THE WRAP ON CHRISTMAS

Holiday gifts are such fun – with one big exception: Opening them can be a challenge, and potentially dangerous unless you’re careful. Take tools or cameras, for example. They usually come enclosed in plastic bubbles so tough that it can take great strength and special tools to cut them open.

A Wal-Mart clerk says she uses poultry shears to cut through the plastic. At the customer service counter, the “associates” carry industrial-grade box cutters to use when patrons ask for help in getting items free of the packaging. Those little digital camera cards can be especially difficult. One clerk said to use ordinary scissors, “but you have to use a lot of force.”

At Radio Shack, a manager takes time from the Christmas rush to explain why things are so hard to open. He picks up a set of two small combination padlocks that happen to be inside a bubble that easily pops open. He shows how a shoplifter can flip open the plastic and slip the padlocks into his pocket.

That’s the reason why expensive items are the ones that are wrapped securely. The packages are too bulky for easy theft, and a shoplifter can’t pop them open. If a customer buys one of the expensive items and wants it opened at this store, the manager uses a heavy pair of shears that he keeps under the counter.

To open one of those pesky plastic packages once you get it home, you might try the poultry shears or even tin snips. A sharp knife may do the job, but be careful that the blade doesn’t buckle and cut your fingers. Or that the knife doesn’t slip and puncture your other hand. Or, as one clerk warns, that you don’t slash yourself on a jagged piece of plastic.

For some, a hacksaw may provide a better solution. And to help prevent injury, you might try putting the item in a vise before tackling it with whatever tool seems best.

The biblical saying goes: “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” True enough, but how about this variation as another bit of holiday wisdom: “It is easier to give than to receive”?