Tissue Paper? Absurd!

While trying to wrap a present in a gift bag last week, I discovered that tissue paper isn't really very main stream. My first red flag should have been while looking up the translation and deciding that none of the suggestions seems to be accurate. I started asking around and perusing stores that sold gift bags. I kept coming up empty.

I finally decided to ask my colleague for some help. I started describing what I was looking for and her stare went from blank to this-girl-is crazy. In the end I had to google images of gift bags.

"Das ist absurd!"

My reply: I think it's absurd not to use it!

It's simply a cultural clash. For the Germans, it appears to be unnecessary and wasteful. For Americans -- it's pretty :)

You can actually buy tissue paper here, but you have to go to specialty paper stores and, obviously, that is expensive. The Costco-sized package of white or multi-colored tissue paper just does not exist.

As I didn't want to staple the bag shut or just give a bag with a direct view to the present (acceptable solutions apparently), I decided to use napkins, that I happened to already have in the appropriate colors (by the way, I hoard napkins).

I think it turned out just fine.

Starting a new trend - napkin filling

Looks like I need to add tissue paper to my list of things to bring back from America.