All our family is out of town. My parents will be driving down to spend the holiday with us, but otherwise, everyone else is mailing presents to us. We have a bunch of boxes from Amazon under our tree, but none of them are wrapped. My question to you is should I wrap them to make it more fun for the kids or just let opening the boxes be the extent of the unwrapping?
My personal preference is just to do the latter. That's what we've done in the past, but the kids were much smaller and didn't really notice or care. I hate and suck at gift wrapping anyway. I've had a complicated history with Christmas, though, and have to fight with my naturally Grinchy tendencies so that my kids grow up with the happy Christmas memories I never had. So I wanted to put it out to those of you who actually like Christmas, what would you do with these mailed packages? Wrap or not wrap? If you say wrap, do you open the boxes and individually wrap the presents or just wrap the entire package? There will be some packages that contain presents for more than one person, and I have no way of knowing which is which. And I may be ruining my own surprises by opening a package that really was meant for me. We will wrap the presents that we have bought at local stores, so it's not like the kids won't have anything to unwrap if I opt not to wrap the packages.
Thanks!
Thanks for the feedback, everyone! If past experience is any indication, I don't think any of the presents in the packages are wrapped. They never have been before. I have to say, I am a little surprised how many people are coming down on the "wrap" side of the fence, although it aligns pretty well with what my friends say too. I really feel like a Grinch! But honestly, I HATE gift wrapping so much, and my children are Irish Catholic on their father's side. There are A LOT of family members sending packages - which I realize is a very nice problem to have, but it's also a lot of work and a lot of paper to be expending. The thought of opening all those packages and potentially wrapping several presents per package is giving me anxiety. I really don't care about how they look under the tree. This is only the second year we've even had a proper tree, so anything is an improvement to years past. I'm so bad at wrapping that they wouldn't look good anyway. I don't know if I hate it because I'm so bad at it or if I'm so bad at it because I hate it, but there we are.
I just asked my 7-y.o. son if he hopes the gifts inside the packages are gift-wrapped, and he got the funniest expression on his face and said, "No, I really don't care at all," like he couldn't believe it would matter to anyone. So... I may not do it this year but will keep it in mind for next year when my daughter is old enough to have an opinion. Baby steps, right? I think we will still have an awesome Christmas.
Thanks again!
Hi, TT:
Leave the presents as they are. The children can see where they came from.
The 3 wise men didn't wrap their gifts, and they came from afar.
Merry Christmas.
D.
Nope, I wouldn't wrap them. And in fact,, I'm not even wrapping the presents from us the the children (one big pressie each). There are still plenty of other wrapped presents under the tree.
My out of town relatives send the presents to my mom, and she wraps them :-)
I wouldn't wrap them. I hate wrapping presents. If they want them wrapped, they can pay amazon to do it.
Good for you for trying to get past the Grinchy!
I hope you help make this Christmas wonderful for yourself. Do something nice for yourself, make new traditions etc.
Oh & no, don't wrap the Amazon packages. You're fine. At least, you have some already wrapped ones under the tree. It's fine.
I struggle with the environmental impact of wrapping paper, but I can not imagine not wrapping my children's Christmas presents. Maybe when they are older teens or adults I could leave them unwrapped, or just use pretty gift bags, but as kids I think they really get more enjoyment from unwrapping the gifts then they do from the actual gifts. The longer it takes our family to unwrap the presents the better!
Anyone who mails gifts to our home, normally discusses these details with us in advance. If the gifts are directly to us from the shipper (like the Amazon stuff you describe), then I would ask the sender if it is ok to open it up and wrap them. They may say "Oh no.. you'll see your gift, too." They may say, "oh yeah, sure, go ahead."
We never put unwrapped gifts under our tree. Not even Santa leaves unwrapped gifts. It is much prettier and more festive to have all the nicely wrapped gifts.
Of course, I am coming from the perspective of someone who grew up that way. And I LOVE wrapping paper and beautiful gifts under the tree.
