Sometimes I wish my gift-wrapping game was half as on-point as my friend Georgia’s. Every year, she hits the stores as soon as they open on Dec. 26 to grab tags, gift bags, ribbon and paper, all discounted up to 75 percent. She takes it home, stashes it in a bin marked Christmas, and voila! She’s ready for next year.
The unfortunate truth is that I’m not that organized, nor is my memory to be trusted with remembering where I put those trimmings and wrappings when I look for them 11 months later (if I remember buying them at all).
Instead, I rely on years worth of wrapping paper and upcycled gift bags (I’m the one crawling around our Christmas-morning floor, scooping up packaging I can use again later), and rolls of red and green ribbon from when I remembered to buy them at Michael’s.
It’s amazing what one collects from random trips to Target, the twice-a-year pilgrimage to IKEA, and the odd run through Paper Source, that can be used to embellish a gift. We have lots of gift-wrap from when my sister-in-law worked for a wrapping paper company, and I’m always flush with tissue. I’ve made gift tags from Christmas cards, tied packages with yarn instead of ribbon, and even knitted tiny sweaters and mittens to add a fun little something to a package.
Still, I figured that this year, with all the time at home, I could maybe up my gift-wrap game.
I decided that Japanese gift wrapping makes for the most intricate and beautiful origami-influenced presentation, and I set out to recreate the Christmas tree fold. Suitable for a small box, this design features a series of accordion folds into which you can tuck a gift tag, gift card or money; it’s embellished with a three-dimensional origami tree fixed to the center of the package.
The list of supplies was short: wrapping paper, scissors, a bone folding tool, double-sided tape, and an eight-and-a-half-minute how-to video that was interrupted at the 7:40 mark by a Soda Stream ad featuring Snoop Dogg.
Two minutes into the video, I was creasing paper like a champ. Four minutes in, I was bored; six minutes in I was lost; and by the time Snoop Dogg showed up I was done.
Who has that kind of patience? And even if I was able to master a three-dimensionally wrapped gift, why in heaven’s name would I let anyone tear it open?
Instead, I’m happy to tie a bow with bulky red yarn and call it a day. But don’t be surprised if you find a little clothespin gingerbread man clipped to the handles of your gift bag. Those little guys are hard to resist.