19.03.2024

Always say yes to the giftwrap

Can some festive paper change our outlook on shopping? There’s a reason for never refusing a storekeeper’s offer to gift-wrap a purchase-even if it’s just a pair of socks or a bag of peanuts, and even if it’s not a gift for anyone.

Wrapping a mundane purchase can turn it to a prize.

In Paris, I once bought a plastic headband, presented in a thick, black, velvet pouch lined with gold satin. I delight in the idea that the presentation could be more luxurious than its contents-and perhaps urge us to rethink its worth, regardless of value.

Gift-wrapping yields two distinct pleasures: In the store, it’s about watching the clerk’s wrapping technique. It can be hypnotic to watch hands efficiently working with tissues, tape, scissors and bows. In Tokyo, I remember watching a woman masterfully pleat a piece of paper like sun rays and tuck a blank notecard within the folds. And of course, the sight and sound of curling ribbons is magic-a quick, taut pull with a pair of scissors against some plastic ribbon yields tight Shirley Temple curls and a slower motion produces a looser loop.

The second pleasure comes when you unwrap the “gift” at home. Gift wrapping, after all is a kind of foreplay. A flurry of strings, knots, and delicate layers, fishing for a bottle of olive oil through layers of tissue can feel like finding a treasure.

Designers of chocolate packaging know this trick well: a luxurious box, beautiful layers of padding and tissue, climaxing with the sight of jewel-like bonbons nestled in a snug candy cup. In the end, it almost doesn’t matter how the chocolate tastes in your mouth. The sensational shell-this heady preamble-is the romance and the oftentimes, the point.

Yes, opting for gift wrapping will often require a wait, and sometimes even a small fee-it’s the opposite of shopping efficiency. But maybe in this age of next-day delivery, self-check-out fast lanes, and the addictive instant gratification of shopping as entertainment, it takes a beautiful wrapper to make us to appreciate the things we buy.

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