Image Southgate website
I've spent some miserable Christmas Eves. The males in my family say they can't wrap. They say their hands are too big to get around fiddly things like sticky tape and scissors. These guys who run marathons obviously don't appreciate small scale physical challenges.
So as they snore upstairs it's some egg nog for me and hours of Christmas wrapping because I am such a last minute person.
I understand the point of wrapping. It is the nicety of turning what is normally a store bought commodity into something that is individual and personal. It also heightens the elements of surprise and drama inherent in gift giving.
And stuffing it into one of those gift bags just doesn't cut it. Anyone can do that and it's embarrassing when your receive a gift in the very same Christmas bag you gave to a relative the year before.
But thankfully you can get your presents wrapped before Christmas and even better, somebody else is prepared to do it for you.
You don't even have to feel guilty about passing on the burden because Christmas wrapping is a way of helping worthwhile charities.
Below is a list of places that will wrap your gifts for you. The cost is usually a gold coin donation (per gift) and if you think like me then this is money well spent.
Melbourne Central
Image Melbourne Central of an Emily Green design
Emily Green is a well-known Melbourne designer and she has created especially designed gift wrapping paper for this event. It is bright and colourful and looks great. The proceeds go to Melbourne's homeless youth training and support enterprise
Streat. You will find the wrappers on the Ground Floor outside the Christmas Concierge desk – next to the Information Centre – from Friday 13 December.
The Jam Factory
At the Jam Factory the proceeds from gift wrapping got to Fareshare, a local food rescue charity helping Victoria's hungry and homeless. Wrapping times are from the Saturday 7th of December 2013 to Saturday 21st of December 2013 from 10am to 2pm
Myer Christmas gift wrap fundraiser
Myer Gift Wrap is an annual fundraising event with volunteers wrapping gifts throughout Myer stores in Victoria, southern New South Wales and the ACT. The proceeds go to Vision Australia Australian children who are blind, or have low vision.
It starts on Thursday 12 December and runs through to Tuesday 24 December, at 17 Myer stores. Locations include Chadstone, Doncaster, Eastland, Fountain Gate, Frankston Geelong, Highpoint, Knox City, Melbourne, Northland, Southland, Ballarat and Bendigo.
Volunteer from Vision Australia
At Southgate gifts are beautifully wrapped and donations given to The Starlight Children's Foundation.Gift wrapping is available on the mid level, from
11am to 2pm Wednesdays-Fridays, during December. And to help for that last minute panic the Gift wrapping desk is open again on Monday 23 December and Tuesday 24 December 11-2pm.
Harbour Town
Harbour Town is the factory outlet shopping near Docklands. They sometimes have some good bargains. They also have a Salvation Army gift wrapping station which is near Katies. It runs from 12pm - 4pm from Friday the 13th of December to Tuesday the 24th of Deember.
Eltham
The local guides are providing a gift-wrapping service on Wednesday evenings 4th, 11th and 18th of December starting at 7.15pm. Prices range from 50c to $2.50 with no gift too difficult to wrap. All proceeds go to The Leukaemia Foundation.
To contact them for more information
click here or email elthamolaves@gmail.com
If there is another community group wrapping Christmas presents for charity we would love to hear about it in the comment section.
