Gift Bags Vs. Wrapping Paper: The Hidden Meaning in Gift Wrapping

Why do we wrap presents? Think about it. On the surface it seems like a complete waste of time. You've got to pick out the wrapping paper, cut the wrapping paper, tape the wrapping paper. Make it straight. Make it neat. And for what? To have it torn to shreds and tossed away like yesterday's news. It doesn't make sense, but then - that's the beauty of it.

Enter the gift bag. No cutting. No taping. No crooked seams. Just pop in the present, stuff it with tissue, and you're done. No mess. No fuss. In and out, like a trip through drive-thru. And, best of all, you can re-use the bag. Just rip off the name and stick a new one on. It makes perfect sense, but then - that's what's wrong with it.

Call me crazy, but I think what's outside the present often says more than what's inside. Maybe I'm a gift wrapping snob - I don't know. But to me a gift, any gift, wrapped in gift wrap means more than the same gift stuck in a gift bag. The thing is, I'm not sure why.

The message a gift bag sends, wrongly or not, is something like - I stopped off on the way to your house to buy this gift. I had to wrap it in the front seat of my car, so here's your gift bag. I know I shouldn't think that. Gift bags are great for oddly shaped presents, or for those of us (myself included) who can't properly wrap a present to save their lives. But all a gift bag ever says to me is - I didn't have time to wrap this for you.

Inside might be the best present ever, but the wrapping, that gift bag, undermines the specialness of the actual gift. If anything a gift bag is merely a polite way of saying, "Sorry. Didn't have time to wrap this." And therein lies the difference between wrapping a gift and a gift bag, and this difference sits at the very core of why we give and wrap presents.

Why wrap presents at all? It has to do with giving the most precious gift of all - time. The giving of time is a gift that is priceless. Time is irreplaceable. When you give a gift that you wrapped yourself, you are telling someone, "You are special to me. You are worth my time." I don't care how poorly a gift is wrapped. It could be wrapped in newspaper and duct tape. Just the very effort says more than any present bought in any store. It seems so trivial, but it's at the heart of what gift-giving is all about. It's not buying someone a gift because you have to - or because it's expected. It's giving a gift because you care. And nothing shows you care more than giving your time.

A wrapped present is the gift of magic. It's the anticipation that's the real present. That sense of not knowing what's inside the wrapping paper. It could be anything - tickets for a Caribbean cruise or the latest game system. Or it could be socks. The actual present almost fades in significance next to the possibilities. Somehow, even though a gift bag hides the gift, the present is still more accessible. All you have to do is pull out the tissue, and there's the gift. With wrapping paper, it takes effort to get to the present. And even once you've torn away some wrapping paper, and you can tell what the gift is going to be, you still can't get to the present until you get all that tape and wrapping paper off of it. Somehow, like digging for buried treasure, the wrapping paper makes it an effort to get to a present. Whether you're one of those people who neatly removes the wrapping paper so as not to tear it, or if you're a person who just rips right into it, getting past all that tape and paper takes effort. And the very effort itself makes a present seem more special. After all, the things that are hardest to attain are the most valued.

So this holiday season, consider wrapping a present rather than sticking it in a gift bag - the message you send may be the best present of all.