Wrapping Christmas presents can seem like a thankless task at this time of year. While some people enjoy neatly packaging their gifts, many more would rather fob the job off on someone else.
A recent study of Brits found that wrapping lots of gifts was the third-worst thing about Christmas, with 31 per cent of people finding it a yuletide yawnathon.
From looking at the pile of packages ready to be wrapped, to making sure you have enough paper, and finding the scissors and tape – it is easy to see why so many people prefer to avoid doing it if they can. And when you look at others’ efforts, their gifts always seem to be neater.
But fear not, the experts at Which? have shared a hack that allows people to prepare presents beautifully – and you can even ditch the tape. Posting about the tip on TikTok and Instagram, they captioned the clip: “A handy hack if you’re wrapping presents and you run out of tape!”
In the video, they have the box for a Google Pixel phone placed on top of a sheet of wrapping paper. The Which? narrator says: “First, measure all four sides of the gift using the paper” while the person turns the box over on each side, moving it along the paper.
They then mark a spot a little further along the paper, saying: “Cut the paper to size, leaving just a little bit extra.” Once they have trimmed around the box, they place it on the paper diagonally.
For the next step, they explain: “Pull one corner of the paper over the edge of the gift. Score the excess of the paper on both sides of the gift.”
At this point, they crease the paper where it is folded over the box and along either side of the box, stretching away towards the two other corners.
Folding the scored sections of the paper back on top of the gift, they add: “Then bring the corners up, which will become the corners of the box.”
For the one remaining corner, the top, they then crimp both sides and fold it tightly over the rest of the box. Explaining this final point, they said: “At the top of the gift, push the paper up and fold it over. Then tuck the excess paper into the pocket that’s left.”
And voila! One beautifully-wrapped present without the need for tape. Social media users were left impressed by the helpful hack.
On Instagram, one person replied: “Not seen this before, good idea to save tape.” Someone else added: “Ooh this is great, my only tape says ‘fragile’.”
One user will have to wait until next year to try it out, commenting: “Sees this after spending the ENTIRE day wrapping presents.” And someone else joked: “Did anyone else still want her to put a piece of tape on it?”
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