Presents and Wrapping

[mrissa]

Yesterday I did a bunch of Christmas shopping. I still have a bunch left. Some of the stuff I got is "stocking stuffers" -- a jar of jam or a coffee mug for people who are getting larger presents from me/us. Some people may be getting entire presents composed of stocking stuffers this year. Myself, I love that kind of present, though I try not to project that onto people who don't.

timprov and I have two gift-giving-holiday traditions. The first is that he sometimes claims the Right of Last Present. We wait until all celebrations with family and friends are over and I don't think anybody else has anything waiting for me, and then he asks what I really want that I didn't get, and then he gets it for me. The other is that sometimes we buy each other's presents together, so we get the gift of whatever it is and also the gift of the time spent hanging out together picking it out. We did some of the latter last night, and it was a good thing. We weren't sure we'd be able to this year, with his health. (Also we got things for other people and further discussed things for other people, some of whom are reading this right now, so don't get nosey.)

You will note that neither of these really involves surprises. That's okay. I get surprises from markgritter, and often from my folks and other friends and loved ones. Not everything has to be a surprise. Surprises are good, but there are other good things, too.

What I really want this year, in the material goods department, is:
1. A robot vacuum, but I already asked my folks/grands for one. Because then I would live in the fuuuuuture! With my robot vacuum! And next year I could have my flying car to take me to the spaceport, and my house would stay clean while I was away in space! Ahem. Seriously, though, my house would be clean in a spiffy skiffy way, and who can resist that?

2. Books. People sometimes complain that they always get me books. This is a good idea, though, because they don't always get me the same books, and what I really want is books. And then some more books. With possibly a side of books.

Not feeling up to my usual energy levels means lots of reading on the couch. Lots of reading on the couch means dwindling book piles. I mean, sure, I can go to the library, I can make pathetic faces at dd_b and porphyrin, but still: books are good, good presents. Amazon, intuition, whatever. Books.

3. Things I don't know I want. You know, when you go into the store and see the little stylized silver rhinoceros, and you wouldn't have put "stylized silver rhino" on the "things to buy for markgritter" list, but then there you are and there it is? Like that. Only we already have a stylized silver rhino for markgritter, so ideally not exactly like that this year. But that pendant or that bound-book or that bottle of ink or those slippers, that fridge magnet, that bookmark, those chocolates...the sort of unique thing that's hard to put on a wishlist but very cool to have.

See? Told you it was a short list. I also got enough wrapping paper for the Army of the Potomac at Target yesterday. I have all sorts of opinions on the subject of wrapping paper. For birthday presents or other non-Christmas occasions, I tend towards plain, bold colors. An assortment of red, purple, blue, and green boxes on the hearth are my idea of festive presents. (Please note that this is what I like to use, not what I like to receive. I like seeing what other people choose for wrapping their presents. It doesn't have to be like mine in the slightest.)

For Christmas wrapping, my key words are night, stars, and snow. I like blues and silvers best. If the entire pile of presents from me could either be blue or twinkle faintly or both, that would be quite all right. Next best is rich, dark reds and greens and golds and purples. Stripes are good, and very stylized patterns. Snowflakes, stars, stylized swirls reminiscent of same. Maybe trees, but very stylized trees, and the in-nature kind, not the laden-with-ornaments kind. I don't really like cute prints. I do not want Santas or snowmen or details of Christmas trees. I enjoyed the penguins of a few years back (I think those were seagrit's?), but I didn't want to buy them myself. It was a matter of liking someone else's personality, not something that would express mine.

If the presents have ribbon on them, I want it to be flat, criss-crossed, broad ribbons, not curly ribbon or bows. You will almost never see curly ribbon or bows on anything I wrap, and when you do, it's usually specifically to make the recipient happy because I know that she (or he, I guess, but that hasn't come up as much) likes those things.

So how about you? What do you want this year, and how do you like to wrap presents (for Christmas or other holidays or just in general)? Or do you want for nothing and hate to wrap at all? Closer to Christmas I will ask what you are most excited about giving this year, but I don't expect that you'll have a definitive answer at this point. As I keep reminding myself, we have time.

ETA: I don't mean to tell you that you should get me the stuff I want, or, sadly for you, to imply that I'm going to get you the stuff you want. I'm just wondering.

