x30" or so). That was great because it tortured her wondering what that huge present with her name on it was.
For everyday maddening gift giving, the carded blister pack and the cutaway display box that are both common to almost every toy give a little bit of difficulty.
For the worst thing to wrap award, I nominate the tricycle, with the bicycle a close runner up. You won’t try that more than once.
@djslack you know those toy prizes in the quarter machines at grocery stores, etc? Tbe bubbles with a toy inside? Replace the toy with a few pennies or beads and wrap that inside the box for extra confusion factor.
@djslack At least one person gets to unwrap tons of boxes inside box every year. One year I had a tiny DS game cartridge for my son. After wrapping all of these boxes I glanced over to see the game sitting on my desk. He kept asking what was in the big box and was not amused to find I was telling the truth when I said nothing!
@djslack My HS Girlfriend’s extended family loved to pull that trick. one year, her uncle got his wife a pair of earrings. each layer was individually wrapped, all the way to the outermost box, which was was a full sized refrigerator box…
Years ago when I was a 17 year old dishwasher in a restaurant we had to draw names for the christmas party gift exchange. I managed to draw Bonnie, a waitress whose day job was elementary school teacher. Bonnie was about 30, pretty stuck up and looked down her nose at all of us know-nothing teenagers working there. Although her IQ was likely struggling to reach 100, she wrapped herself in this aura of superiority because she had a degree and did not usually socialize with the servant class.
I forgot what $5 trinket I found at the local mall, but that year there was a table set up in the mall where for $2 you could have your gift sealed inside of a #10 can, which I thought was pretty cool so I spent another $2 mostly to see how it was done.
At work we put all the gifts under the tree in the dining room and went about our jobs; the partywas still several days away. Eventually Bonnie noticed the can with the big red bow and her name on it, and picked it up. It was kind of heavy, and whatever was inside kind of slid back and forth with a thud when it was tilted. She kept shaking it, asking “what IS it?” in her holier than thou tone of voice. I looked at my buddy, and in a moment of inspiration looked at her and said “it’s a puppy…” with a blank dumb look.
The result exceeded expectations: she screeched loudly and started calling us stupid little shits; “DONT YOU KNOW IT NEEDS AIR!?”, shoving us aside as she ran madly for the can opener in the kitchen. It was glorious.
It’s also somewhat fun if you have any wrapping talent to go into bed bath and beyond since they’ve implemented the diy wrapping station. Around the holidays there will be several people stuck doing terrible things to their packages. But they have the station set up for maximum success and good quality wrapping paper, so it’s not too hard to turn out something that looks kind of professional and pretend you don’t notice all the death stares the strugglers give. Or, if you’re feeling helpful, do them a favor and wrap theirs too.
@2many2no For a country look I have in the past gone out to the barn and gotten a few lengths of baling twine to use instead of ribbon. Adults seem to like it, kids not so much.
When I have something awkward to wrap, like a stuffed toy, placing it on a large piece of paper, rolling it up into a tube, and then tying the ends of the tube closed with lots of curled ribbon so it looks like an oversized piece of taffy is quick, easy, and looks pretty festive with little effort.
@Steve7654 that is what i do to several gifts too. my partner looks at them perplexed every year. he hasn’t caught on that nearly every year they contain rolled up pj pants.
As a joke I once wrapped a gift in contact paper. Unfortunately, it didn’t stick that well and my attempt at humor was lost. I like the idea of several layers of duct tape.
@ThatsHeadly I’ve never received an Amazon wrapped gift, but if they gift wrap with the same acumen with which they package shipments, I’m sure I’m not missing out on anything special.
@ruouttaurmind my partner has had a few things gift wrapped by amazon (and one item that came in a giant felt-ish bag). it was fine, but you are spot on with “not anything special.” i suppose like most things it depends on who’s doing that job that day but imo pretty blah. last year a woman my partner works with took pity on him trying to wrap my gifts in the office and she wrapped and ribboned every damn thing. now those presents looked amazing. (and i knew right away what had transpired, lol!)
On the occasions when I can’t get away with a gift bag, I find some way to pay someone to wrap it for me, ideally at the store where I made the purchase.
Even non-soft irregularly shaped things give me fits. I use gift bags for a lot of things to preserve my sanity, but when the thing is mostly rectilinear that seems like a cop-out. So I end up with a blob shaped like roadkill.
