A toy store in town will wrap purchases with a choice of five different papers they keep on rolls behind the cash register. This free service used to be customary when I was growing up. Eventually the stores charged a nominal fee to wrap gifts. The amenity seems to have disappeared in most places I shop. Sometimes during holiday seasons nonprofit groups set up gift wrapping stations in stores offering their expertise for a donation. All these efforts confirm what I have always experienced: most people struggle to wrap gifts and would like someone else to do it.
I am certainly one such person. When paper came in folded sheets I could barely figure out what size to use. Now that it comes in rolls, I am hopeless. I either have way too much or just a tad too little for whatever object I am attempting to cover. Fortunately in recent years I have discovered the magic of the gift bag.
Pictured above are the four gifts that are headed to church for the recipients I mentioned a few posts ago. Each sits happily in its gift bag, purchased at a small cost at Party City.(A whole store for parties!) I had only to estimate the necessary size bag and plop the present inside. A sheet of tissue paper for a cover, staples to keep the bag closed, and labels from the church tags completed the wrapping.
Gift wrapping sanity at last. And when the recipient has removed the gift she will have a bag handy to shop at the stores that now require her to bring her own sack. A double win this Christmas season.
Saved By Words 
Yes, I totally concur with gift-wrapping ineptitude!! Bags are the way to go (the air has been blue in my flat this evening as I struggled to wrap a couple of small gifts….no bags to hand!
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I even struggle with books, seemingly an easy wrapping task.
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I can relate to this. I ALWAYS use far too much paper, and the result looks awful.
But shops here rarely offer a gift-wrap service, so we just have to get on with it.
Best wishes, Pete.
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I see that they still have it in the Philippines according to Arlene. Wonder why they stopped it here and not there.
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Gift wrap is available in exclusive stores, ones like Harrods. But ‘ordinary’ shops either don’t have it, or make an excessive charge.
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I once was in Harrod’s in 1974 and was overcome with the food offerings!
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I love that shop, but could barely afford anything in it. 🙂
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I didn’t buy a thing!
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Lol so true
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I love to wrap gifts. I am available for hire at extremely exorbitant cost!
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A new way to earn money Peter. The world is full of people like me.
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How did we do without gift bags for so many years?? 🙂
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Wonky looking wrapping here, for sure.
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that’s how I feel about suitcases with wheels!
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Exactly! 🙂
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They are always facing the wrong way when I try to use them!
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I did the non-profit gig. We raised a lot of money, and it helped my gift-wrapping skills.
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I would not be a good volunteer at such an event. I am glad you were able to do it.
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I like your easy ingenuity.
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Thanks.
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Bag or sack. When I was growing up in the Northwest we always said “sack” or “gunny sack”. When I moved east I came to believe sack was a western ideosyncracy and gave up the word. Maybe it isn’t.
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I use the words interchangeably but confuse some clerks when I say sack.
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I remember the sections set up in department stores to wrap your gifts as a courtesy. I can’t wrap anything, it always comes out looking mutated.
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But I sure use a lot of Scotch tape to hide the holes!
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Gift wrapping is free at the SM Mall as long as you reach a certain amount in a single purchase of an item.
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You are fortunate for that service.
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Yes, I guess and you earn points for every purchase✌
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That is an added bonus.
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🌝
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I actually enjoy wrapping gifts, though I don’t deny that gift bags are handy when I am in a hurry or have an oddly shaped present and no handy boxes. When I was pregnant with my first and post-baby showers I had a huge stack of gift bags left over from presents. Not wanting to waste such cute bags, I used some of them to carry my lunches to work in every day (each would last about a week before needing to be replaced). It was a fun little pick-me-up at lunch when I was tired and big and uncomfortable. I actually still use gift bags occasionally when I am packing picnic lunches, etc.
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Lately people have given me gifts in gift bags which I promptly “repurpose” as…gift bags back to them.
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my mother taught me how to wrap gifts when I was a child, and ,I swear….when I wrap gifts today it still looks like an 8-year-old did it: just neat enough, but without much flair – Lol!
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I always had to hold the first half of the knot down while my mom tied the last half on the present. Other than that I didn’t gain any skill!
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The recyclable element of the bags is great, Elizabeth. I have always been good at wrapping gifts and school books. I am very meticulous and neat. I used to be in great demand when I was at school, wrapping everyone’s school books.
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I could imagine that from seeing all your elaborate fondant work.
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