Buying a Christmas present can be challenging. Finding the perfect way to wrap said gift can be even more difficult. From shoving it under the tree with a card to putting it into a shoe box or even having the store professionally wrap it for you, there are many options for people to choose to wrap their gifts in the perfect way.
The typical holiday-themed wrapping paper is what most people picture under their tree.
“I like my presents covered in wrapping paper,” Maddi Kaster, freshman in open option, said. “It is just more fun for the person that gets to open it, and hearing the tearing of all the paper. I would definitely get a job wrapping presents if I could. I love it, and it just makes the holidays that much more special.”
However, wrapping presents the typical way is not as easy as it may seem. The tape gets all over, the creases just are not up to par and there is either too much or not enough to cover the entire box.
“I am horrible at wrapping presents,” Alix Miller, junior in marketing, said. “But I mean, it is what is inside that counts. I try to wrap it and put in a good effort, but it is just really difficult for me because I don’t like to take the time to measure it out. But it’s still so much better to open a poorly wrapped gift, then just opening a gift from a bag and some tissue paper.”
There are many students who agree that taking time to wrap a present is just not worth it.
“I really have no strategy to wrapping presents,” Cody Isern, freshman in journalism and mass communications, said. “I just put the box over the wrapping paper and then I roll it until the box is covered. It’s not the prettiest, but it gets the job done.”
College students also tend to get more creative with their wrapping, if they cannot get their hands on a bag and some tissue paper, or if they just do not want to go out and buy wrapping paper for one present.
“I always wrap my brother’s present in newspaper … because I’m classy,” Hayley Lollar, junior in public relations, said. “There is also sometimes duct tape involved. But it’s just my brother that I do that for. For my sister, I wrap a bunch of boxes and put them inside of each other until she finally reaches the item in the smallest box.”
Some people take their wrapping to an extreme by filling boxes with rocks to throw off good “present guessers” or even scotch taping around the entire gift to make it much more challenging to open. People have even put presents inside of an empty piñatas.
For a bigger reaction, some people will even take tampons out of the box and put the actual Christmas item inside of the box of empty tampons.
“I personally wrap my presents pretty basic,” Kelly Kristiansen, sophomore in secondary education, said. “My mom, however, does pretty crazy things. She likes to label all of our presents with numbers and make us open them in a certain order. It usually starts off with random accessories that build up to our big item, except we have to do house chores and a scavenger hunt around the entire house before she finally tells us where our final present is. Oh, and she also labels all of the presents with famous peoples’ names. It definitely keeps the holidays interesting.”
Another way to wrap a gift is to use one present to hide other, smaller presents. For a parent, sibling or distant relative, maybe buy some DVD’s and put them inside of a tackle box. To make it challenging, lock the tackle box. To make it even more challenging, plastic wrap or duct tape the entire box before and after wrapping it at least once.
However creative you get with wrapping your gifts is up to you and your family. Putting some kind of an effort seems to be what matters, whether it looks professional or is just placed in a tampon box with bows.
