Am I doing it wrong?

I haven't started yet, and this year there are more smaller things....I keep putting it off!

I wrapped mine last Sunday at a rough estimate there are a dozen parcels. It took me 90mins !!!

No I don't think your slow.

lilygran - are you one of those people who embellish their parcels with bows, curling ribbon and so on? I'm afraid I just go for the most basic kind of wrapping, but even so I always end up with an aching back. And who would have thought it possible that the sellotape can find so many hiding places in a small room?

It took me all of an afternoon to wrap about 50 gifts, mainly stocking fillers for the DGCs. They got progressively scruffier as I hurried, and had no ribbons, as the kids don't care what they look like. Life was made slightly easier with the use of a wrist tape dispenser and paper-cutting tool, but it still seemed to take forever! It was a relief to get the packages put into the homemade sacks, which I re-use each year.

Phew! I thought it was just me who had these problems! As ever GN reassures me.

I hate doing wrapping, I really do. I am about to embark on it this morning.

I've still to buy the paper!

I do it as I go along, I like making them pretty,so it does take a while.
I'm just having a break in putting up the decorations. Tree done, the staircase garland and swags next.
Can anyone explain why carefully put away decorations are in a muddle, despite being in a box all year. Is there a naughty decoration elf? X

I stood for ages the other day wrapping things on the spare bed. Although present bags are handy things, there's just something about unwrapping a parcel, isn't there, so even though I did have a few bags, I also wrapped the parcels too. As the afternoon wore on I was so needing a cup of tea (OH was in the other room watching the millionth repeat of Last of the Summer Wine, so there was no point in yelling through to him to make me one). By the time I got to the last two or three parcels they were embellished not with pretty bows, but with long white hairs pulled out of my head by the sellotape that stuck to everything except the paper.

I'm hoping for something interesting on the T.V or radio when I start the dreading wrapping later on. The best tip I had was to buy a sellotape dispenser. I too used to get hairy sellotape but no more

I have been fighting with three fluffy dressing gowns trying to wrap them so they look anywhere near decent ? they are for the DSs & one fiancee so they are big ones which ever way I wrap them they look a mess .
Most of the others are small enough to look quite nice when wrapped,I will then put them into individual Christmas bags for them,I can't even think of putting around the tree as Poppy has already helped herself to some and pawed them open.

If I know I've got something that's going to cause a problem I save cardboard boxes of all sorts. I've been known to put things in cereal boxes. I even put a necklace that came in a velvet bag in a toothpaste box before wrapping. So much easier if it's in a box, also infuriates those annoying guessers

Afraid I start off very neat and careful which disintegrates into mayhem usually starting with cutting wrapping paper too small and bits of sellotape stuck to itself and me .
Best friend says she wraps presents as she buys them and hers are a work of art ........may try that next year.
Bought one of those tape dispenser thingummy' shut ended up with it refusing to dispense tape other than in useless chunks, so back to having pieces of tape arranged all along the edge of the table.
Wish I was a more artistic individual......... And don't get me going on My dearth of skills when arranging flowers.......!

Wrapping at the ironing board is a trick I learned to save the aching back.

Didn't bother with ribbon etc this year as we are visiting others and it just get tangled or pulled off in the carrier bag or car boot

It takes me ages too.

I went to a demonstration recently on how to wrap presents beautifully - however, mine are in paper, selotape and put in a nice bag to make them look a bit more presentable.

Yes, a selotape dispenser is indispensable.

(oh dear too many puns)

Quick quick get wrapping radio two are playing 1961 I was a kid watching my mum and dad get ready for Christmas. The house smelt of an open fire and I loved and liked both my parents and my siblings oh the innocence. Then it's 1975 the year I was 'courting and got married' happy happy days joy.

Oh good loopylou someone like me. My wrapping is a disaster and flower arranging? Well, they just get plonked in a vase. OH despairs, his late mother was so clever with parcels, flowers, baking etc., me, NO.

Pittcity - genius suggestion about the ironing board! Going to try it out later on

Just think I can't be good at everything (deluded female emoticon) !

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.

Sorry all 1979 got all over excited then

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!

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!

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!