One of the more recent challenges was the Life Gear Auto Emergency Tool LED Flashlights I bought here. I decided to wrap them (barely) for one reason only: As I was handing one to a giftee, I pushed the button to make it flash red through the wrapping paper.
Minor miscalculation: I’d wrapped them in green paper, and because my dad is red-green colorblind he couldn’t see his flashing until he unwrapped it (still not sure how that works). The weird expression on his face wasn’t because his present was blinking, but because he heard the button-click and had no freaking clue what was going on. I count that one as a partial victory.
When I was quite young, not yet school-age, Dad bought my Mom a car for Xmas.
The dealership “wrapped” it with ribbon going here to there to everywhere.
Most days Dad was at work by 6-7am, sometimes earlier.
He made an excuse to leave home at 4am one morning before Xmas. He met a salesperson at the dealership and picked up the beribboned car. He drove it home on the then-empty streets and quietly parked it by pre-arrangement in a neighbor’s closed garage.
The neighbor drove him back to the dealership to pick up his own vehicle and, and Dad went to work.
Xmas morning, after most stuff was opened and we were getting ready for lunch, Dad got a phone call.
A little bit later, Dad “found” an envelope hidden in the tree branches.
“What’s this? From Santa?”
He handed the envelope to Mom. She opened it, found a key, and looked very confused.
He let her be confused for a min or two, then pointedly stood by the front window and looked out in consternation, as tho he were confused also by what he saw.
There, the ribboned-everywhere new Chevy wagon was in the driveway that had been empty an hour before.
My Mother-in-law once asked me to wrap presents for her. Then I had to act surprised when I opened them. I guess she thought changing the tag would mean I’d forgotten that I’d been the one to wrap it, or what was inside.
I love Christmas, and hate surprises being spoiled. She knows this. I was not happy.
the last birthday gift i gave to my ex right when she got squirrelly and then served me. haven’t ever missed her since she left. was probably the cosmic right thing that needed to be done.
blister packed things - like anything with a cardboard back but then a little plastic box stuck on the front. awkward to get wrapped with only one set of hands, and then with the added bonus of accidentally puncturing the hollow bit under the paper between the cardboard and plastic when you’re finally all finished and having to start all over again.
A concrete dragon statue.
When I was younger I tried a few times to wrap multiple lumpy items into a single prezzie, thinking it would save time and paper. I was wrong.
Nearly all of these things seem incredibly expensive, more than I can afford
@spitfire6006006 When i was a kid my family was pretty poor; we didn’t even have a car for several years there. Most of our family’s gifts were things we made, usually with newspaper for gift wrap. Sunday comics were best, they were more colorful. My dad, if he had time, would make gift wrap out of butcher paper decorated by hand with magic markers. I remember one year my dad was out in the garage every evening for a couple of weeks, with paper taped over the windows and the door locked. That year I got a hand made wooden pinball machine, which I still have up in the attic somewhere almost 50 years later.
@Steve7654 We use the Sunday comics as wrapping paper. We save them year round, so we always have wrapping paper.
@Steve7654 I want to see pictures of this pinball machine. That sounds so cool.
@Steve7654 I had forgotten about wrapping things in comics. I haven’t done that before.
First couple of boxes each year are a struggle
As a very young child I remember begging relentlessly for a cowboy hat. For Christmast, my much older cousin was kind enough to provide. She wrapped it in tin foil. Form fitting tin foil. There was no question what glorious item was contained inside that shiny silver foil. It sat under the tree for two weeks taunting me.
Unfortunately my OCD and standard for precision are well beyond my gift wrapping skills. So, ya, basically every gift I wrap is annoying.
I dunno - in our house, anything that was a weird shape got put into a box before it got wrapped. Is it really an iron, or phone, or pair of shoes in that box? Better not be disappointed until you actually open it…
Do people really gift-wrap puppies?
@awk
/image puppy in a box
/image kitten in a box
@narfcake
/image gift-wrapped puppy
/image gift-wrapped kitten
Inflatable hot tub.
@Moose Were you thoughtful enough to include a large box of air to fill it with?
@Moose did you deflate it first, to keep the paper from getting wet?
Not that difficult a wrap job, but in the early 90s I gave my sister a New Kids on the Block cassette tape for Christmas. I wrapped it, then wrapped that in successively larger boxes until the largest box i could find (probably 20x20x30" or so). That was great because it tortured her wondering what that huge present with her name on it was.