I do not send gifts through the mail that are unwrapped, myself. My grandparents never did when we were kids either. We'd get a big brown box, and my mom would open it up and there would be individually wrapped and labeled (gift tag) gifts inside for each of us, and she would put THOSE under the tree.
I just shipped some gifts to a nephew of mine, and they were wrapped individually, with tags, inside a big brown box.
IF I were to have something directly from the shipper sent, I would a) have the shipper gift wrap it for the extra surcharge; or b) tell the adult on the other end that it was unwrapped and ask if they'd mind wrapping it when it arrived.
So, to answer your question, I would say to call the senders and ask them if it's ok (or if they would like you to) open the outer packaging for the purpose of wrapping what is inside.
IF there is a box that you can't/shouldn't open, then I would wrap that one as is, and label it with a gift tag to your entire family from the sender.
Merry Christmas. :)
If you have to ask then forget about it! Just open the boxes!! Have a fun Christmas morning!
Even Santa doesn't wrap presents in our house. We have very large reusable felt bags that everything goes in to along with stockings and a few gift bags we use every year.
We all don't like all that wasted paper and I prefer to not have to clean up all that mess, you have enough of it just getting things out of their packaging.
There is still quite enough surprise in the felt bags as no one can see anything but the biggest items that really didn't fit. Even then they'll get draped over them somehow to hide it at least a little.
Sorry forgot to add...if it gets mailed to us we leave it in the box it came in until Christmas day.
I wrap all of mine for looks purposes. Like you said yourself they have some to actually open. If you don't want to wrap them then don't
I would wrap the gifts, yes, and separately unless they come as a set. This way, you aren't having to prolong the present opening and deal with bubble wrap, packing peanuts and boxes being in the way come Christmas morning.
The other reason it's good to check/open the packages early is because a toy might have come damaged or in otherwise unsatisfactory condition. My stepmom ordered our son an electronic 'learning pad'; it came with no packaging/moisture barrier, loose in the box, and no directions for it. We are working on getting an exchange in order-- I don't even want to hand it over to him until he has one he can really use. I'd hate to give him something Christmas morning and then turn around and say "well, there's a problem and you can't have it". I'd rather give it to him at a later date when he can play with it and keep it.
my sister will send a box and it will have individually wrapped gifts for all of us. so for a while I haven't understood what you and other mamapedias were talking about, but I guess there must be a lot of online shopping that is sent right from amazon or what ever company right?? I'm a little poopy with that idea and it sort of makes me feel the giver is the lazy one not you, but... I can get grinchy too, so I suppose I'm just glad they ordered something.
To answer your question. I think there might be a middle ground. how about only the gifts you know are for the kids get opened and tossed into a gift bag w some tissue tossed on top? if you have to maybe you call the giver and ask which box is the kids, they should have a tracking number right? that way it looks a little nicer under the tree and makes things more festive for the kids. who do you know who stuff is for after you open the boxes on Christmas day anyways??
my second thought though too is, who cares if I get my surprise early, I'm a grown up and Christmas day is more about the kids being surprised than me. so if I find out early that mom mailed me a teapot cozy, then so be it. so I guess that wouldn't keep me from opening the boxes to wrap for the kids.
wait I just thought of something else, what if you get those huge festive plastic garbage bag type plastic gift bags, and just toss all the amazon boxes in that? 1 stop wrapping. prop that baby up in the corner and forget it until Christmas.
what ever you decide to do I hope you have a lovely Christmas w your close and far away family.
I wrap. My dd began to order gifts for her nieces and nephews - the ones who will be having Christmas at our house, anyhow - called me, and asked, "Should I have them shipped to me here in Alaska for me to wrap and send to you in time for Christmas?" And I said, "No, certainly not - I'll be your personal wrapper." I already had the supplies, so it didn't cost me anything but a little time.
