I was reminded again yesterday why gift-wrapping is my favorite part of the Christmas holiday preparations. There’s a finality to the process that soothes my frazzled nerves and buoys my flagging spirits. I sequester myself in a bedroom, turn on the station playing 24/7 Christmas Carols, clear a swath of floor, and just get after it! A thousand years ago, I worked a Christmas season for a department store. Normally I was assigned to the credit department, but I was wisely moved to the gift-wrapping section the 20th time I asked my supervisor to make a credit exception. “C’mon,” I’d whine. “It’s Chri-s-s-s-s-stmas!” Reason enough to throw credit policy out the window, if you ask me!
Once I landed in the gift-wrap department, I drew all the irregular and oversized gifts. I guess it was because I was the low woman on the totem pole; that, or I was in such effervescently great spirits no one thought I’d mind. They were right; I loved the challenge of any gift too cumbersome or unwieldy to wrap. Cuisinart? Goodie, bring that bad boy right here. Another king comforter? I'm on it! That's not to say the job wasn't stressful. What?! You didn't think gift-wrapping was a high-pressure job? Try the last days before Christmas when everyone wants everything wrapped altogether, all at once, and right this second! Everyone saying: "How long NOW?" Didn't they know? You can't rush greatness? Or the idiosyncratic requests. "Oh, you wanted the pajamas wrapped separately — as in the top and the bottom separate — of course!
These days there’s no rush to the wrapping. Just the pleasure. I listen to the carols, the new ones and the classics, and some of the treasures sung by Sinatra, Dean Martin, Peggy Lee. I hear “Grandma Got Ran Over by a Reindeer,” and it never fails to make me smile. I enjoy the wrapping part the best because it gives me a chance to sip some peppermint mocha coffee and catch my breath — pause and reflect — anticipate the joys of the days to come. It’s the unbusiest thing I do all season. I hum the songs, tie the ribbons, place the bows, and breathe. See? The wrapping is the gift.
