HOW TO WRAP CHRISTMAS PARCELS
HOW many boys and big folks, too, have at some time received a Christmas gift which was broken, or crushed, or spoiled in some way through the careless packing of the sender. Even at ordinary times the mail service and Express Companies are hard enough upon packages given to their care. The term “baggage-smasher” ought not to be restricted to the employees of the railways alone, and when at Christmas time the mails and express lines are congested with packages of all descriptions, and the men are tired and overworked trying to deliver gifts that have been sent at the last minute—then it is doubly needful to insure the safety of your Christmas presents by careful packing.
Of course the wrapping of a gift cannot change its value, but you should bear in mind that your gift will seem doubly attractive to the one who receives it, if inside of the serviceable outside wrapping, there is another dainty one, and the expense is so trifling that it need hardly be considered. A dozen sheets of tissue paper cost only a dime. Pure white or warm “Christmassy” red are the most desirable kinds. Another dime will purchase a box of Christmas seals—small ones with pictures of holly and mistletoe, or large ones with Santa Claus heads or Christmas bells on them. If you prefer tying, to sealing, the ten cents will buy a dozen yards of “tying” ribbon, which is crimson “baby” ribbon in a cheaper grade than is ordinarily sold. Gilt cord is also very attractive for tying up gifts, and a tiny spray of holly tucked under the cord or ribbon gives a final dainty Christmas touch.
Perhaps, though, you live so far away from a town that you are not able to buy these Christmas seals, and the tying ribbon. Almost, if not quite as pretty to fasten the inside tissue paper wrapping of a gift will be some very tiny, red maple leaves gathered in the fall with the thought of Christmas in mind, and pressed with a hot flat iron on which some beeswax has been rubbed. This preserves the bright color of the leaves and keeps them stiff until you need to use them. After carefully folding in the ends of the tissue paper about the gift, the paper is fastened down by gluing on a few of these gay, pressed leaves, and in the folds of the paper a wee spray of pine or a little wreath made of ground pine, or a bunch of partridge berries may be tucked. Another way of making a gift look like the country is to tie it with strands of sweet grass.
When the gifts are wrapped, and you are ready to pack them for shipment, there are a few general rules that must be remembered.
First: That the gifts must be packed as snugly as it is possible to do without harming them.
Second: That nothing—not even excelsior—is quite as effective in stopping the transmission of bumps and jars as crumpled up newspapers.
Third: That the name and address of the person to whom the gift is sent and also the address of the sender must be legibly written in your best school hand on the outer covering where they are not liable to be torn off. You must remember that, while the names and addresses are perfectly familiar to you, they are totally unknown to the men through whose hands the parcels go, and in handling thousands of packages, illegible writing means much delay.
The rule of packing things tightly refers to everything—even things which would seem most crushable, for there is far more harm done by packing these loosely so that they slip around with every turn of the package, than by crushing them flat in one position. Take a delicate waist, for instance. If packed loosely, it will come out of its box rumpled and wrinkled in every direction, but if it is folded flat, the sleeves stuffed with crumpled tissue paper, and the spaces around it in the box filled with the same, it will reach its destination quite as fresh as when it started.