I hate shipping Christmas gifts.

Mrs.ErikaMay · December 2010

AAAARGH!!!

Shipping gifts has got to be the worst part of my entire holiday season. I have SIL and fiance in Las Vegas and the in-laws in Florida. So every year I have to figure out what to get them early so that I can purchase/ order online what we want to give them and get it in time to then turn around and wrap and ship it back to them. Sure, sure, I could send something direct from the vendor, but I'm always unsure about their wrapping and when it'll get there. And don't get me started on the cost of shipping- I'm lucky to get a discounted UPS rate through work, but it still blows to have to budget that in.

I've got everything for my SIL and her man, but I'm now stuck in box hell. Why did she have to request a rolling pin? And why did I decide to add in a ceramic pie plate to round out the gift? Do you know how hard it is to find a single box that will hold both of those that isn't large enough to ship myself somewhere too?!?!?! Oh yeah, and those along with the steel breaker bar for the dude, the stupid lot is 8.5 lbs. I can either suck it up and spend even more freaking money to do two shipments or I can continue trying to find the right box for free somewhere. Oh yeah, and I don't want to have to sell James to afford shipping that I can be sure will get there in time, so I need to figure this out fast so I can stick to regular ol' Ground Shipping. I got screwed last year when I paid a little more for faster shipping only to have UPS delay my stuff so that it got there like 3 days after Xmas.

Up-side is that IL's gifts are all pretty small and light and once the 8.5x11" calendars come in, I can turn that one around without too much heartache.

Ugh.

kclouts · December 2010

You are crazy. I would ship direct from the vendor regardless of what the wrapping looked like. Sorry this is causing you undue holiday stress!

grahamsm3 · December 2010

kclouts:
You are crazy. I would ship direct from the vendor regardless of what the wrapping looked like. Sorry this is causing you undue holiday stress!

I would ship direct too, or I would be a huge b!tch and just mail a gift card. And if it was not siblings and parents like you are doing, they would get nothing.

MA&CB · December 2010

I agree, crazy! I've had everything shipped from the vendor. I didn't even bother having some of it wrapped...they get to open the box, that's not enough?

mjellison81 · December 2010

MA&CB:
I agree, crazy! I've had everything shipped from the vendor. I didn't even bother having some of it wrapped...they get to open the box, that's not enough?

This completely! You can bet that I will be shipping everything direct from merchant next year when we're down in Louisiana. I've got to give you kudos though, for going above and beyond to get your presents there on time!

jgreg29 · December 2010

You are amazing! I always ship from the vendor. I've never stopped to think about how the wrapping might look.

MaineIslandBride · December 2010

Have you tried going to a mailing center? There is one in Augusta that I go to when I have to ship something (I know they have them in other areas too). They will do all the packaging for you (for a small fee). So you could wrap your gifts with just regular wrapping paper and then take them to the mailing center and let them worry about the boxes, packing peanuts, etc.

MainelyFoolish · December 2010

You should have come to my house before we put out the recycling yesterday. I've had so many boxes come to my house in the past month I think the UPS guy is wearing a footpath across my front lawn!

Since we flew down to visit my parents this fall, my mom couldn't send back a batch of wrapped Christmas gifts like she usually does when we drive down over Thanksgiving. My mom has been having our gifts sent to us unwrapped directly from vendors, so I've had to wrap all of her gifts to my family in addition to wrapping all my own gifts. I'm wrapped out!

Mrs.ErikaMay · December 2010

Thanks for the sympathy gals... I suppose I could have gotten the rolling pin, pie plate, and cookie cutters online. Ditto for the fiance's gift. But I also got a couple of little things from Le Roux and then some lotion that came here with some other things. So I would have been sending something out regardless. And I really do love wrapping gifts... it's just this stupid darn box issue!

Thanks for the offer Kimberly- I wish I could have gone dumpster diving in your recycling! And yeah, I may take it to a shipping place. Blah.

MainelyFoolish · December 2010

It's late and I'm tired, but I just totally had a mental image of Erika beating the "if it fits, it ships" postal carrier with a rolling pin.

Surprise

Good luck with your boxes!

Mainer-in-Texas · December 2010

Ugh, I feel your pain. We decided to "save money" this year by sending our grandmothers a family picture instead of the usual Christmas centerpiece from LLbean - well, the picture and frame was cheap, but it cost freaking $65 to ship three packages (I had to do the pack and ship on two of them because I didn't have boxes)! So we ended spending even more than we normally do.

Tamzin418 · December 2010

I'm late to the party as usual, but I'm totally with you! I STILL have to ship presents to my family. Honestly, I couldn't care less about Christmas this year b/c we have a baby coming. I've been trying for YEARS to get my family to just pick names out of a hat (and my sister agrees with this plan), but NO, Dad and his wife still want to do the present thing. Hopefully tomorrow morning I'll have my butt in gear early enough to get to the post office as soon as it opens and will have time to mail the gifts before work. Not the way I want to start my day, but the line should be better than going at lunch. My husband would do it, but it doesn't seem right for him to have to battle post office lines to mail gifts to my family. His family is sensible and doesn't bother with them...thank goodness!

I hate shipping Christmas gifts.

Re: I hate shipping Christmas gifts.

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