Wrapping paper war

VIEWPOINT

By RALPH HARDIN

Evening Times Editor

OK, “war” might be too strong of a word but for the past few years, my wife and I have been locked in a heated debated about one thing every Christmas season — wrapping paper.

It came out of nowhere, honestly. Around 2018 or so, my wife came home from Christmas shopping with a bunch of new wrapping paper. I asked why, since we already had a bunch of wrapping paper left over from Christmases past, some of which was probably 10 years old, or meybe even more. Her explanation was that none of ti matched. I was confused.

Matched? Matched what?

She showed me her new purchases, a cavalcade of complimentary colors, with varying shades of red, green and gold and a bag of bows and a box of stick-on nametags to go with it.

I mean, I guess… but for me, I actually liked the mish-mash mixed bag collection of wrapping paper, which ranged from candy-cane striped to dancing snowmen to solid black with big white snowflakes to shiny silver with blue bells to reindeer heads on a green background and more. I thought, and explained to her, that is was neat to just keep adding to the mix of unused rolls and bows and such each year so that there was a

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weird and wonderful assortment of colors and images under the tree each Christmas. Turns out, she hated it…

So, every year since then, we have had a “color scheme” for the wrapping paper. Sigh… don’t get me wrong, it does look nice when all the presents go together and have the same little patterns and colors but it just doesn’t have the same charm as the “variety pack” look to me. It’s like our Christmas tree is covered with decorations that date back to when we were kids, when our kids were kids and a few added here and there over the years. That’s how I like my tree and that’s how I like my wrapping paper — even if I didn’t actually evet put it into so many words until my wife came home with those matching rolls of paper that year.

I’ve got an ally in this war, though. My daughter is on my side here. We first formed our alliance in 2020 when my wife tried to do away with bows. My daughter was not having it. So, we formed the resistance, sneaking off-theme wrapping paper into the mix late in the season when the enemy isn’t paying attention.

And by the time my wife sees the odd silver and blue package in a sea of red and green under the tree, it’s too late!

This year, it’s a little bittersweet. Since it’s my daughter’s last Christmas at home before going off to college, my wife let her pick the colors for the wrapping paper. And yes, I went with her… and yes, we came back with the weirdest assortment of colors and designs (like Christmas mushrooms), so it’ll be weird and wacky unter the tree this year!