Comments

[avrelia.livejournal.com]

I generally don't like wrapping the presents - I cannot do it properly myself and paying for wrapping seems like a waste of money I could spend on more presents. Besides, most of my presents go by mail, so there very different packaging principles apply.

When I do wrap presents, blue and silver would be my choices as well in most cases - I just love the colours.

What I would like to get this year? A new job, two barrels of willpower, but books are always a perfect gift.

[angeyja.livejournal.com]

I have the oddest yen to get a gift which is wrapped in layers of art, a hand painted silk scarf, hand made drawing or writing paper, then a carved wood box.. which may say Pandora. :-)

I am not sure if I read this soemwhere, I suspect I did. Mainly, I would like people to stop giving me lavendar.

I know what you mean about wrapping. I do OK but my Mom was so amazing at it I had years where I tended to wrap things in brown paper, with yarn strings and little pine cones or such. Now. I tend more to gold or silver paper which can be used throughout the year. And one year, I did very heavy white paper which was also nice.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

One year my aunt (the painter) made wrapping paper, and then my uncle (the carpenter) made lovely little wood boxes, and then my aunt (still the painter) made stationery for in them. I thought that was lovely.

[zalena.livejournal.com]

I'm getting myself a new bed for Xmas. I might even go shopping this weekend for it. Books are good, unless they involve time-travel romance or gov't conspiracy, or cooking with chemicals. (Splenda - which ends up to be chlorinated sugar! People eat that?) In otherwords, it is possible to give me a book I'm not interested in reading. (Memoirs with childhood sexual abuse.) And I love whacky "I-didn't-know-I-wanted-this" stuff. Sometimes that's the best, because when it's a hit, you know that someone was thinking of you and actually knows you.

Oh yes, and art. I always love getting drawings, photographs, etc. My brother has taken to drawing pictures of Boston terriers for me lately. (I have no particular attachment to the breed, but his drawings are so cute, I might just develop one.)

Another generic gift I love - bath crap.

As for wrapping, I've had a policy for a number of years of reusing wrapping paper, and for buying wrapping paper that can be used in all seasons. Wedding wrap works nice for all seasons. (White, silver, gold.) I'm also known for doing solids, like red, that can be ribboned with green or white for Xmas, and blue or yellow for bdays. And last year I got an enormous roll of green, heavy, pin-stripped paper.

Oh yes, I always have a roll of winter roses, which is a tradition from my friend Rosebud. I use it for Xmas and winter bdays.

I actually love nature prints, and really silly Xmas prints, like penguins, or Elmo in a Santa hat, (mostly to annoy my brother). But I've become extremely practical and utilitarian when it comes to wrap, it is definitely considered a frivolity in my frugal life.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

One would think that bath crap would be in the category of "stinky things people shouldn't buy me unless they know me well," and to a certain extent that would be correct. But what's more, I dislike baths and only take showers, so even people who know me well oughtn't to get me bath crap unless it's also shower crap.

It is quite possible to get me a book I don't want, yes. But even a random piece of nonfiction -- as long as it's a random well-written, well-researched piece of nonfiction -- is probably a good bet.

[zalena.livejournal.com]

You're right. I haven't gotten excessively smelly things many years... I guess the reason I like bath crap is that it falls into the category of "feminine." My gran always gave me pretty soaps, or play makeup, when the rest of my family sneered at that kind of thing. It was one of the few times when my "femininity" was encouraged, and I don't mean just the frilly, fruity, girl-smelling kind.

[kalmn.livejournal.com]

hannukah wrapping paper is great. it's almost entirely blue and silver, sometimes it's sparkly, and it never never never has santa claus on it.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Definitely. Probably all this is because my mom is a Judeophile.

[dichroic.livejournal.com]

I've been avoiding that gifts meme thatat's been floating around because I'm having a very hard time thinking of things I want this year. Except that books and jewelry (earrings, barrettes, necklaces) are always good.

The gifts I *didn't* but may have been given are either my husband's or my coworker's colds. Alas.

[matastas.livejournal.com]

I want a job in MSP!

*clasps hands, blinks big brown eyes, bounces on toes*

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Well, I can offer a driveway-shoveling position, hours irregular, but I don't think that'll keep you in beer and skittles. Or even beer and Skittles.

[matastas.livejournal.com]

On your driveway? Babe, I need benefits. I'm bound to break a hip on that sucker.

