Gift Wrapping: What's your style and is there an etiquette for this?

[Brentwood]

My favorite christmas I wrapped everything in brown paper with twine and dressed it up with evergreen sprigs from the christmas tree.  it was gorgeous, at least to me.

That sounds charming and lovely.

[Brentwood]

and that it's even rude to make someone open wrapping. 

"Make" someone open wrapping? If I give someone a wrapped gift and they find it rude that I've "made" them open the wrapping paper, the solution is that they need not accept gifts from me anymore.

[kkl123]

I'm about the only one on either side of the family that likes wrapping presents... in fact, my dream job when I was 6, was to be allowed to wrap packages for one of the big department stores: they used shiny paper!!!

I also sew.  So I make simple gift bags on the serger of various sizes.  Some of "Christmas fabric", some of scraps of whatever's leftover... just plain flat bags that stuff will fit in, sort of like pillowcases.  Tie the neck of the bag with a strip of tulle or ribbon, hang a tag on it, and it's done.  I always say I'm going to quit making them when I start getting them back.  So far, no returns, but I know they circulate widely on both sides -- I recognized previous year's bags under the tree in photos from my SIL and two different aunts.  So I guess I'll just keep on keeping on.  This years' bags were red and blue metallic knits from the dollar table.

[Venus193]

and that it's even rude to make someone open wrapping. 

"Make" someone open wrapping? If I give someone a wrapped gift and they find it rude that I've "made" them open the wrapping paper, the solution is that they need not accept gifts from me anymore.

I agree; personally I think the person with that opinion is either lazy or socially clueless.

[Pinky830]

I went to gift wrapping school.  How geeky is that?  I used to mall wrap.  I love doing Christmas Eve... it's like an extreme sport.

I worked at a jewelry store during Christmas for several years, so I rock at wrapping really small presents. 

I can't imagine that there's any etiquette regarding gift wrapping; such a thing has never occurred to me. I do a lot of gift bags because they're reusable and I think they look cute, actually. I do end up wrapping several every year.

[42_42_42]

I purchase coordinating wrapping paper and gift tags and cloth ribbon (some with the wire for forming bows). I also purchase coordinating tissue and gift bags. I am slowly but surely switching over from stick on bows and curling ribbon to cloth bows only. Everyone always hands me the bows back, so I can reuse them and my cat doesn't eat them and then barf bits of ribbon up all over the house. I spend a lot of time making sure each present is beautifully wrapped. If my DH helps wrap, then I make sure to give him one roll and its matching labels and then I go back and add ribbon. For gift bags that don't have a gift tag attached, I hand-make gift tags and then tie those to the handle of the gift bag, I don't like gift labels stuck to the bag.  But then, I actually like wrapping presents. I put on holiday movies and make a day of it.

It might sound nuts, and I may very well change once we have kids, but I just love the look of beautifully wrapped packages under my tree and I love giving someone a present and them exclaiming over how pretty the package is.

[WildChild@Heart]

I don't buy christmas wrapping paper. I wrap packages in brown paper (like postal shipping paper) Then I use raffia red/green or natural or fabric wired ribbons. I also use my glue gun to add decorations like evergreen,pinecones, birds, acorns and other nature/natural type items.

I try not to use bags unless the item is just really difficult to wrap, then I use browm paper gift bags and "dress" them up myself.

[Scritzy]

For me, gift bags are one of the greatest inventions of all time. All they need is tissue fluffed in them, and they can be reused for years.

I bought my grandniece a Christmas basket that I filled with goodies wrapped in tissue paper. It looked very pretty and took very little effort to make it look good. And she LOVED opening all those individual tissue-wrapped things.

I used to do the whole Martha-Stewart-matching-wrap-tags thing, or the sponge-printed-brown-wrapper-string-with-beads thing, but I've gotten out of it. Chip doesn't care, and he's the one who gets the most gifts from me. Maybe someday when I get Christmas spirit again, I'll get back to the fancy stuff.

[Elle]

I always feel bad about opening a really, really gorgeously wrapped present. It's the crafter in me who wants to preserve all that hard work. 

Sunday funnies make THE best wrapping paper.