For everyday maddening gift giving, the carded blister pack and the cutaway display box that are both common to almost every toy give a little bit of difficulty.
For the worst thing to wrap award, I nominate the tricycle, with the bicycle a close runner up. You won’t try that more than once.
@djslack heh; I did that too, to torment my brother. For extra points I remember putting bricks and things in some of the layers.
@Steve7654 oh yeah, i think i did add bricks for weight in there somewhere. Good times!
@djslack you know those toy prizes in the quarter machines at grocery stores, etc? Tbe bubbles with a toy inside? Replace the toy with a few pennies or beads and wrap that inside the box for extra confusion factor.
@djslack At least one person gets to unwrap tons of boxes inside box every year. One year I had a tiny DS game cartridge for my son. After wrapping all of these boxes I glanced over to see the game sitting on my desk. He kept asking what was in the big box and was not amused to find I was telling the truth when I said nothing!
@callow Ha!
@djslack My HS Girlfriend’s extended family loved to pull that trick. one year, her uncle got his wife a pair of earrings. each layer was individually wrapped, all the way to the outermost box, which was was a full sized refrigerator box…
Years ago when I was a 17 year old dishwasher in a restaurant we had to draw names for the christmas party gift exchange. I managed to draw Bonnie, a waitress whose day job was elementary school teacher. Bonnie was about 30, pretty stuck up and looked down her nose at all of us know-nothing teenagers working there. Although her IQ was likely struggling to reach 100, she wrapped herself in this aura of superiority because she had a degree and did not usually socialize with the servant class.
I forgot what $5 trinket I found at the local mall, but that year there was a table set up in the mall where for $2 you could have your gift sealed inside of a #10 can, which I thought was pretty cool so I spent another $2 mostly to see how it was done.
At work we put all the gifts under the tree in the dining room and went about our jobs; the partywas still several days away. Eventually Bonnie noticed the can with the big red bow and her name on it, and picked it up. It was kind of heavy, and whatever was inside kind of slid back and forth with a thud when it was tilted. She kept shaking it, asking “what IS it?” in her holier than thou tone of voice. I looked at my buddy, and in a moment of inspiration looked at her and said “it’s a puppy…” with a blank dumb look.
The result exceeded expectations: she screeched loudly and started calling us stupid little shits; “DONT YOU KNOW IT NEEDS AIR!?”, shoving us aside as she ran madly for the can opener in the kitchen. It was glorious.
It’s also somewhat fun if you have any wrapping talent to go into bed bath and beyond since they’ve implemented the diy wrapping station. Around the holidays there will be several people stuck doing terrible things to their packages. But they have the station set up for maximum success and good quality wrapping paper, so it’s not too hard to turn out something that looks kind of professional and pretend you don’t notice all the death stares the strugglers give. Or, if you’re feeling helpful, do them a favor and wrap theirs too.
@djslack > Around the holidays there will be several people stuck doing terrible things to their packages.
Sounds like fun Youtube material…
@djslack
ewww, I guess it’s a good thing they have lots of towels there huh.
@therealjrn
/image the towels are a lie
@djslack What a horrible, horrible lie! I bet the shams are a sham too!
/image Hefty Hefty Hefty
/image duck tape
You can wrap the world.
@2many2no For a country look I have in the past gone out to the barn and gotten a few lengths of baling twine to use instead of ribbon. Adults seem to like it, kids not so much.
When I have something awkward to wrap, like a stuffed toy, placing it on a large piece of paper, rolling it up into a tube, and then tying the ends of the tube closed with lots of curled ribbon so it looks like an oversized piece of taffy is quick, easy, and looks pretty festive with little effort.
@Steve7654 that is what i do to several gifts too. my partner looks at them perplexed every year. he hasn’t caught on that nearly every year they contain rolled up pj pants.
As a joke I once wrapped a gift in contact paper. Unfortunately, it didn’t stick that well and my attempt at humor was lost. I like the idea of several layers of duct tape.
Amazon Prime gift wrap.
@ThatsHeadly I’ve never received an Amazon wrapped gift, but if they gift wrap with the same acumen with which they package shipments, I’m sure I’m not missing out on anything special.
