Am I doing it wrong?

Does it matter what they look like? When they are all under the tree in different wrapping paper they all look wonderful anyway. I buy cheap wrapping paper and huge rolls of thin ribbon and wrap everything in those. The ribbon ends are easily curled and make it look as if some effort has been made. When travelling with the presents I leave the ribbon uncurled and do it when I arrive.

The best time for me has been during the afternoon play on radio 4.

I've given up on gift tags - I wrap the individual's presents and put them in one big gift bag per person. Saves a lot of time.

I have a very large extended family so gift wrapping literally takes me days. I really don't bother with bows and furbelows as I have no artistic talent whatsoever, but one of my daughters makes unwrapping gifts from her almost a crime as they are always sooo beautifully trimmed.
We are spending Christmas at our youngest daughter's house this year. What is perplexing me is how we are going to fit three adults, two bicycles, three windsurfers (plus sails and wetsuits etc.), three suitcases, five big sacks of gifts and a couple of bags of food into and onto our car!!

Greyduster me neither . DD does fancy paper with matching gift cards tied with colour co-ordinated rafias. They look very good.

I suggested she stick to making pressies look pretty, and I will stick to organising and cooking food.

I do try to find boxes to wrap things. My coup this year was buying a plastic bob the builder type helmet for GS and then later going into the post office and found an assistant tidying up some boxes which were just the right size to pack the helmet neatly.

I have resorted to using all sorts of pieces of cardboard to wrap some very awkwardly shaped presents.

I wrapped mine last night. By mine I mean extended family, the doggies, the budgies and my very lovely moody son. Mine, however, are in very decorative Amazon grey plastic bags with parcel tape round them, very attractive! I ordered most of them myself so can't open them and the ones my son ordered he says are already wrapped, in grey plastic! I might find some pretty paper and wrap the parcels as they are in that, just to make me feel a bit better on the day. Men eh?

You may have a pile of beautiful parcels under the tree (or not...) then on Christmas morning what do you have? A floor covered with paper that looks as if it's been attacked by a pack of hyenas! But we don't think about that while we're struggling with glitzy paper and shiny ribbons!

Wow Rose I am impressed! My friend makes presents and wraps them beautifully too. Lakeland do little round sticky discs which are great for wrapping small presents neatly. I loved the way Alex Polizzi was shown to wrap bottles. I might try next year!

And made all the presents too!

I assumed that someone called Crafting would wrap any shape perfectly.

By sheer chance, everything I have bought this year is either in a in a box or is square or rectangular in shape. Wrapping made easy.... but it still took ages...relaxing with a now

I too have no talent for wrapping parcels, and admire people who can be bothered to add ribbon and all sorts of decorative bits and pieces. I did put some of that shiny ribbon stuff that you stretch and it goes into curls on one of my parcels this year and it looked quite good. I put it under the tree and DH put half a dozen presents on top of it so the 'lovely bow' is now as flat as a pancake!

What a lovely analogy, rosequartz!

Just struggled with icing the Christmas cake as well - same principle as wrapping - looks a bit of a mess but I hope the inside is good and worth having.

I work on the principle that the wrapping isn't important....

Can't even pass it off as 'rustic' either ....

I hate wrapping, it takes ages and am useless at it. I posted on here last year that I was wrapping and there was sellotape stuck to me, the table, the carpet. I was wrapping and unwrapping as they looked a mess. I kept tearing the paper and having to start again. My DD has presented us with our presents this year already. They are beautifully neat, with pretty bows and trailing ribbons. She doesn't get that from me then

Never thought of trying that pompa.....

If I could paste the present to cover it, no problem, other wise it looks like a rats nest.

I'm good at wallpapering, dreadful wrapping presents! The tissue paper and attractive bag works for me, too. I watched Alex Polizzi and was inspired.... for about half an hour

This is how to do it!

gift wrapping

I'm also totally useless at wrapping gifts! DH is so much better. I have a theory though. I think that if you are good at wallpapering (DH is, I'm hopeless) then you are good at wrapping presents!

Yes, that was one of the tricks when I went to the parcel-wrapping demonstration, using double-sided selotape. I got in a mess with that as well, and as for tying bows in ribbons - forget it!

My wrapping skills are zero. How did I ever pass that Brownie test on wrapping and tying a parcel? No point in putting nice ribbons and rosettes on them this year as they're going in my suitcase to Sandhurst on Monday - if I can fit them all in. I found some decorative sticky tape in Lidl, so that's my effort at prettifying my packages!
And my flower arranging skills are definitely on a similar level. Pot plants are so much easier!

Sorry all 1979 got all over excited then

Anyone else see Olga Polizzi programme on TV last week when she went for a lesson in wrapping gifts - I think it was Harrods? Anyway, this expert said always use double sided tape and it did make it look easier. I try to make mine look nice but often resort to tissue paper wrapping and then popped in a gift bag.