The Washington Post reports today on what may well be the worst part of Christmas….unwrapping and opening the presents:
There’s a part of Christmas morning that Tiffany Seay dreads: getting everything out of its packaging. The twisties. The tape. The hard plastic ties, like handcuffs for dolls. The itty-bitty screwdrivers.
“It takes at least 40 minutes to get all the packaging off all the toys,” fumes the Fort Washington mother of two and government analyst. “I have a 2-year-old and he’s like, Mommeeeee!”
In an effort to keep toys intact and music players from being pilfered, the consumer products industry has moved en masse into a style of wrapping that’s more prison than package. The hard plastic clamshell container, with its fused seams, is so impenetrable it has even spawned its own safecracking tools: razor-sharp gadgets designed to slash through all that stuff.
And it’s been nothing but a hell-on-earth for the rest of us.
