You’ve bought the gifts. They’re sitting in the corner of your cramped room, or on a shelf, or maybe even on your desk now that you’ve triumphantly swept off your exam materials. Your calendar or planner is clearly marked, and you know exactly when all this thinking and theorizing and shopping will culminate as you present your gift at an upcoming party or exchange. The only problem is, it’s been sitting in plain view since you walked in and the surprise is ruined. Or maybe you’ve awkwardly wrapped it a few times around in some brown paper and the delight of receiving the gift is marred by its “authentic” aesthetic. Or maybe even you’ve wrapped the gift beautifully and left it in a conspicuous location, only to find its recipient has no idea who’s given it to them because you’ve omitted a card. These scenarios – and more – can be prevented if you take the time to consider these aspects to ensure proper premium presentation:

Gift Wrapping

Though it may seem like an old-fashioned redundancy to some, gift-wrapping can make your present that much more appealing and exciting. Wrapping should be reserved to six-sided gifts and presents that won’t look awkward covered in paper. For gifts of other shapes and sizes, try putting them at the bottom of a gift bag stuffed with tissue paper or in an appropriate-sized box that you can then wrap. Stores like Indigo!, Dollarama, and Shoppers Drug Mart sell a wide variety of solid-coloured and patterned wrappings, but there are plenty of cheaper or free options for us cash-strapped students:

• Newspaper – There are literally dozens of free newspapers circulated on campus, all of which can become free and nifty gift wrap. For UofT students, try using the official newspaper from your recipient’s college. Foreign-language newspapers are especially cool.
• Maps – Who uses maps when we have the internet? Exactly! Paper maps are things of the past, so people shouldn’t mind parting with them. Ask your friends if you don’t have any of your own.
• Comic books – For $2 you can pick up a comic book from a nearby retailer and surprise your friends and family by wrapping their gifts in comic book pages. Just gently remove the staples – no tearing – and you’ll have 16 sheets of bold-coloured, eye-catching, onomatopoeia-blaring wrapping paper. For smaller gifts only.
• Potato Chip Bag – Credit for this one goes to the brilliant minds at Martha Stewart Living. Buy one of those foil bags of potato chips, cut it open along the seem, clean it thoroughly with a damp cloth and dish soap, and wrap with the silver side down. Works with other food packaging as well. For smaller gifts only.

To learn the basics of gift-wrapping, check out this tutorial.

Cards

So you’ve got the perfect gift and it looks – if you’ll pardon my language – dope; now all you need is the adjoining card. Cards are a good way of letting your recipient know the gift is from you even if you’re not handing it to them in person, but they’re also a nice memento to keep even after the wrapping is torn and gone. The trick with writing a gift card is that simplicity is key; don’t get too mushy or poetic. Never buy a mass-produced drug store-type card – they’re tacky and impersonal, and even scrawling “Merry Christmas” in magic marker on printer paper is preferable. Special cards that are produced in limited quantity, however, such as those sold at Kelly Library made by St Michael’s College’s antique printers, can be a beautiful addition to your gift.

Etiquette

While many of the rituals considered within the realm of etiquette are no longer practised due to their apparent obsolescence, it’s okay to check the book every now and again to figure out exactly what the best way to go about something like this is. For me, that book is The Amy Vanderbilt Complete Book of Etiquette, the best-selling guide by American etiquette expert Amy Vanderbilt. The 1995 edition I picked up at a used book store has paid for itself time and again, such as when I hosted a dinner party with between 7 and 12 guest and only one maid, or when I had to give that toast at an engagement party in which most of the guests were on the bride’s side and I on the groom’s. In regards to gift-giving, Amy offers these wonderful tips:

1. Keep a record of every gift you’re given and every gift you give and by whom. This will allow you to take note of who gave you gifts last year, which will allow you to determine to whom you will give this years’.
2. Re-gifting is perfectly acceptable, so long as you completely rewrap the gift and remove any evidence it was intended for you, and give it someone the recipient does not know.
3. At a party, put the gifts you’ve brought with the others already there and do not present them to their recipients until everyone else does. If you find that you’re the only one who’s brought gifts, try to hide them as best as you can until you can discreetly give them away.
4. Giving a gift in person is always preferable to sending your assistant or valet [or friend].
5. It is presumptuous to assume that a gift to be used by more than one person (i.e.: tickets to an event) given by you to someone else will be shared with you. It is also rude to directly request this. If you would like to join your guest, ask with whom they were planning to share the present and mention how exciting it sounds.
6. Bringing up a gift someone’s given you in the past in conversation (i.e.: “oh, I was just reading that book you got me…”) is a good way to build a connection. However, mentioning a gift that someone else has given you can be alienating.

