Here at Playgroups are No Place for Children, I like to tackle important issues. We have discussed many important issues as Ovaltine consumption, surviving the mob aka Children’s Book of the Month Club, and S-E-X. Today’s topic is wrapping paper versus gift bags.
With Carson’s birthday coming up THIS SUNDAY (holy shit where the hell did TWO YEARS go?), I’ve been in the midst of party planning, baking, and shopping. I’ve been imagining the joy on my son’s face as he opens his presents. This little daydream of mine includes him ripping the paper of lovingly wrapped gifts and gleaming from ear to ear as he revels in the fantasticness of it all. This fantasy most definitely DOES NOT include gift bags.
Sadly, gift bags seems to be taking over the world. I’ve tried and tried to find Thomas the Train wrapping paper only to be mocked at every turn by Thomas the Train gift bags. When my parents visited this past weekend, they brought Carson’s birthday gifts. They brought birthday gifts in gift bags. I died a little on the inside, watching him opening these bagged gifts. Something is just lost when you don’t get to tear paper to reveal the prize inside.
I’m guilty of caving in to the lure of the gift bag. For one, it’s easy, quick, and they can be reused which is good in our disposable society. (See how I can make a lame topic ever so relevant!) But I can’t help but feel sad that children in the future are going to miss out on the joy that is unwrapping a gift. It’s like a sacred right of childhood (and adulthood, for that matter) is being replaced by the gift bag.
To quickly summarize,
Ripping open a wrapped gift…good!!
Saving the planet with reusable gift bags…good, but takes away joy from our children!
Taking away joy from a child…BAD! Very, very bad!!
Please consider this the next time you have to choose between wrapping a gift or simply shoving it in a gift bag. Thank you for your attention to this matter.
PS. To those of you who may be attending Carson’s party, it’s totally fine if his present is in a gift bag. Totally. Fine. Really. Not that we expect a gift! No! But in the event that you bring a gift I’ll we’ll survive if it’s in a bag.
My parents used to wrap our Christmas gifts in newspaper with red ribbon. Fun to tear and saving the planet. Good green times.
i absolutely whole-heartedly agree with you. gift bags are fine for adults…but kids MUST have wrapping paper!
my local stores have a very limited variety of wrapping paper for kids, and most of it seems to be aimed at girls. so you know what i’ve been doing? i make my own. i get these rolls of paper from Ikea (it’s for putting in the kids’ easel) and i stamp it. of course, i’m a stamper already. but i bought stamp sets with dump trucks and loaders and trains and tractors, and i just got nuts. the boys love the trucks and stuff, and i still get to see them go bezerk on the paper!
Right there with you, sister! My favorite, favorite part of any holiday is finding just the right paper (sometimes homemade, sometimes not) and ribbon to wrap it in. It just feels more like a present that way.
I have had the same thoughts many times!!! Admittedly, I must take my share of the guilt from going the gift bag route. In my defense though, for Christmas, I have remained ever faithful to wrapping paper. It’s not something I ever thought of before I had Charity, but since she got big enough to open presents, it’s become an issue to me. My compromise? I try to use gift bags for adults/older teenagers, and use wrapping paper for the kids. After all, every kid should know the joy of being able to rip into the paper!
I am totally with you – I’m all for wrapping paper, and not so much with the gift bags (although I have caved on rare occassions). I’m also big on ribbons or bows – because what’s cuter than a bow slapped on some little kid’s head?
preach on sista!
my FAVORITE wrapping paper for kids is the back (white) side of some left-over paper that Stinkerbell and I decorate with our own BEAUUUTIFUL magic marker art.
I have even taken ABC blocks and used them as stencils and stamped “TO KID”. But that was WAY back in the day before I had my own kids and I actually had time to do things, you know, ahead of time and not 5 minutes before I left the house.
This summer, I even took Stinkerbell to 2 parties at the exact same time that were held at the local skating rink by 2 different kids that both “totally crush on” her, we bought the gifts at W-M on our way to the party. We were late. We didn’t have wrapping paper. We didn’t have gift bags. We were lucky to simply make it there. I don’t know if she even sang “happy birthday” to either boy.
That is the sad reality of my life.
But I insist on wrapping paper on gifts for my kids from me and The Mighty Hunter.
I hate wrapping paper *AND* gift bags.
How about them apples?
Makes it hard to give presents at parties… but here around the house, we do scavenger hunts usually.
My problem with gift bags is that we get raped with the price. Bag, tissue, ribbons, card.
The older monkeys color paper and wrap it themselves. Looks terrible, but, hey- it’s real!
Can I move to Lower Alabama and party with y’all?
I can’t believe no one has mentioned the multiple layer wrapping phenomenon. Perhaps this was only happening in Southern California in the 70s? Similar to the trick candles that don’t blow out, but more fun, you wrap a gift several times in several different types of wrapping paper. Extra points for putting it in successively smaller wrapped boxes as well.
We had fewer cable channels back then, and only Atari to entertain us, so we had more time to devote to these sorts of things.