I recall when I was a kid in the Sixties that Chrissy prezzies were wrapped in the distinct materials of the time.
Christmas gift wrap was largely a very thin paper, almost tissue and easy to rip off quickly, usually plastered with the same design across the whole sheet.
These patterns were often icons of the season like holly, snowmen, baubles, bells and poinsettias.
They were all illustrated in that quaint style prevalent back then, a style which also appeared on Christmas cards of the day.
Gifts wrap was stuck down using colourful Christmas tape. This came on a roll and was very plasticy and very sticky. Tearing it with your teeth risked removing a layer of skin from your bottom lip and attaching it to the present!
The tape was decorated with repeated patterns of gorgeous little illustrations like snow scenes, robins, fir trees and so on.
You also needed a strip of this sticky stuff to stick down your label. These were mostly folded square card tags hole-punched complete with a short length of thick cotton for fastening. the imagery was always very seasonal and often sprinkled with glitter so they looked like small sheets of Yuletide sandpaper!
Sometimes these tags were crimped along the edges too for extra fancy.
I don't remember many ribbons and bows being used in our house but I'm sure such finery was deployed in the Sixties and early Seventies.
Occasionally Christmas paper was made of foil, which was much harder to rip off in a flurry. More arty types like my older sister went all out and used baco-foil instead of gift wrap. I remember getting a stack of 45's in aluminium foil like this. It looked great!
How do you remember your Xmas presents being wrapped readers?
I see distinct color combinations when I close my eyes and picture wrapped gifts.It seemed red and green combined was the ultimate Christmas combo,perhaps red paper with green ribbon or bow, or a reversal of those colors.Blue, white ,silver and gold worked all well together.I always found that a pattern like plaid contained most of these colors at one time, so that became my fave,even to this day.I use paper for large, square boxes only.For small or odd shaped items, there are gift bags with a draw string on top.They come in many colors, prints and materials,so it's easy to stick an adhesive bow on top and call it a day!
ReplyDeleteYes, red and greens Brian! I can see them too! Beautiful memories. There is nothing quite like a crisply gift wrapped box on Christmas Day. A thing of beauty especially if it contains a space toy pr plastic monster!
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