[Shores]

I went all out this year and it was really fun! I had 4 different kinds of paper that all worked together colors-wise,a bunch of red, silver and gold ribbon and lots of little doohickies. I used little pinecones, tiny Xmas ornaments and really bizarre ideas. For BIL's gifts (2 big toolboxes and a GC to a toolshop), I tied plastic toy tools to the gifts, even a little plastic nail on the GC and it was all tied together with rope. It was really cute and little nephew got some plastic tools out of the deal. My fav was on one of MIL's gifts. MIL always put up this huge lines around the house at Xmas time and clips up all the Xmas cards she gets (100s. its amazing.) so one her gift, I put a line of ribbon and 7 miniature Xmas cards, one with each letter of her name.

Up until this year, I was totally a gift bag girl or I just didn't wrap at all, but I was surprised by how much fun I had doing it. I even had to take a picture of all the gifts when they were done. I'm a dork.

[high dudgeon]

That's what I'm aiming for, when I get fancy. I want them to feel "fussed over" for a few moments, in ADDITION to being pleased w/ the spice rack in the box.

I think there's a little confusion here. The reaction I'm talking about isn't the same as the reaction you're talking about. It's not a matter of feeling "fussed over" - that actually makes me quite uncomfortable. And the comic section and string would be exactly the same to me as expensive paper and lots of ribbon and extras. It's the game of "I don't know what's in this box, but I'm going to try to guess!" It's a puzzle, and I love that. And I never have to wait long to learn the answer!  Same ballpark, different game. But I'm with you on loving to wrap presents!

[crafty_rach]

  I reuse wrapping paper all the time. It's just the way myself (and the majority of people I seem to know) were brought up to do it ... birthdays are all about carefully unwrapping your gift, folding the paper and putting it to one side  When I go to use it again I usually trim the side a little to get rid of any tears or sticky tape marks. Anything not reusable goes in the recycling bin.

I guess it just falls into the same category of habits for me as not leaving the tap running while you are brushing your teeth (turn on/off when you need to rinse etc), putting jars/bottles/paper in the recycling bin instead of the rubbish and reusing containers.

[Venus193]

My mother used to save wrapping paper, especially the nice stuff.  This is not possible when the person wrapping the gift uses too much tape.

I try to use a little tape as possible so as to make the wrapping easier to open.

[TootsNYC]

That's what I'm aiming for, when I get fancy. I want them to feel "fussed over" for a few moments, in ADDITION to being pleased w/ the spice rack in the box.

I think there's a little confusion here. The reaction I'm talking about isn't the same as the reaction you're talking about. It's not a matter of feeling "fussed over" - that actually makes me quite uncomfortable. And the comic section and string would be exactly the same to me as expensive paper and lots of ribbon and extras. It's the game of "I don't know what's in this box, but I'm going to try to guess!" It's a puzzle, and I love that. And I never have to wait long to learn the answer!  Same ballpark, different game. But I'm with you on loving to wrap presents!

Ah, I see the difference. And I do feel that the suspense is part of the fun. (That's why I don't like gift bags, actually--too fast, less suspense. Maybe speed is good for you, but I like my anticipation s l o w  and   d r a w n   o u t.)

But I also feel that a fancily wrapped present adds to the "what's IN here?!" vibe.

[Lady Snowdon]

I just use the rolls of wrapping paper fastened with sellotape. For the kids I use different coloured stuff so I dont get them mixed up and a more 'grown up' design (like holly or something) for everyone else. If I am giving booze as a gift then I use bottle gift bags.

I know people who spend ages wrapping gifts making them look perfect when realy I dont think anyone actually looks and thinks "Oh, how perfectly wrapped it is!".

I might be the only one then.     I do look at gifts and marvel at how they're wrapped, how pretty the paper is, if it's got bows or ribbon, etc. 

I like wrapping gifts but I generally only do it for Christmas.  Other holidays like birthdays tend to get gifts in gift bags.  Sadly, I can't really reuse many of the gift bags I get, because people have either written who it is for on the gift tag, or they stuck a tag right on the side of the bag, so I can't get it off.  I prefer to do envelopes with people's names on them on top of the gift, so the gift bag can be reused if they want to.  My mom and I way over think this...