[loup_noir]

I love thinking about people when I shop for them. The whole selection process involves riffling through old memories. Spending time with someone to buy for someone else who's special is sweet. Doubles the pleasure.

The only not fun part of Christmas is wrapping. I'm not very good at it, because I don't enjoy it. albionwood's packages have perfect corners and are taut. He requires bows and nametags whereas I grew up in a house where the bows usually fell off the inexpertly wrapped packages and the "to/from" was scrawled onto the paper. Whenever possible, I ask him to do the wrapping and I do the shopping.

[dendrophilous.livejournal.com]

I gave my family (parents, brother & sil, 3 nephews) magazine subscriptions. They're easy to wrap.

My boyfriend and I trade suggestions. He tells me exactly what he wants and I buy it. Also no wrapping since I shipped it to him from Amazon.

That's all the presents I do. I don't get much either - I don't want much, I don't expect anyone to buy me anything expensive, and I'd rather pick out my own books.

[greatestofnates.livejournal.com]

When I sold my house one of my moving strategies was to offload as much crap as possible to other people. I gave a bunch of christmas stuff (including paper) to my sister.

When I went over to wrap presents I discovered a great deal of gift bags in her stash of wrappy supplies. Gift bags are a little more expensive, but I think they are better environmentally among adults if everyone reuses. Gift bags also raise the art of re-gifting to a whole new level.

[ladysea.livejournal.com]

I like presents. I am not too picky. I like the fact that someone thought of me.

Wrapping paper I like sparklies, bold colors, stripes, frilly curly bows, metallic bows. I tend to avoid snowmen, trees, reindeer, Santa, etc unless I am wrapping presents for the kids (who like those sorts of things...but also like the "mature" papers).

I also enjoy gift bags. They are getting so pretty fancy ones now.

And on the subject of books...do you like to be surprised with a random author? Or do you have a set list of authors you like to read.

*happy holiday hugs*

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I like being surprised with a random author if the person giving me the book has enough information or a different enough set of reading materials to give me something new to me that's still something I'd enjoy or at least want to try. And I have authors whose work I like, but I have a lot of their books, usually. So for people who don't know my collection and taste all that well, my Amazon list has been a godsend. Before that, I would have to make new lists each year if I wanted any books at all, and even then I think I got fewer books than I otherwise would have. I think everyone who knows me knows I read a lot, and before Amazon lists they were afraid of getting me something I already had, so they'd just buy me socks or something.

Not that I dislike socks, if they're SmartWool.

[laurel]

I love shopping for Christmas presents. This year I've already purchased way more than usual for Kevin but I can't help myself.

I like your wrapping philosophy.

I tend to go for retro-looking prints that aren't too cutesy. My other preferences are for things like what you describe that you like to use.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

It's gotten to the point where I see retro prints of certain things and think laurel.

[callunav.livejournal.com]

It's been a few years since I really went all-out in wrapping, and I'm not sure why, except that giving presents has been stressful and has gone to the last minute, so I haven't given myself time for my usual orgy of wrapping. Still, I have the reputation for wrapping in my circle of friends and family, and I do awfully enjoy earning it.

Since I was a teenager, I've been extravagant about wrapping things. I layer things in tissue paper. I use flat, boldly colored art paper. Some presents will be gaudy - I love the transparent-but-irridescent mylar film. A typical wrapping of something wide and flat, like a book, say, might be asymmetrically divided in white and blue (or blue and purple. Or black and white. Or--) and then half-covered (along a different axis) in the mylar, with glues to keep all the edges flat and neat.

I use glue a lot because I don't like edges ans I like to do odd or fiddly things. I have 20 or more kinds of ribbon to use. Some of it's cloth, some satiny wrapping wribbon, some the curling stuff - some presents have huge foam of curled ribbon (sometimes I split the narrow curling ribbon into several very fine strands, just to make it more effusive), others have no ribbon, or something that lies flat. I never buy pre-made bows.

I like metallic golds and silvers, and soft, swirly hand-made papers, tied with raffia, or bound with a narrow strip of something that was meant to be a wallpaper friese with vines or flowers printed on it.

My exacto knife is of major importance when I'm wrapping. One time I sketched a small sillhouette of a crow in flight and cut it out of black paper to crease along the body and tape, just slightly three-dimensional, at the corner of an all-white package. Later I took the black paper with a crow-shaped hole in it, and wrapped another package with that over a layer of gold. I somehow acquired some light blue wrapping paper with silver stars on it; one time I cut out several of the stars, and then wrapped it over an underlayer of extremely sparkly dark red.

