In my humble opinion, one of the greatest inventions of all time is the gift bag. My gift-wrapping looks about as good as my handwriting, which is to say, horrible. I’ll confess – I haven’t tried that hard, but when I do give it a whirl, I either cut too much paper or not enough, winding up with the dreaded gap. If I try to cover the gap, then I wind up with a taped up mess that looks like…well…my wrapping.
When I can’t shop at stores that provide gift-wrapping service, I rely on the good-old-gift bag to save me the hassle. It seems that I’m not alone.
One online retailer in the United Kingdom, hit on a brilliant idea. In an article entitled: “Shall we wrap your wife’s gift as badly as you’d do it yourself, sir?“, the Daily Mail explains how Firebox.com hired twenty of its forklift operators to wrap presents this holiday season.
They get no training and use ugly brown duct tape, wrapping the present as quickly as possible. The idea is to make the gift look like someone like me went to the trouble of wrapping it himself. Called “CrapWrap”, the service costs about $5, and it attracted more than 500 customers in the first week it launched.
I also discovered this Twitter post with photos of some pretty ingenious gift-wrapping solutions. I especially like the tortilla-wrapped present and the “I Can’t Believe It’s Not Wrapping Paper” solution.
Here’s one thing I can wrap up – this post. Hey, I know we’re busy and we’ve all got lots of things to do before Christmas Day arrives. Just remember, the best gifts can’t be wrapped with a pretty bow – quality time with family, laughter with friends, and kindness to strangers are just a few that come to mind.
I’m not just wrapping up this post, I’m also wrapping up the Thought for the Weekend as you know it. You’ll see me back in your inbox in 2017 with a new format called “Fuel for Thought”. Instead of two emails per week (one from Mary, one from me), we’ll take turns sending you our thoughts once per week.
Until then, happy wrapping and our best wishes for a very, merry holiday season,
~Bob and The Entire Matchmaker Team
