Ah, the gift bag…
I don’t remember gift bags as a kid. Seems like we could wrap any lopsided gift and make it work. You might use an entire roll of wrapping paper, but that wierdly shaped gift was getting wrapped no matter what. Now we have gift bags: You stuff one with tissue and plop the strange oddity right inside. And you can reuse gift bags! Many times over….how many times have we torn the tag off, recreased the edges, and put new tissue paper into a gift bag and WHAALA! We can regift the gift bag. Sadly, this cuts down on our ripping into presents tradition…it’s really anti-climatic opening up a gift bag–especially if someone is shoddy with the tissue paper. Gone are the days of ripping the paper down the middle to reveal whatever treat is inside, or meticulously peeling off the paper and saving it for another use. Now we merely peer inside and there’s our gift…you don’t even need to work for it!
Now, I find that I use gift bags with casual aquaintances and co-workers. But family members get actual wrapped gifts. I really enjoy wrapping presents. I’m certainly not as talanted as some, but I can do a mean fold down the middle…