From cookies to carols, Christmas is a special time of year. Many call it the season of giving not receiving, but let’s be honest. Tearing the wrapping paper off a present is far more enjoyable than tearing the price tag off a gift before it’s wrapped. Prior to tearing off the wrapping paper though, one must always guess what the present is. To properly do this, you must take several things into account: weight, width, and length. For example if the present has equal weight, width, and length to a book, it’s probably a book. Some of your friends/family may be expert gift givers though, and expert gift givers tend to use the “box method”. The box method is typically a two layer design that employs the use of an empty cardboard box underneath the wrapping paper to hide the identity of the gift. Even though the box method is fairly effective there is one other thing the gift recipient might do to guess the identity of the gift. This is what I like to call, “the shake.” The shake is a gift-guessing method in which the unwrapper shakes the present for additional clues as to what might be inside. While performing the shake, gift recipients should know to be careful, for the gift may be fragile.
Once the unwrapper of the gift has taken the appropriate measures toward guessing the gift's identity the only thing left to do is tear it open. There is some thought that needs to be placed on the unwrapping process as well. I’ve found that when it comes to unwrapping presents there are three types of people. There’s the Passionate Tearer, the Collected Wrapper, and the Box Cutter. Passionate Tearers are often young or have youthful personalities. These gift recipients usually do not take the time to guess the identity of their gifts. They get down to business and onlookers can watch as the wrapping paper flies. This commonly results in a mess that the Passionate Tearer never cleans up themselves. Then there’s the Collected Wrapper. Collected Wrappers always attempt to guess the identity of the gift before starting the tearing process. During the tearing process, Collected Wrappers usually look for tape or edges to tear along so they can minimize the wrapping paper mess. Collected Wrappers tend to be mothers who can appreciate the time the gift giver spent wrapping the present. Lastly, there’s the Box Cutter. Box Cutters always have a pocket knife or razor handy to make quick work of the unwrapping process. I have found Box Cutters to be the most efficient at unwrapping gifts, and tend to be grandfathers or uncles who “don’t have time” to pick at tape with their fingernails. Inherently, Box Cutters “don’t have time” to guess the identity of their gifts either. Whether you’re a Passionate Tearer, a Collected Wrapper, or a Box Cutter, I hope you have a Merry Christmas!
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