As far as I am concerned Christmas is all wrapped up. I used to love that part of it, the wrapping that is. I spent time picking out the right paper from the assorted rolls that showed the manger, or Baby Jesus with Mary and Joseph, or the Wise Men but over the years, I noticed that it was harder and harder to find them and this year, it happened, not one roll of wrapping paper was to be found with anything to do with the actual first Christmas. My local big box store had an entire wall in their garden section full of box after box of assorted “Christmas” wrapping paper. Note, a few years ago, this store and others were criticized for replacing the word Christmas with Holiday in their stores and advertising but the public backlash was so great that the “Christmas” signs are back up so surely there must be some actual “Christmas” paper to be had. I started down the aisle, and what did I find? Snow flakes, Santa Claus, candy canes, poinsettia prints, snow men, surely there must be some Baby Jesus paper in the next section, Dora the Explorer paper, Mickey Mouse and other assorted Disney character paper. The next section? No, it was roll after roll of Barbie paper. I got to the end of the wrapping paper section without so much as a picture of a stable. I guess there was no room for Jesus in the wrapping paper section of that store so I decided to check online. You can find anything online, right? Apparently anything but Christmas wrapping paper with religious images. I did find some sites that offered to let me print my own religious paper for wrapping small gifts but I was searching for a roll. By now I wanted the Moby Dick of rolls. One with 8,000 square feet, like the roll I bought twenty years ago with the kittens on it. I paid $0.25 for it after Christmas and needed a forklift to bring it home. I want a roll like wall to wall carpet, but alas searches yielded promising links but when I clicked on them they had nothing to do with Christmas. I give up. I will wrap my grand daughter’s presents in paper next Christmas, but I am going to buy birthday paper instead of what is being sold as Christmas paper. Everyone else will get a present wrapped in plain brown paper or not wrapped at all, until some marketing genius starts selling Christmas wrapping paper again.
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