Wrapping Paper
At my suggestion, my friend Amy went to The Container Store last week to buy wrapping paper. Why did I send her there? Because it's convenient, right by a Metro stop. But frankly, it's expensive. After Amy handed over nearly $40 for two rolls of paper and some ribbons, I doubt she will ever take my advice again.
Her mother buys wrapping paper at the local CVS, an excellent choice for selection and price. My mother used to wait until Dec. 26 and head for Bloomingdale's (the flagship store on 59th St. in New York) to grab every roll of paper she could find at its newly reduced, half-off price. Every year I say I will do the same thing and every year I cannot bear to fight the traffic on Wisconsin Ave. to get to the retailer's Rockville location.
This year I bought a few rolls of paper at World Market, a good store with great prices. I also recommend it for stocking stuffers.
But if you really original wrapping paper, check out page 28 of today's Weekend section, which has the results of its annual wrapping paper contest. Now that's good paper.
By Liz Seymour |
December 18, 2006; 8:30 AM ET
| Category:
Gifts
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Posted by: | December 18, 2006 09:09 AM
I get my paper after Christmas at Hallmark (50 - 75% off) -- I love the lines on the back. Always a straight cut. This year, I stepped out of the box and bought a roll of reversable paper I found at CVS (it's for next year's gifts, however).
Posted by: WDC | December 18, 2006 10:13 AM
Hurray for the first commenter! The contest for the best wrapped gift with re-used paper is great!
Given the mounds of waste...not to mention the other environmental issues such as volumes of trees cut...I'm really disappointed that we aren't coming up with more creative ways to wrap presents. In fact, I believe this column listed someone as saying that gift bags were too expensive. If we all used those carefully, most would get multiple uses being ultimately cheaper and envrionmentally better.
Other options - a few years ago I found Christmasy bandanas for 99 cents each. Use them, with ties made from pretty shoe laces or other similarly useful items and they looked more attractive than traditional. And the "wrap" can be reused or part of the gift.
Posted by: | December 18, 2006 05:29 PM
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I'm really more the dollar-store type. It's usually great for what I need it for (my friends/family have very diverse holidays -- including more than a few birthdays this time of year -- that would make papers for a specific holiday very limiting, so I tend to stick to shiny solids or otherwise non-holiday-specific wrappings). And a few of my more eco-conscious friends prefer their gifts wrapped in (clean!) reused paper (no, they aren't the bunch that buys nothing that's featured on the main WP page, but we see it kind of as a game to see who can come up with the prettiest package by reusing stuff; came from college when we were all very broke and wanted to wrap things).
Those pieces