I’m hopeless at wrapping, what should I do?

Dear Agony Aunt, I’m in a bit of a pickle. I’ve left my Christmas shopping until the last minute, but I’ve set aside just enough time this week to go out and get what I need. While I have managed to organise my gift buying with moments to spare, I won’t actually have enough time to wrap any of them. I’m hopeless at wrapping at the best of times, and with basically no time at all I don’t think I’m going to be able to get it done. What do you think I should do? Is it acceptable to give a gift without it being wrapped? Thanks, Jon.

Well, Jon, that does sound like a bit of a predicament. Rest assured, though, that you are not the only one who suffers from the inability to wrap gifts! The fact you don’t have any time to spend on a wrath of wrapping before the big day doesn’t help matters either. There are a few things you could do to get around this dilemma, below are a few suggestions to get you on your way!

A Friend in need

While for some people wrapping is a nightmare, there are others that are not only very good at it – but actually enjoy it. If you have a friend that is feeling sufficiently festive this year, you could enlist them to help you. While they are wrapping, you could be adding message cards or tying ribbons around the gifts already wrapped. A team effort is sure to give a good chance of having your gifts ready for Christmas!

Gift wrapping

Even if you can’t find a friend that can assist with the wrapping, there is still hope! Many shopping centres and pop up Christmas shops offer a gift wrapping service. Essentially this means you can buy your first load of presents, hand them over to the people on the wrapping desk, then carry on buying the second batch of gifts. By the time you come back, at least half of your purchases will be covered with pretty paper. You mentioned that you have set aside enough time to buy what you need to buy, so this may take some factoring in – but it could be a great way of getting around the problem.

Gift Bags

Of course, if you wanted to entirely change tact, wrapping is not the only way you can present a gift. Decorative bags are becoming more and more popular way of giving people their presents. You can buy them in places like card shops and arts and crafts stores, so there’s a very good chance you could pick some up when you go gift hunting. The benefit of doing this is that not only do you not have to wrap, but your presents are concealed enough to keep the surprise until the last second. The happy recipient can even keep the bag for future use – the gift that keeps on giving!