I love everything about Christmas except wrapping presents.
I put it off until the very last second. Often that means getting up before everybody else on Christmas morning to slap paper on something I bought months ago.
It’s the corners that get me every time. I’ve never mastered the art of precise folding. As hard as I try, the corners always look sloppy and uneven, not tucked in nicely like they should.
I’ve tried using paper with dotted lines on the back, which works great for cutting straight, but as soon as you start folding, the lines disappear and everything goes haywire.
It’s a mystery how some people are able to cut wrapping paper, fold it around a gift box, and have the seam end up exactly on the edge, not angling sideways down the back like mine does. And some people end up with exactly the same amount of paper at each end to be folded over neatly to match the neat corners. How do they do that?
I’m also not good at scotch tape. You hold the spot to be taped with one hand and try to rip off a section of tape with the other. The piece you get is either too long, too short or sticks to the paper before you have a chance to get it in place. I can’t tell you how much tape I’ve wasted over the years, and how many packages I’ve had to rewrap because of uncooperative scotch tape.
Either the little cutter doesn’t cut, or the tape flips back and sticks to the roll. Have you ever tried to get tape unstuck from itself? It never comes off even; there’s always one small sliver that refuses to unroll with the rest. Picking that little stinker loose with a fingernail can get really aggravating.
My mother-in-law is a master wrapper. Each holiday season she selects a theme. One year it was tartan plaid and pheasant feathers, another Victorian cherubs and old lace. I decided to up my game. I watched Martha Stewart create “darling, no cost” wrapping paper with road maps and raffia. Unfortunately, instead of turning out “darling,” my packages looked like they’d been rolling around in the trunk of the car for two months.
Now I mostly use gift bags or printed gift boxes. There’s still the issue of getting the tissue paper to look like it hasn’t been slept in, and attaching festive bows that don’t sag. But it’s the thought that counts, isn’t it?
This also appeared in the Wenatchee World.
I put it off until the very last second. Often that means getting up before everybody else on Christmas morning to slap paper on something I bought months ago.
It’s the corners that get me every time. I’ve never mastered the art of precise folding. As hard as I try, the corners always look sloppy and uneven, not tucked in nicely like they should.
I’ve tried using paper with dotted lines on the back, which works great for cutting straight, but as soon as you start folding, the lines disappear and everything goes haywire.
It’s a mystery how some people are able to cut wrapping paper, fold it around a gift box, and have the seam end up exactly on the edge, not angling sideways down the back like mine does. And some people end up with exactly the same amount of paper at each end to be folded over neatly to match the neat corners. How do they do that?
I’m also not good at scotch tape. You hold the spot to be taped with one hand and try to rip off a section of tape with the other. The piece you get is either too long, too short or sticks to the paper before you have a chance to get it in place. I can’t tell you how much tape I’ve wasted over the years, and how many packages I’ve had to rewrap because of uncooperative scotch tape.
Either the little cutter doesn’t cut, or the tape flips back and sticks to the roll. Have you ever tried to get tape unstuck from itself? It never comes off even; there’s always one small sliver that refuses to unroll with the rest. Picking that little stinker loose with a fingernail can get really aggravating.
My mother-in-law is a master wrapper. Each holiday season she selects a theme. One year it was tartan plaid and pheasant feathers, another Victorian cherubs and old lace. I decided to up my game. I watched Martha Stewart create “darling, no cost” wrapping paper with road maps and raffia. Unfortunately, instead of turning out “darling,” my packages looked like they’d been rolling around in the trunk of the car for two months.
Now I mostly use gift bags or printed gift boxes. There’s still the issue of getting the tissue paper to look like it hasn’t been slept in, and attaching festive bows that don’t sag. But it’s the thought that counts, isn’t it?
This also appeared in the Wenatchee World.
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