When I was a teen, I liked stickers, and I would do entire scenes in stickers across the front of a solid-color wrapping: I remember one classic Christmas scene, and another that was a fireworks display. I enjoyed finding ways to use stickers together that had been sold entirely separately.

I don't like wrapping paper with designs on it, except for simple and abstract things, partly because pictures/prints just aren't my style, and mostly because it interferes with my doing anything else with it.

I try to make sure that all the presents for one person look all right next to each other, but other than that, I just play, and I rarely repeat myself on the elaborate ones. There are always also a few white-tissue-paper, gold-ribbon things, and the like. And I don't make much distinction, if any, for the occasion of the present.

I'm hoping that this year, when I give people presents on February 2nd instead of December 21st, I'll have had enough time to use the masses of paper and ribbon and decorations I have and have fun with wrapping things again. It's a marvellously ephemeral art form.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

It certainly sounds like you make it one! I'm impressed! I always love getting presents with that kind of wrapping job, but I never have the energy to do it myself.

Except grouping all the presents for one person and trying to make them look good together; that I do.

[mkille.livejournal.com]

I like Christmas wrapping paper for myself that is Victorian-ish, with little angels or trees or Father Christmases or whatnot. I prefer the presents not to be in boxes--I like the lumpy edges and visual floppiness. Unless the present actually is box-like, of course. I like "tied up with string."

When wrapping for other people, I prefer to use patterned paper in metallic colors: preferably two colors only, one of which is gold. I generally do bows but not ribbons, and I always make sure the label matches the paper.

What I want for Christmas: Books that I will need need need when I don't have daily-ish access to my library anymore. Stylish new glasses. Elaborate pastries. And a stole. Around Christmas, I *always* want a stole.

[gaaldine.livejournal.com]

I like blues, silvers, and stars for wrapping paper, too.

For your gift this year, we definitely went with option #3. We were pretty much expecting to get something for you-all off your amazon wish lists -- books, dvds, etc. -- by default, but then saw [your gift] while out holiday shopping for others, and determined that it was for you.

'Cause you'd be both geeky and worldly enough to appreciate both what it isn't and what it is.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Now if that isn't a puzzle.

I just taped the box shut for yours. Let us know when you open it (there are multiple items in there, some of which skew one way or the other but all of which should be of interest to both of you), and I will let you know what I was thinking and which items were at timprov's instigation.

[one-undone.livejournal.com]

EGADS! I feel like I'm such an old fogey or something, because I LOVE LOVE LOVE wrapping presents! I rarely use gift bags. I much prefer the ritual of spreading out the paper and the "shhhhhik" of the scissors sliding through it, and fussing to get the edges even and everything pretty and crisp. It just makes it FEEL like Christmas to me. I can see by the responses here that nearly everyone seems to hate wrapping gifts, and it makes me kind of sad. It's not that I think a gift that is wrapped is a "better" one than one in a bag. I just like wrapping them, and now I sort of feel like a relic. =/ It makes me fear for the other beloved things about Christmas that make it feel Christmassy to me, like singing carols, and decorating the tree with handed down ornaments from Grandma, and making fudge and chocolate Christmas mice, and keeping Santa traditions alive for the little ones. After hearing so many others consider giftwrapping unpleasant, it just reminds me of when I was little, when I loved school and library time and brussels sprouts, and the other kids told me I was gross and stupid for liking things "nobody" likes :(

Doesn't anyone else LIKE to wrap gifts? =/

Next I'll find out nobody else likes brussels sprouts now either...

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I like brussels sprouts.

And if I didn't like blue and silver paper, I wouldn't have posted about it. So you're not totally alone.

[seagrit.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'm pretty sure the penguin paper was mine. At least, I know I use/used paper with penguins and other arctic christmas characters on it. I tend to buy non-cutesy wrapping too (snowflakes, or abstracts are typical), but the penguins and friends paper was a combination of cute kids selling stuff for their band at school, and, well, penguins!

