Wrapping Mad! Brits Spend 31 Million Hours Wrapping Presents

On average each person in the UK is expected to wrap at least 30 gifts this Christmas spending an average of 10 minutes per present. That's at least five hours wrapping for each one of us over the festive period.

The study by luxury gifting site www.elliottrose.co.uk also revealed that most men loathe gift wrapping and avoid the mind numbing task as much as possible getting their mums, girlfriends or wives to wrap their share of gifts or only shop where presents are gift wrapped when purchased.

Meaning many women will be expected to be wrapping up over 60 gifts in December, devoting at least ten hours to gift wrapping.

Men were found not only to least enjoy the job but also spend the minimum time possible wrapping with some barely spending a minute on wrapping a gift if wrapping one at all.

Research also unveiled the different types of wrappers; the smug wrapper, who has everything wrapped up ready to go in November, the articulate wrapper who can spend up to 15 minutes carefully wrapping making an art of each present with beads, bows and ribbons.

Then there are the fast wrappers, who spend just seconds on wrapping each gift and finally the last minute dash wrappers. Research found wrapping a chore for most of us and is often put off as long as possible and leaving it until the last minute with many people still wrapping presents into the early hours of Christmas Eve.

One respondent in the study said: "Each year I receive a gift from my friend which looks so beautifully gift wrapped that I feel guilty opening it, she must take an hour or more to wrap it up with bows, threaded beads, and ribbons galore."

Another respondent said: "I absolutely hate wrapping up presents, each year I promise myself I will get it done early but I always keep putting it off until I end up a little merry on Christmas Eve frantically wrapping each gift.

"The first few look ok, but after a while I get bored and start to leave off the name tags and ribbons, needless to say that by the end they look in an embarrassing state to give out."

Another respondent replied: "I don't see the point in wrapping presents at all, you can spend so much money and time on gift wrapping and then the paper is just ripped off in seconds."

A male respondent said: "I simply cannot wrap gifts, I usually just buy from shops that wrap present for you and will even pay extra for the service and if I have to buy a gift that isn't wrapped I get my mum to wrap it for me."

Joe Howard, founder of elliottrose.co.uk said: "Our research found most people didn't enjoy, have the patience or simply just didn't have the time to gift wrap. It wasn't surprising to find that people would rather opt to pay a little extra for a gift wrapping service as that is what I would usually do myself.

"Being someone who hates to wrap presents was one of the reasons I thought our 'inside the box' idea would take off. Not only does it make shopping for gifts simple, you can save money too. You pick the box you want, add a personal message and pick the gift content and it's delivered to your door ready to go."

To see the full range Elliott Rose's shop 'inside the box' gift ideas visit www.elliottrose.co.uk

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