Every year as the holidays approach, we’re reminded of the age-old question: how do you wrap gifts for your loved ones? While there are many ways to approach this difficult conundrum, there are only so many correct ways.

If you’re lazy, the gift can be haphazardly and effortlessly thrown into a bag. If you’re feeling extra special, you could even throw some tissue paper in to increase the element of surprise. But please, the bag has to be seasonally appropriate. That means no birthday bags, no spring flowers, no balloons. Make it a winter bag, perhaps featuring a snowman, or something related to your holiday of choice. If you put a meaningful gift in a bag, which requires little work, and can’t even match it to the holiday being celebrated? The lack of preparation and thought makes the gift seem more like a meaningless afterthought. Perhaps not an ideal way to give a gift.

Another common way to gift is with wrapping paper. Very thoughtful, but very easy to mess up. Maybe a controversial opinion, but if you need more than three pieces of tape to wrap a gift, you’re doing it wrong. And as I always say: a box wrapped in paper you’ll throw out almost immediately when your dad comes by with the Christmas morning trash bag is 100x better. 

The downside of festive paper is the skill it takes to make it pretty. I firmly believe wrapping gifts, like cooking and doing laundry is one of those skills your parents need to teach you when you’re young.. When the paper is loose, the corners aren’t sharp, or it’s covered in tape, that’s almost as bad as pulling the gift out of its box, throwing it at your “loved one” and then punching them in the face to fully demonstrate that you don’t care about them or their feelings. Maybe that’s the right idea for some people, but if you like your friends, please, for the sake of everyone around you, wrap your gifts well!!

If you end up in a situation where you have to give a gift to your worst enemy, get them a tiny gift card and put it in a box, then another box, and some more boxes. Maybe add some duct tape and zip ties with a few layers of wrapping paper, and you’ll have the perfect waste of time that will take hours to get through. (Even better if the gift card was $5 at Staples)

So I’ve talked about some way to wrap rectangular gifts, but what about an irregular object? Maybe a stuffed animal, a pair of socks, or a pony? Whatever it is, if it’s not in a box it’s much more difficult to wrap. If you are approached with this problem, consider finding a creative way to wrap it, like with a fun box or a gift wrapping hack from YouTube! Also return the socks while you’re at it. No one wants socks.

Now that you’re well equipped with this gift-wrapping knowledge you should be set to give gorgeously wrapped gifts for the holiday season. Wrap gifts competently to make them better, but if you can’t, just slap on a bow and some ribbon to hide it! •