[carbonel]

I exchange presents with my family, and with an increasingly smaller number of friends. (I think it's the "people I exchange presents with" list that's smaller, not the "number of friends" list.) I'm not sure why this happened, though the fact that I've been out of town for either Christmas or New Year's or both for the past several years means that the gift-giving opportunities often pass without me. I still have Greg Cotton's holiday present from last year sitting in my bedroom...

Last year I mostly gave gift certificates to DreamHaven. I generally view this as wimping out, but it does always fit. My general gift-giving goal is along the lines of your option 3. I want a gift to delight and surprise the person. Sometimes this leads to my spending more than is reasonable, because I've found the perfect thing. Sometimes it means that the person doesn't get a gift from me at all because I can't find anything I like.

Many years ago I spent a lot of time baking and put together packages of homemade brownies and cookies and such, and gave those as presents, but the response to those was so underwhelming (and they were good cookies and brownies, honestly) that I gave them up. May have had something to do with my lousy social skills back then (I think I've improved) -- I dunno. But it's made me wary of giving homebaked stuff, though consumables (in the "get used up sense") seems to me to be one of best ways to give lots of gifts but still have them be reasonably affordable.

I like getting books and CDs and DVDs because even if I don't like the item in question, it's generally exchangeable for a similar item that I do like. Though usually I won't do that to a gift unless it's one I already have; I've discovered new authors as a result of books given as gifts that I never would have bought for myself. I especially like getting something that surprises and delights me that I never would have thought of for myself, but that's obviously tricky. Once of the nicest presents along those lines (from <lj user="lydy") was a set of replacement knobs for the cross-stitch frame I was using. I'd lost most of the knobs and had replaced them with, um, something you buy at the hardware store that I don't remember the name of. But the knobs gave much more torque for tightening the frame down, and of course looked better. I like wrapping presents, and I prefer all-occasion paper, so I don't have to worry about what holiday or party it's for. Hallmark stores actually sell a nice selection, and every year or two I go and buy a bunch of rolls. Right now I have one that looks sort of literary, with parchment and butterflies and roses, and another with watercolor stripes. I used to love the books of fancy wrapping paper that you could buy at the Museum Company, even though it was pricy, but they stopped selling those. I don't do anything with ribbons or bows, mostly because I have to take presents to parties to deliver them, and they'd get squashed. I have an unreasonable dislike of gift bags, because it always seems like cheating to me. I understand that this is not necessarily rational.

[carbonel]

Argh!!! I forgot to close the tag properly, and the rest of my comment disappeared into the ether.

As I was saying, the present was from lydy, and it was a set of knobs for the cross-stitch frame I was using then, which had lost the original ones.

I also said that I like wrapping presents, though I only do wrapping paper, not ribbons or whatnot, and I like bright all-occasion paper that I can use year-round.

I have an unreasonable dislike of gift bags -- it always strikes me as cheating, though I know perfectly well that the origin of wrapping presents came about when people started to give mass-produced presents that they bought, so that the wrapping would make it more personal. And furthermore, a gift bag isn't much less work than actually wrapping presents. I think it's mostly that I really, really like unwrapping presents, and a gift bag takes that away.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I like unwrapping presents, too, and watching people unwrap theirs. I am mentally 5 and rip and tear.

My side of the family has a Christmas tradition where we open the presents one at a time, in age order: the youngest picks one of her presents and opens that, and then the next-youngest gets one, and so on. Grandpa is the most horrible cheater and takes the bows off and sometimes the tags and sometimes even slits the tape surreptitiously with his knife while other people are opening theirs. Every year we are required to cry out, "[Grandpa/Dad/Richard Walter], it's not your turn!"

markgritter's family opens things one at a time, too, but they have it so that the person who last opened theirs picks out one for someone else to open.

When I was small, we spent one Christmas with my cousins, who all just dive in. I got fewer presents than they did but was still enjoying opening things with my immediate family when they had already broken half their toys.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Last year I tried to convince people that my cookies and candy did not count as presents, so it's probably my fault (indirectly -- the fault of people like me) that people did not greet your baked goods with more enthusiasm.

[carbonel]

Last year I tried to convince people that my cookies and candy did not count as presents, so it's probably my fault (indirectly -- the fault of people like me) that people did not greet your baked goods with more enthusiasm.

Only if time travel is somehow involved, since this was back in the mid-80s that I'm remembering. I've done holiday baking since then, of course, but back then I made up packages and wrapped them and everything.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

That's why I said "people like me," yes.