Paper around a present

Text A: an original contemporary practice extract.

I spread the wrapping paper across the kitchen table after everyone else had gone to bed. The present was a small notebook for my sister. Its corners resisted the first fold, so I opened the paper and tried again. I chose a strip of blue ribbon because she had once said that colour reminded her of the sea near our old home.

This was not an expensive parcel and it did not need to survive a shop window. The careful folds gave me a quiet interval to think about the person receiving it. I could have handed over the notebook in its bag, and she would have thanked me just as warmly. Yet making the outside personal was another way to offer something I had chosen rather than merely bought.

I will not judge another person’s affection by straight edges or a matching bow. Some gifts travel in ordinary bags and matter enormously. For this one, the wrapping mattered because I wanted to do it. In the morning, my sister untied the ribbon and kept it beside the notebook. Most of the paper went away. The small blue strip stayed, a little piece of our remembered coastline on her desk.

Text B: an original contemporary practice extract.

Please give me the present without turning its arrival into a craft examination. Last December, I spent longer releasing a book from layers of ribbon and adhesive than I spent reading its opening page. The giver apologised for a crooked fold. I apologised for tearing the paper. We had managed to add two apologies to an exchange that needed neither.

I keep a few reusable bags in a cupboard. When a gift fits one, that is its transport arranged. When it does not, I use whatever clean paper is available and stop before the outside requires special instructions. This is a preference, not a calculation proving that my cupboard has solved everybody’s waste. I simply prefer an easily opened parcel and a conversation with its giver.

Some people enjoy elaborate wrapping, and I can enjoy receiving it. What I resist is the suggestion that time spent on a bow measures time spent caring. A note explaining why a book was chosen may tell me more than three decorative layers. Give the ribbon if the ribbon means something. Leave it out if it is only another task standing between us and the pleasure of the gift.

Compare how the writers present their ideas and perspectives about wrapping gifts. Support your comparisons with detailed references to both texts.