By now you’ve put some thought in to what you want to get people for the holidays, and you may even have begun your shopping. If you have, you might have noticed something about it – holiday shopping is hard. In many cases, people conceive of a perfect gift, only to discover that it doesn’t actually exist, or is only made by this one Laotian craftsman and only on leap years. Students especially may find shopping for the holidays challenging, as our limited budgets can severely inhibit our ability to shop in many of Toronto’s finer retail outlets. International students may also find it difficult to shop in Toronto when they aren’t very familiar with the city or don’t have a good sense of where to start looking. If any of the above situations describes you, continue on:

Holiday Shopping Near Campus

1. BMV Books – 471 Bloor Street West

Most UofT students are already familiar the gigantic and glorious BMV bookstore. Its proximity to campus and wide selection of academic and literary books at reasonable prices makes it a popular spot for students to pick up textbooks and stimulating reads. What many students don’t realize, however, is that BMV is also an excellent source for holiday shopping on a budget. Their selection is enormous and includes graphic novels, beautiful hardcover art books, cookbooks, popular fiction, and a strong international selection including classics in other languages and translations from all over the world. Remember the first guideline from Part Two: a gift should reflect your relationship with the recipient? Well, there’s always a book for that. If you two are in the same club or class, you can get a book on that topic. If your recipient has expressed interest in taking up knitting or sewing or cooking or yoga or sketching or interpretive dance, there’s a book for that. If your beneficiary has a particular sense of humour or appreciation for a certain type of poetry or style, you’re sure to find a novel or anthology that they’ll appreciate – you just need to do a little digging first. BMV salespeople know the store well, but with the sheer volume of texts available it’s unlikely that they can recommend anything to exact specifications. Just take your time, soak up the literary atmosphere, and flip through books like crazy until you’ve found the right one.

2. Blue Banana Market – 250 Augusta Avenue (Kensington Market)

Blue Banana is a marketplace that rents out space to a variety of different vendors throughout the store, creating an interesting and eclectic mix of goods for sale. At times it’s possible to find a beautiful watercolour, an hilarious fridge magnet, vintage candy, and awesome winter hats within a few metres of each other. Blue Banana tends to run a little pricey, but with the amount of one-of-a-kind and hard-to-find gifts there, it’s worth it. The great variation of items for sale makes the BB a great source of inspiration if you’re unsure of what to buy; something’s bound to pop out at you. And if not, you can at the very least enjoy a Double Decker Bar.

3. The Eaton’s Centre – 220 Yonge Street

Probably the most conventional location on this list, the Eaton’s Centre is by far the best reason to ever risk running into a Ryerson student out there in the wild southeast. An enormous shopping mall the likes of which many have never seen, The Eaton’s Centre covers an entire city block in the heart of downtown with a wide variety of fashion stores and other typical mall-y stuff. They also have an Indigo! bookstore and some other stuff, but clothing is the largest draw. Popular chain stores in the EC include H&M, Lululemon, Abercrombie & Fitch, The Gap, and so much more.

Remember: only buy clothing for someone if you are absolutely certain of their size.

4. The Internet – Everywhere!

With the number of online stores growing by the minute, the internet has become a great place to shop for gifts. Search bars allow you to enter keywords to find gifts to your specifications, and the variety is unparalleled. Here is a breakdown of some major shopping sites:

• Amazon

Cheap and with a huge selection, Amazon connects to major stores and individual sellers to bring you competitive pricing on just about everything. There are also fewer scams circulating through Amazon than at other sites, and they can deliver straight to your door within days of ordering.

• eBay

eBay allows individuals to sell their good online directly to others without a middleman. This means cheap prices and oddly specific items you might not find elsewhere, but it also means the possibility of scams, misrepresented items, and odious sellers trying to rip you off. Always check the feedback percentage of the seller; if it’s less than 90% you can forget it.

• Craig’s List

Offering free, anonymous personals and listings in an extensive range of topics, Craig’s List is often coveted by students as the holy grail of free, cheap dorm stuff. The elimination of shipping costs makes it cheaper than eBay, but the limitation of your mobility means the selection can be lousy. Beware of scams, frauds, predators, and the like, and always meet in a public place. Seriously.

• Threadless

What? You’ve never heard of Threadless? That’s too bad. Threadless.com prints shirts designed by enterprising young artists and sells them for reasonable prices across North America. You always know what you’re going to get, and you’re always going to get it. The shirts are brilliant and beautiful and often hilarious, and the selection is enormous.

 

And there you have it: how to get started buying gifts for the holidays. Of course, there are plenty of other places in our fine city to shop, but if you were stumped these are great places to start.

 

Stay tuned for part four: “Wrapping, Cards, and Presentation”