# Can You Giftwrap? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 18, 2009, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-giftwrap/521770 "2009-12-18T18:59:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2009, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-giftwrap/521770/1 "2009-12-18T18:59:43Z")
I remember back in elementary school, our class made pizelles as Christmas/Chanukah (one Jewish kid) gifts for our families. We were made to giftwrap them. :eek: I remember clearly: The girls’ pizelles were all beautifully wrapped, with crisp folds, tight corners, and barely-visible tape. The boys’ pizelles looked like they had been wrapped by… 9-year-old boys. To this day, my wrapping resembles the pathetic efforts of my 9-year-old self. However, every last woman with whose giftwrapping I’m familiar can wrap beautifully. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2009, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-giftwrap/521770/2 "2009-12-18T19:04:30Z")
If it won’t go in a gift bag, it won’t be bought as a present. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2009, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-giftwrap/521770/3 "2009-12-18T19:08:20Z")
Mine don’t win contests, but jeez. It’s not rocket science. ---
**Author:** ![NinetyWt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/cc9497/32.png) [@NinetyWt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinetyWt)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2009, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-giftwrap/521770/4 "2009-12-18T19:37:14Z")
Yeah, I picked “could win contests” but in actuality they’re usually just pretty. Not award-winning pretty, but pretty. ---
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2009, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-giftwrap/521770/5 "2009-12-18T19:38:13Z")
Well of course the “…could win contests…” bit was just hyperbole. ---
**Author:** ![Sleeps\_With\_Butterflies](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@Sleeps\_With\_Butterflies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sleeps_With_Butterflies)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2009, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-giftwrap/521770/6 "2009-12-18T19:38:55Z")
Like a CHAMPION ---
**Author:** ![Neverending\_Elbow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/e274bd/32.png) [@Neverending\_Elbow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Neverending_Elbow)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2009, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-giftwrap/521770/7 "2009-12-18T19:39:26Z")
I’m pretty good, having helped my mum since I was a wee girl. 🙂 I usually don’t do anything to fancy, but I avoid gift bags, as tearing wrapping paper off is 75% of the pleasure of receiving gifts. I generally don’t bother to be too fancy, but try to fit the wrapping to the gift and the receiver. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2009, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-giftwrap/521770/8 "2009-12-18T19:39:50Z")
I do a fairly passable job, but I often way overestimate the Y dimension, making my packages look a little like they’ve had a sock stuffed down their pants. ---
**Author:** ![missred](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/missred/32/14096_2.png) [@missred](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/missred)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2009, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-giftwrap/521770/9 "2009-12-18T19:54:57Z")
I took a blue ribbon at the county fair with my 4H gift wrapping skills. I also got my gift wrapping badge in Junior Girl Scouts, so yes, I do a mean job of making it pretty. ---
**Author:** ![Student\_Driver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3da27b/32.png) [@Student\_Driver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Student_Driver)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2009, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-giftwrap/521770/10 "2009-12-18T20:41:01Z")
On a continuum, I’m between passable/pretty. My wrapping is very neat and efficient, and I can wrap oddly shaped boxes pretty well… but I don’t do ribbon, bows, layers, tissue, etc. My giftwrapping is to “pretty” giftwrapping as military bed making is to an interior decorator’s bed making. ---
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2009, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-giftwrap/521770/11 "2009-12-18T20:52:20Z")
> [@Neverending\_Elbow](#): > > tearing wrapping paper off is 75% of the pleasure of receiving gifts Word. ---
**Author:** ![norinew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/eb9ed0/32.png) [@norinew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/norinew)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2009, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-giftwrap/521770/12 "2009-12-18T20:55:02Z")
Oh, I can get a gift wrapped up OK. But I always end up either cutting the paper too big, resulting in. . .bulges somewhere. . .or too small, resulting in cutting another _sliver_ of the same paper to “fill in” with! My mother wasn’t a pro at gift wrapping, but she had an ‘eye’ for the size paper she’d need. She’d _look_ at a gift, pick up a roll of gift wrap, hack off a piece, and voila! It would be the perfect size! Me? I can’t do that. ---
**Author:** ![Lanzy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/74df32/32.png) [@Lanzy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lanzy)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2009, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-giftwrap/521770/13 "2009-12-18T21:02:24Z")
There are two arts I am good at, Wrapping gifts is one. ---
**Author:** ![Hal\_Briston](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a9a28c/32.png) [@Hal\_Briston](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hal_Briston)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2009, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-giftwrap/521770/14 "2009-12-18T21:03:26Z")
> [@NinetyWt](#): > > Yeah, I picked “could win contests” but in actuality they’re usually just pretty. Not award-winning pretty, but pretty. Same here – to be honest, they won’t get any blue ribbons, but they still look pretty damn nice. I’m the designated present-wrapper of the household. ---
**Author:** ![NinetyWt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/cc9497/32.png) [@NinetyWt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinetyWt)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2009, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-giftwrap/521770/15 "2009-12-18T21:06:29Z")
**norinew** , have you tried ‘rolling’ the gift over the paper first? Say for example it’s a rectangular shaped box. Start on one edge of the gift wrap roll. Lay the box on a thin side, longways up-and-down to you. Then roll the box on a fat side, then the other thin side, then the other fat side. That is how big the paper needs to be that way. Leave a couple of inches for overlap. Length the other way is two widths of the end. I hope that makes sense! 😛 ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2009, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-giftwrap/521770/16 "2009-12-18T21:21:59Z")
**NinetyWt** , I do that. I still end up with bulges or slivers. ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2009, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-giftwrap/521770/17 "2009-12-18T21:24:17Z")
Way more than passable, but not quite award-winning. ---
**Author:** ![Carol\_the\_Impaler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Carol\_the\_Impaler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carol_the_Impaler)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2009, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-giftwrap/521770/18 "2009-12-18T22:18:20Z")
Great. I see I’m one of two women on this board who can’t wrap (well, at least for the moment). Way to ping my inadequacies, **Mr. Homie**. 😉 In high school, I worked at the service desk of a department store. One day before Christmas, I was put on the gift wrap desk. I begged them not to do it. I made it clear that I SUCK. Supervisor insisted it wasn’t brain surgery ( **Dung Beetle** … you didn’t happen to work at Richman Gordman in 1987?? Are you a blonde woman? Were you a blonde woman?). God, the stress. Waiting for someone to ask for giftwrap. It was horrible. When I finally emerged from the back room… well, you should’ve seen the customer’s face. After that I did gift wrap no more forever. ---
**Author:** ![luxiia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8baadc/32.png) [@luxiia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/luxiia)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2009, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-giftwrap/521770/19 "2009-12-18T22:18:58Z")
I chose “award-winning” even though it’s not QUITE that great. I do put a lot of effort into it, and tend to color-coordinate all paper/ribbons/etc. - One year it was blue/brown, another silver/red, this year blue/silver. I like the pleasing aesthetic of piling up a bunch of nicely wrapped gifts that all tie together, so to speak. I also usually do handmade gift tags instead of the little sticker ones. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2009, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-giftwrap/521770/20 "2009-12-18T22:34:46Z")
I am good at gift-wrapping. Even under stressful conditions. 🙂 [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-giftwrap/521770.md?page=2)