Wrap This



You know that old joke where you wrap a small gift inside an ascending pile of boxes?  There have been a couple times I’ve put serious effort into that. Once I did it to my Father-in-law, I have no recollection of what the gift was. I doubt anyone else remembers what it was either, but we all remember him opening it. Presentation can be important, and part of the fun of gift giving. My son likes to wrap his little sister’s gifts in various challenging manners, duct tape being one of his personal favorites. He makes her work for it. She retaliated impressively with a scavenger hunt where the clues were all riddles.

Do you practice the transformative marketing trick with your gift giving?  That’s where you put something sparkly, like a small gift card, gum or chocolate bar into pockets to soften the blow of getting clothes for Christmas. It’s not just for kids either, I’m not altogether certain my husband even notices that sweater underneath the pile of fishing lures.

Have you ever known one of those people who can eyeball a box under the tree and deduce, “It’s a red Teflon pan with a matching spatula, a bottle of herbed olive oil and a gift card to the gourmet supermarket.”  We secretly call one family member Nancy Drew behind her back, we’ve been able to surprise her a grand total of once in her life. It’s not that we didn’t put effort into disguising her gifts, we tried pebbles in the box in case of an investigative shake, and odd shaped boxes and even weights. All wasted effort.

There are certain gifts that take serious effort to disguise for even the non-psychic recipients on your list. Have you ever wrapped fishing poles, pool sticks or hammocks? Now I’d find a way to wrap a pony if it struck my fancy, but I often take into account the wrap-ability of a gift. When I give ponies for Christmas I usually just stick a bow on them and trot them out in full view. Sometimes a girl needs to take a break from the holidays and work on her novel too, though if you have any pony wrapping tips, I’m all ears.