A Letter From a Reader: The Present Nobody Could Wrap, the Wildvana (Elaine)
I have bought Christmas presents for forty years. This is the first one I have ever written a letter about.
Six things one weekend bag gets right that forty years of safe presents got wrong, written down by a customer, not a shop.
Elaine · Customer · Hervey Bay, Queensland · 5 min read
I am 62, and every year from the start of spring I volunteer on the hospital auxiliary’s Christmas gift-wrapping table at the shopping centre in Pialba. Gold coin donation, plain red and green paper, and more bath sets and boxed scarves than any woman should see in one lifetime. This year a woman called Gail put a bag on our table that none of us could wrap, and three weeks later here I am, writing a letter about it.
It is called the Wildvana, from Portsea Boutique, a small Australian boutique that has been quietly making lovely things for women our age for a few years now. I ordered three of them, which I will explain, and I wrote to the boutique to tell them why. They asked if they could put my letter up for other women to read. So here it is, the six things this one gets right.
Presents for the women in your life, if you have looked lately, come in two piles. The first pile is the safe present: the bath set, the scarf, the candle, the voucher. Nobody minds them and nobody remembers them, and I know exactly where they go, because I have a cupboard of them myself. The second pile is the clever present, which is usually expensive, usually the wrong size, and usually still in its box by Easter.
Forgettable, or a gamble. I stopped accepting that a woman has to choose, and this bag is the proof I was right to.
On our wrapping table. We tried. The paper lost.
It gets a reaction before it is even open
Gail’s was for her daughter. It is a weekend bag made to look like an old camper van, with a yellow nose and a peace sign on it, sunset stripes in the windows, big pink and orange daisies down the side, pine trees, purple mountains, little spotted toadstools, and a peace sign on the front wheel. Every woman at that table stopped what she was doing. Two customers in the queue asked where it was from before I could. When a present does that on a trestle table at the shops, imagine what it does on Christmas morning.
Mine for my daughter, under the tree. I did not even try the paper.
Gave one to my sister for her seventieth. The whole table went quiet and then everybody wanted to know where I got it.
Margaret L., ArmidaleNo guessing her size
The trouble with buying clothes for anyone else is that you are guessing, and a woman over sixty does not want to be guessed at. A bag has no size to get wrong. It comes in two, and the boutique writes down plainly what each one is for: the 40 cm one is the go-anywhere size, for one night away, the gym or a roomy cabin bag; the 46 cm one is for two to three days, with a couple of outfits, shoes and a towel. They even say most people are happiest with the bigger one, because you rarely wish a weekend bag were smaller. That is the most useful sentence I have ever read in a shop.
I never know what to buy my daughter-in-law. Took the shop’s advice on the size and she has used it every weekend since.
Pam W., TamworthIt gets used, not put away
This is the part that sold me. The listing says travel, the gym and weekends away, and Gail told me her own goes to her sister’s every month and to aqua aerobics on Tuesdays. A bath set gets used once. A scarf gets worn to be polite when you visit. A bag like this goes out the door every week, and every time it does, she thinks of who gave it to her.
The little peace sign on the nose. Every daisy on it is stitched.
My friend gave me mine for my birthday. It has been to the coast twice and to the pool every week. Best present I have had in years.
Heather K., Glen InnesIt holds a proper weekend
A present that looks this cheerful could easily be a novelty, and I did wonder. It is not. The storage inside is roomy, and the bigger size takes two or three days away. I packed the one I kept for an overnight at Peter’s sister Lyn’s in Mittagong, a change of clothes, my wash bag, my good cardigan and the tin of shortbread she expects, and it went in without a fight.
Three nights at my son’s, everything in the one bag, shoes and all. I kept waiting to need a second bag and never did.
Jan T., InverellThere is one to suit almost anyone
The Wildvana is the camper van with the daisies and toadstools, and it is the one for the woman in your life who has never quite grown out of the sixties. But it is one of a whole collection of designs at the boutique, all different scenes, so you can match the bag to the person. I chose a different design for Lyn, who is more garden than Woodstock. Gail’s daughter, apparently, is all Woodstock.
Bought three for Christmas, three different designs, one for each of my girls. Easiest shopping I have ever done.
Coral B., UrallaIt is easy to give
Delivery is free across Australia, so I had Lyn’s sent straight to her in Mittagong and saved myself the post office queue in December, which is a present to myself in its own right. My daughter’s came to me, and I handed it over on the back verandah a fortnight early, because I have never in my life been able to keep a good present secret. And you do not need to wrap it. Take it from a woman who wraps at the shops every Christmas: a red bow on the handle is all it wants.
Handed over a fortnight early on the verandah. I lasted four days.
Had it sent straight to my friend in Brisbane for her birthday. She rang me the minute it arrived.
Kaye D., GunnedahThe Wildvana, against the presents you have been buying
I have given every safe present there is, and received most of them back in kind. Here is the difference, laid out plainly.
Opened, thanked for, put in a cupboard
Clothes in a size you had to guess
Used once, if that
The same bath set as last year
A fight with the wrapping paper
Gets a reaction before it is even open
Two sizes, and the shop tells you which
Goes out the door every weekend
A camper van, daisies and a peace sign
A red bow on the handle and you are done
About the price
I will be straightforward about the price, because it was the thing that made me suspicious. The 40 cm Wildvana is A$76.95 and the 46 cm is A$79.95, and they were A$154.00 and A$160.00.
The boutique says the spring sale price is about clearing room before the Christmas rush, selling directly with no middleman taking a cut, and that at this price they are barely making anything on them. That is their arithmetic, not mine. What I can tell you is that I have spent more than that on a Christmas hamper that was eaten by Boxing Day, and nobody has ever rung me to thank me for a hamper.
If there is a daughter, a sister or a friend on your list this year who already has every bath set ever made, this is where I would start. Order early, though. The boutique says the popular designs are already going, and I would hate you to be standing at my wrapping table on Christmas Eve with a voucher.
— Elaine
WILDVANA | Quilted Travel Duffle Bag
- Printed camper van design: daisies, toadstools and a peace sign
- Two carry handles
- Roomy storage for clothes and everyday essentials
- 40 cm overnight or cabin size, 46 cm for two to three days
- One of a whole collection of designs
- Free delivery across Australia
Spring sale on now. Order early for Christmas, the popular designs are already going.