Skipping The Gift Tags

I know it’s still a little early by some people’s standards to be sharing Christmas related posts, but I wanted to go ahead and post this one in anticipation of the Christmas shopping so many people will be doing at the end of the week.

I enjoy wrapping Christmas gifts, but I’m very slow at it, so I’m all for skipping a step when possible.  I tend to have cat “helpers”, too, so it’s nice not to have constantly take the pen for writing names on tags back from them.   Or go get another pen when they take off with the one I was using.

I tried this for the first time last year, and it worked incredibly well, so I’ll be doing it again this year.

Rather than putting tags on the gifts, I just designated a specific wrapping paper for each person we were spending Christmas with.  It was really easy to do since I had found paper that was perfect for each of our recipients.

Nick’s mom, Susan, is an extraordinary baker, so she got the cupcake paper.

Nick’s step-dad, Alan, is very into cars; buying old ones and restoring them, so he got the car paper.

 Everyone else we spent Christmas with had their own specific paper, too, but you get the idea.

It was super convenient not having to look for tags, or worry about them falling off, or the cats taking them off.  And I felt like it made the gift wrapping go a little faster.  It also made it really easy when it was time to open presents since we knew exactly who each of ours was intended for just by looking at the paper.

I think everyone liked having their own kind of personalized wrapping paper, too.  I’d like to think it added an extra little layer of happiness to the day.

Our friend Alex took a similar approach.  She used the same paper for everyone’s gifts, but we each had our own color of ribbon.  All of my gifts had green ribbon, Nick’s had red, etc.  That also worked really well. 

Have you found an easy way to keep track of which gifts are for which person?  Or a way to convince your cats that you don’t need their help wrapping?

I’ll leave you with Julie Andrews and My Favorite Things, since it references packages.  I know it’s often played as a Christmas song, but I don’t consider it to be.  What about you?  Do you think of it as a Christmas song?

Unusual Gifts

My Mother-In-Law gave me a brick for my birthday this year.   I was also given quite a bit of dog and cat food for my birthday. 

Now let me explain why these very unusual gifts were a good thing and made me happy.  I asked for donations to the local no-kill shelter for my birthday instead of gifts for me.   This was the first year, ever, that we’ve done any kind of event for my birthday, but thirty seemed to merit doing something.  I wanted something low-key, and I wanted to do something “grown-up”, so we went with a small cookout and asked for donations in lieu of gifts. 

I wasn’t sure how friends and family would respond to this.  Would they think I was serious?  Would they participate?  I was overwhelmed by their generosity in giving to a cause that means so much to me.  They donated over 40 pounds of pet food/treats, a food dish, and nearly $200.00.  The brick was part of a donation made in my honor to the building fund; it included choosing something to engrave on the brick, which will be incorporated into the building.

So my birthday gifts this year were very unusual, but they meant so much to me.  And how many people can start off with “my Mother-In-Law gave me a brick for my birthday this year”?    

Of course in writing this I started thinking about some of the other unusual (but great) gifts I have received and here are some that came to mind:

Squeaky dog toys – these were from a co-worker for last year’s Secret Santa.  My dog LOVES squeaky toys, and I LOVE my dog, so they were great.

Mastering the Art of French Cooking and a Dutch Oven – these may not seem that unusual, but they were from my husband on our first anniversary.   This usually leads to gasps of horror, but I really wanted them, and now whenever I use them I think of our first anniversary.

A self defense key chain spiky thing – How’s that for a technical name?  My dad gave me this (with orders to carry it around) just before I started driving, along with lessons in how to use it.  Unusual, yes, but it was just my dad’s way of trying to keep me safe.  That’s a pretty amazing gift if you think about it.

I’d love to hear about your unusual gifts in the comments.