Wrapping Gifts For The Family

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 29070, 5 December 1959, Page 2

Wrapping Gifts For The Family

[By S.A.J

Some of the presents under the tree in our house in Hampshire at Christmas time look as though they come from Scrooge—they are wrapped in newspaper. Others could be from the Sugar Plum Fairy—all shimmering with tinsel and covered with the prettiest Christmas paper.

The presents wrapped in newspaper are for my youngest brother, Pete, who’s three. We've been told we’re depriving him of a normal childhood by not letting him rip off expensive wrapping in a frenzied rush to see what’s inside—but we don’t care.

We have given in to the psychologists, however, to the extent that we daub the newspaper with bright poster paint and cover it with cut-outs from magazines. We write ‘‘Pete’’ in letters three inches high and that seems to satisfy him. The paper tears easily, is cheap to procure and can be used liberally, prolonging the suspense. My father is easier still. For years he has muttered “Nonsense” and “Ridiculous” and “Don’t care if mine’s not wrapped,” so two years ago we decided to try him out. Under the tree we put a pair of socks with “To Dad with Love” pinned on. He looked at them and said “Just what I wanted,” then relapsed into silence. He didn’t have to unwrap anything or think of a comment at a moment's notice—he was very pleased. So this year, for the third time, there’s a pair of socks under the tree.

The women of the family go to great trouble to make the prettiest wrappings for those who appreciate them. My two sisters, my mother and I are in no hurry to tear the paper off our presents. We sit and savour them before carefully undoing the ribbon and smoothing the paper. For An Eight-year-old

We give my small sister, Anne, who’s eight, the loveliest wrapping we can find. We don’t stick it down, either, and we don’t tie the ribbon too tight. Then she can undo the parcel and sneak outside so that no-one notices and wrap up mother’s present with the salvage. My elder sister, Mary, is really the best gift-wrapper of the family. She’s not stingy with the paper and she uses a lot of ribbon to make a large, noticeable bow —not a stringy, wilted affair. Her greatest inspiration was to use scraps of wallpaper which she either bought or begged from decorators. She found a gold, black and white snowflake design on a bright red background and tied it all up with white ribbon. The next year we all had the idea and the local decorators

were pestered so much that we had to buy whole rolls, but this was still cheaper than buying individual sheets. We found a variety of patterns—striped, polkadotted and sprigged. Then Mary had another inspiration. She put Christmas tree decorations on her presents. Some came with tiny tinkling bells, others with coloured shiny balls, others with a tinsel bow or trim. She even added fresh flowers and grasses early Christmas morning to my mother’s gift and my mother was so enchanted that she was reluctant to open the present.

We get the greatest fun. though, wrapping presents for Don, my younger brother, who’s the most inquisitive boy on earth. He’s nearly positive that the soft, squashy present, hard at one end, is the pair of underwater goggles he’s been wanting for months. He’ll be surprised.to find it’s an inner tube wrapped round a piece of cardboard. What he doesn’t know is that the underwater goggles are in a large square box which feels as though there’s nothing in it, because it’s so tightly crammed with newspaper that he can't hear anything rattling.