Sunday, December 16, 2012

I Cheated On My Christmas Wrapping

I think we all know that using gift bags is the ultimate way to cheat when it comes to wrapping presents for Christmas.

And in my family, we save and reuse those gift bags.  It's a spectator sport on Christmas day.  While everyone is opening presents, I'm busy grabbing bags and tissue paper to distribute and reuse next year.  Everyone gets to go home with a bag and bags and a bag of tissue paper, if they want it. 

We have some bags that have been going around for years and years and years.

I'm kind of surprised I haven't written dates on the bottom to prove my point.  I know, don't encourage me.

Sometimes, if I'm lucky, I have the right size bag with the right person's name on it and my name too for the next Christmas.  This year, I seem to have grabbed everyone's bags but my own, so I have a lot of bags that are to me from other people.  And sometimes, the labels aren't the same size as what I have and it's tricky.

But that's not the cheating I'm telling you about today.

Today's cheating involves actual wrapping paper and boxes. 

Somewhere along the way, I bought a bunch of these ready to wrap boxes and then forgot about them.  You don't need anything except the gift you're putting inside.  No scissors, no rolls of paper, no tape.

 
 
They come with a box and paper, all folded neatly.




On the inside, it tells you everything you need to know:


I would NOT have known where to put the box, otherwise.


And then it tells you, step by step, what to do.  And shows where to peel off the paper to remove the self sealing tape.
 
 
 
 



 
 
And voila, there's your perfectly wrapped package.  Very little thought for the wrapping.  No tools necessary.  No tape needed.
 
But, did you notice the fatal flaw?  No, go back and look.
 
That's right, steps 3 and  4 ARE MISSING!!!  I had no idea what do before folding inward.  They want you to go right from exposing the adhesive to folding inward.  It seemed a little rash.
 
I know what this means.  THis means I got these at one of the many discount, knock off stores that we have around here.  They must have gone straight from the mill in China to the discount store because they were missing steps 3 and 4.
 
Know how else I know they came from the discount store?  Because the paper is so very thin and leaves a feeling on my fingers that makes me think it must be laced with lead, or worse.  Lots of things at the discount stores give me that feeling and I'm certain it's all the bad chemicals they use to make them so cheap.
 
So, though it took little effort to wrap my presents, they are still not the gorgeous presents we always see on tv because the paper was a bee-otch to work with, even though it was all prefolded.
 
I'm not sure they will make it from my tree, across the driveway and under my parents' tree without some tears.  That's tears as in rips, not tears as in water from the eyes.  I won't give two $hits if they tear, believe me.  I'm not the gorgeously wrapped present police.
 

I wouldn't recommend the easy wrap way to wrap your presents this year.  Unless you are stranded on an island with no scissors and no tape, but lots of presents and prefolded paper.

Linking up here  and  here and here  because they have no rules!!

1 comment:

  1. Despite the hassle, I think they look fab. We're all gift bag hoarders here too :)
    Thanks for stopping by our blog :)

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