It’s The Thought That Counts For Santa Gifts, Not The Wrapping Job
It’s that time, ya’ll. And like I promised you a few weeks ago, I am on the roller-coaster of panic induced by shopping for and wrapping my kids’ gifts. I just finished shopping yesterday (I hope) and now, I have to wrap everything. I have not even started yet and I am majorly stressed out about it. I have a tiny perfectionist streak and I love for things to look lovely. Even as a kid I dutifully sat on my mother’s bed while she wrapped gifts and my job was to adorn each one with ribbons and bows as I saw fit. My mother is of an entirely different breed as far as moms go and somehow, manages to make things look beautiful and easy despite a full-time job and many commitments so I guess it gave me high expectations with how everything should go. Over the years, I have come to accept that I just don’t have the time to make it all look like a store display and more over, I don’t have time to do special stuff for the Santa gifts. And that’s totally ok, because kids do not give a shit. Not a single one.
When I first had a kid old enough to understand Santa and that some gifts came from him, and some from mommy and daddy, I felt paralyzed by the options. I knew several friends that did not wrap Santa gifts at all, which felt weird to me. It seems anti-climactic to run out to see your gifts in the morning and to know what they are without that ritual of unwrapping. So, I decided that would not be how it went in our family. I know my mom used different paper, different hand-writing and fancy bows for our Santa gifts. They came from the North Pole, after all. They should look fantastical and dreamy.
When it came down to it, I spent the first few years of wrapping Santa gifts for my kids meticulously choosing special wrapping paper, using fancy hand-writing and glorious amounts of ribbon. It took me forever. And guess what happened? Not only did the kids not notice (because, duh, they are kids) the ribbons and bows only frustrated them on their quest to see what was under the wrapping paper. Seriously, why was I bothering?
For the last few years, I have satisfied my inner Martha Stewart perfectionist by making the adult gifts look lovely. Because adults do appreciate a nice wrap job and a perfect ribbon curl. For the kids? I pick fun wrapping paper and I change my hand-writing slightly for the Santa gifts. I don’t use ribbons at all. They have yet to comment on any of it and they are seven and five years old so I think it’s all good. Kids at Christmas are so overly excited that the wrap job or the hand-writing is the last thing on their minds. I decided to bring it down a few rungs on my hierarchy of holiday tasks as well. Why stress out if it turns out that no one notices? Drink some wine, wrap the gifts and call it a day.
(Image: Peter Bernik/Shutterstock)
