Waitrose wrapping paper genius

I’m one of those people that gets excited about wrapping Christmas presents. I double-fold edges so that they are crisp and neat and go mad with the Sellotape (yes,  the branded stuff – you can’t tear the cheap tape) sealing up every available gap on the basis that difficulty opening the latest Take That CD only heightens anticipation. On top of this, I layer a variety of  metallic ribbons (or even posher fabric ribbon for the big gifts) – all tightly tied and neatly curled, where possible. Tags are immaculately attached with knots hidden. I’ve been known to take more than two days to finish everything, singing along to Wham’s ‘Last Christmas’ for hours on end much to the horror of those in the vicinity, but I don’t care – I love it. So imagine my delight to find that Waitrose/John Lewis catered for gift-wrapping obsessives just like myself. They must have known that people like me existed, for they have done the most obvious and most brilliant thing: they have printed a cutting grid on the back of their wrapping paper!

Now I don’t know if this is on all paper, but it was on the printed brown kraft paper I used (bang on trend, John Lewis/Waitrose, very impressed). And a colleague tells me he saw this last year on WH Smiths paper. But I’ve never seen it before, and I love it.What a little thing, but what a brilliant insight. I know I’m not the only person that will love this – one friend last week saw fit to post her inability to cut wrapping paper straight on Facebook, such was her frustration. John Lewis/Waitrose: I am not exaggerating when I say you have now got yourself a Christmas wrapping paper customer for life.