I can’t cook, but I can wrap. I must have inherited my gift wrapping ideas from my mother. My father made all the creative decisions in our home, big and small, from what color the walls of the drawing room should be to what table cloth would be used for which meal. Meanwhile, my mother sat calmly by, reading her book and taking no notice, as the whirling dervish that was David Hicks rampaged through. The only time she let loose creatively was wrapping the Christmas presents.
Suddenly Lady Pamela became the queen of wrappers. Off to Harrods she went, where she would fill those famous green and gold shopping bags with rolls and rolls of ribbons and papers and teeny tiny cards. Locked in her bedroom she would get down to business, snipping, cutting and fixing meticulously curled ribbons, shockingly flat edges, complementary color schemes, with nary a wrinkle in sight. She would spend hours on her hands and knees until the perfectly packaged gifts were placed under the tree (triumph!). Then she would return quietly to her book.
My sister is also a masterful wrapper. But rather than the perfectionist style of our mother, my sister takes a more eco-friendly approach to gift wrapping. You might recognize the paper, because it was what you wrapped her present in last year (including tell-tale signs of last year’s tape). My brother is a minimalist wrapper: the present is clean, void of any accessory. God forbid there was a bow, pinecone, tinsel or bell. The only adornment is the beautifully calligraphied name of the recipient in thick black sharpie. My eldest son is more of the nesting sort. Multiple layers of paper, boxes in boxes, tightly knotted string, engineering great anticipation and at the center of this chaos is more often than not a small joke, the size of a peanut. Ho Ho Ho.
Of course all this takes time and is not always an inexpensive pleasure. Which is why this year I had swanky little gift boxes made, with perfect little pouches, so no ribbons, tape or paper are required. Consider it my gift to you . For more wrapping, rewrapping, minimalist and nesting gift-wrapping ideas glance at my Pinterest board.