Celebrations are very special in my family. I grew up with many celebrations. My mother loved to make a big deal out of every event that she could. We celebrated all the traditional holidays, Christmas, Thanksgiving, New Years, Easter, Fourth of July and Valentines Day. We also had big celebrations for everyone’s birthday. Mom is a very good cook, so all the celebrations centered on family member’s favorite foods, as well as decorations for the special event. On gift giving days she also spent a great deal of time on the wrapping paper that she used. The gifts she gave were so pretty that you did not want to open them and spoil the wrapping paper.
Mom’s presents were a work of art. She would find ways of presenting packages that were unique and represented the individual that she was giving the gift to. She would spend hours gift wrapping, especially at Christmas time when there were so many presents. One year for her birthday we gave her an organizer for wrapping paper, ribbons and bows. The organizer came complete with scissors, tape and wrapping paper, all stored in a container that fit under a bed. Mom loved this and filled it with the many treasurers that she used to decorate packages with. She used silk flowers and greens as well as holly leaves and fabric ribbons. Each gift was specially done.
One year she bought plain white wrapping paper. She then went to the fabric store and bought yards of different colored tulle. She tied the tulle around the gift and knotted it on top. She then fanned out the knot to create a bow. She then used silk holly with berries to nestle in the bows. She also purchased shiny silver wire that had stars dangling from it. On my package she used white tulle on the white wrapping paper. She wound the silver wire through the tulle and tied several silver sleigh bells in the middle. My present made a pleasant jingle when it was passed to me. It was the most beautiful package I had ever seen. I remember that package every time I go to wrap a present. It was many years ago that she gave this to me and I cannot remember what was inside, but I remember how special I felt that she had cared enough about me to spend the time to make the package so beautiful.
Today it is so simple to slip a gift into a gift bag. Many of the gift bags are very pretty and they save time and are practical because they can be reused, however I miss the love that went into mom’s creative decorations.
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