Wrapping Presents with a Cat in the House, and Why the Ribbon Matters

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There is a specific sound a cat makes when she launches herself into a roll of wrapping paper from across the room. It is a sort of papery explosion, followed by silence, followed by a tabby face looking out of a tube of torn snowflakes as if this were exactly what the paper was for. Mabel has made that sound every December since she moved in.

Wrapping presents in a house with a cat is funny. It is also the one holiday job where I have learned to be genuinely careful, because the most tempting thing on the floor is also one of the most dangerous. This post is about how I wrap now.

The ribbon problem

I want to start with the serious part. Cats love string, ribbon, yarn and anything long and thin that moves. And a swallowed ribbon is not a small thing. It can cause serious problems inside a cat that need a vet urgently, sometimes surgery. I am not going to describe the symptoms or tell you what to watch for, because that is your vet’s job and they will tell you far better than I can. What I will tell you is that if you think your cat has swallowed ribbon or string, call your vet right away, and do not try to pull anything out yourself.

Every habit below starts from that.

How I wrap with a cat in the house

One room, door closed

All wrapping happens in the spare room with the door shut. Mabel spends that hour in the living room with Rowan, who has never once shown interest in paper. It is less fun than wrapping on the living room floor, and far less stressful.

Ribbon goes away the moment I finish

Rolls back in the box, box in the closet, closet closed. Offcuts go straight into a bag, not onto the floor. I check the floor before I open the door.

Bows and ribbon go on last

Wrapped presents can sit under the tree. Bows and ribbon go on the night before, or the morning of, and anything with long trailing ribbon stays somewhere high and shut away until then.

Clean up during the unwrapping, not after

On the day itself, I keep a bag at my feet and every ribbon goes into it as it comes off a present. The worst time is the hour after unwrapping, when the floor is covered and everyone has gone to make coffee.

Give her something of her own

Mabel gets a big sheet of plain paper, scrunched up, to destroy while I clear up. It is not about the paper. It is about giving her a safe version of the thing she wants.

Making the wrapping itself easier

The fewer odds and ends there are in the house, the less there is to keep track of. I used to buy paper from three places, ribbon from two more, and tags from the drugstore, which meant half-used rolls in every corner of the house and offcuts turning up in January.

Merry Market makes Christmas wrapping kits that put it all in one box: three rolls of matte paper with grid lines on the back, three rolls of ribbon in velvet, satin and grosgrain, and twenty-five gold-foiled letterpress tags. If you would like everything for the season in one place, and one place to put it all away again, you can take a look at Merry Market’s wrapping kits.

Pretty ribbon is still ribbon, though. A velvet bow is just as interesting to a cat as a plastic one, so every habit above still applies, whatever you wrap with.

What about the dog?

Rowan’s interest in wrapping is limited to presents that smell like food. Anything edible gets wrapped and stored on a high shelf behind a closed door, not under the tree. A dog who can smell chocolate through three layers of paper will find a way, and chocolate is one of the holiday foods that is genuinely dangerous for dogs. If yours gets into anything, call your vet.

A calmer December

None of this takes the fun out of it. Mabel still launches herself into an empty paper tube most years, and it is still the best part of the season. The difference is that I know where every piece of ribbon in the house is, and the floor is clear when the door opens.

If you want to make the wrapping simpler this year, you can find Merry Market’s all-in-one kits here. And whatever you use, close the door, and put the ribbon away.

Photos: Silvio Pelegrin and Lydia Griva via Pexels.