@ruouttaurmind my partner has had a few things gift wrapped by amazon (and one item that came in a giant felt-ish bag). it was fine, but you are spot on with “not anything special.” i suppose like most things it depends on who’s doing that job that day but imo pretty blah. last year a woman my partner works with took pity on him trying to wrap my gifts in the office and she wrapped and ribboned every damn thing. now those presents looked amazing. (and i knew right away what had transpired, lol!)
A stationary exercise bike. But, looking at the above comments, my gift is kinda “meh”!
On the occasions when I can’t get away with a gift bag, I find some way to pay someone to wrap it for me, ideally at the store where I made the purchase.
Even non-soft irregularly shaped things give me fits. I use gift bags for a lot of things to preserve my sanity, but when the thing is mostly rectilinear that seems like a cop-out. So I end up with a blob shaped like roadkill.
One of the more recent challenges was the Life Gear Auto Emergency Tool LED Flashlights I bought here. I decided to wrap them (barely) for one reason only: As I was handing one to a giftee, I pushed the button to make it flash red through the wrapping paper.
Minor miscalculation: I’d wrapped them in green paper, and because my dad is red-green colorblind he couldn’t see his flashing until he unwrapped it (still not sure how that works). The weird expression on his face wasn’t because his present was blinking, but because he heard the button-click and had no freaking clue what was going on. I count that one as a partial victory.
When I was quite young, not yet school-age, Dad bought my Mom a car for Xmas.
The dealership “wrapped” it with ribbon going here to there to everywhere.
Most days Dad was at work by 6-7am, sometimes earlier.
He made an excuse to leave home at 4am one morning before Xmas. He met a salesperson at the dealership and picked up the beribboned car. He drove it home on the then-empty streets and quietly parked it by pre-arrangement in a neighbor’s closed garage.
The neighbor drove him back to the dealership to pick up his own vehicle and, and Dad went to work.
Xmas morning, after most stuff was opened and we were getting ready for lunch, Dad got a phone call.
A little bit later, Dad “found” an envelope hidden in the tree branches.
“What’s this? From Santa?”
He handed the envelope to Mom. She opened it, found a key, and looked very confused.
He let her be confused for a min or two, then pointedly stood by the front window and looked out in consternation, as tho he were confused also by what he saw.
There, the ribboned-everywhere new Chevy wagon was in the driveway that had been empty an hour before.
Mom started laughing and crying at once.
It was a nice day.
@f00l hear, hear.
My Mother-in-law once asked me to wrap presents for her. Then I had to act surprised when I opened them. I guess she thought changing the tag would mean I’d forgotten that I’d been the one to wrap it, or what was inside.
I love Christmas, and hate surprises being spoiled. She knows this. I was not happy.
the last birthday gift i gave to my ex right when she got squirrelly and then served me. haven’t ever missed her since she left. was probably the cosmic right thing that needed to be done.
Anything bigger than the paper or causes the cheap paper I buy to tear.
some would call this one easy, but it’s driven me batty the 2 times i had to wrap sports balls for my nephew.
once a basketball, and once a football.
Your mom’s new sex toy! BAM!
@ELUNO Yea, thanks…You forgot the batteries though. Nothing more disappointing than a DOA sex toy.
@accelerator
I can help!
I think it’s going to be slankets.
Waited till she said yes before buying the ring, so not that one.
blister packed things - like anything with a cardboard back but then a little plastic box stuck on the front. awkward to get wrapped with only one set of hands, and then with the added bonus of accidentally puncturing the hollow bit under the paper between the cardboard and plastic when you’re finally all finished and having to start all over again.
ha ha! wrapped a puppy!
I once wrapped an Xbox game for a friend’s birthday with duct tape. Sticky side out.
When I was a teenager, I worked for the holidays in the Neiman-Marcus gift wrap Dept.
In those days I cared about gift wrap and I was decent at it.
N-M cared about employees and presentation, too. We were encouraged to do a great job even if it took some time.
No one ever really took any money home tho. The employee discount was like 40% or so, same off for marked down prices also.
Everyone spent their checks in the store as soon as they got their hands on the cash.
This was a long time ago … Was a teenager, after all …
@f00l I miss discounts like that. When I worked at Waldenbooks, it was 30-40% off I believe. I’m lucky I get 10% where I work.
I got My son a cat for Christmas 5 years ago lol that’s really hard to wrap lol just stick it in a bag
@ragingredd cats belomg in boxes
I was very proud a few years ago of wrapping a shovel like a Christmas tree so that what it was was completely hidden.