Base your decision on your knowledge of your children, not on you. You're the grown-up. If they will have a letdown seeing unwrapped gifts, wrap them (and that will be one of your gifts to them, although they may never know it). If it's not a big deal to them, and the toss-up is between a grinchy mama and a happy mama on Christmas day, you might decide the other way.
I open the boxes and wrap each individual present. Never thought to do otherwise. I wouldn't imagine the tree would look very festive with a bunch of brown boxes that have been sitting in the back of a UPS truck. So much nicer to see a lovely pile of colorfully wrapped presents artfully arranged under the tree.
All of my family is out of town too, and I have already wrapped 17 presents for my kids from various people. Those 17 presents came in 5 different boxes. It's taken me over an hour probably to wrap them all, but I don't care - my kids will be delighted to see all the various shapes and sizes of the gifts.
My mother in law would wrap everything before she sent it. So no. Before she died we FINALLY got her to send us a check and we would go shopping...whew!!
Most of the people that send presents to the house already wrap them.
If they aren't - I wrap them.
Yes I have always wrapped everything
If the senders of your many Amazon boxes clicked on "this is a gift" when they made their purchase, there's a chance the gifts are already wrapped. Open the boxes and take a peek in. If they're not wrapped already, I would wrap them. It just looks so much prettier under the tree that way.
My SIL, who lives on the other side of the world, often buys stuff from Amazon which gets shipped directly to me for my kids. Every single time, the gifts have already been wrapped (and tagged for the recipient) by Amazon.
I wrap the ones I know for sure are for my kids. though by mistake i did open an amazon box that was for me. that's ok i am soooo excited about it. but anyways, if i don't wrap, i let them open the box. still exciting for them.
I only did it this year because there were only 4 presents sent that weren't wrapped, but also we didn't buy as much for our kids this year so this gives them more to order.
I open the packages and wrap the presents individually. I get to be all excited opening the box to see what's in there and the kids get to be excited unwrapping the presents.
Gift bags are the answer! Pretty, easy, and recyclable from year to year.
I have wrapped all the ones I ordered. I had a lot of leftover wrapping paper from years ago, so felt like using it.
If you normally order online, i would pay christmas paper after christmas (while it is on clearance) and have it ready for next year.
Most are wrapped and shipped/mailed by the sender.
We have O. relative that might have something shipped from etsy or amazon. I don't wrap them..I just say "aunt so
and so sent you this!"
A good alternative to wrapping everything individually would be to find a BIG box for each person... Put all gifts that were mailed to you in the box according to who it is for, and wrap them up. Then they get to unwrap something, but without so much work on your part.
If the senders did not send them wrapped, I would wrap them. Back in the day, our gifts arrived wrapped because there was no Amazon. It was just Grandma and the Post Office.
If you do not want to ruin your own surprises, do you have a good friend (perhaps one that likes wrapping?) who will take a peek for you? The first year my then preteen SD wanted to mail order a gift, I asked a coworker to check the math, I wrote the check and she mailed it for us. That kept my surprise and SD got to order what she wanted for a few people.
ETA: If it makes you anxious, outsource it. There are charities and high schools that wrap for a donation and they will do it all nice with coordinated paper, etc. You can do good for someone else and not have to worry about the packages yourself. I would look for such a thing in the future, as your son is probably a typical guy and doesn't care about much other than the gifts themselves. Opening the boxes beforehand will also let you know if anything is broken, as there is usually a small window for exchanges/returns.
One alternative is to recruit your kids, & have a "wrapping party" inhouse... no one wraps their own gifts, but wraps &/or decorates each others before Christmas.
And don't be fussy about how "perfect" it is... colored markers on a plain brown box can be quite festive!!
Have some wrapping paper, the funnies section of the news paper, markers, glitter/glue (maybe), bows, ribbon, etc. & make it a fun crafty day.
Serve it up with cookies & milk, & you have made yourself a new, unique Christmas tradition with your kids, that hopefully takes some of the sting out of your past experiences.
Wishing you & your family a peaceful holiday filled with cheer. T. =-)
