MINNEAPOLIS — The wrapping paper is in piles. The ribbons are in shreds. Now it's time to get out the heavy artillery: scissors, box cutters, screwdrivers, ice picks, sheet-metal shears, and perhaps a hacksaw or two for good measure.

Freeing the toys, electronics and other gifts of the holiday season from their bulletproof packaging can require the strength of Superman and patience of Job.

"You have to run around the house, find scissors, cut it open, then you hurt your fingers trying to pull it apart, then there's these twisty things you have to untwist, plus the batteries," said Cynthia Salone, 8, of Minneapolis, recalling a recent packaging battle. "It can take 10 minutes to open."

The Brits have given this phenomenon a name and a definition: Wrap rage. Extreme anger caused by product packaging that is difficult to open or manipulate.

"It's very, very, very frustrating," said Ann Hunsaid, 76, a retired teacher from Minot, N.D. "Especially for someone like me who is used to simple packaging. I do not follow this new kind of thing."

Retailers aren't purposely driving us nuts with the impenetrable packaging. They just don't want us to steal. Thieves cost U.S. stores $25 million a day, according to the National Association for Shoplifting Prevention, and those maddening heat-sealed edges apparently keep items from walking out of stores.

The molded packaging also protects products on their overseas journey, and the clear plastic makes items easy to display at a low cost to retailers.

Not surprisingly, wrap rage has spawned products, such as OpenX, Klever Kutter and EZ-CD Opener, which claim to eliminate the cuts and frustration that can result from packaging encounters.

People do get hurt trying to poke through the packaging. But neither the Consumer Product Safety Commission nor state health officials separate the stitches and sprains due to wrap rage from those of any other household injury, so it's difficult to know whether a full-scale health alert might be in order.

Environmentalists also are pushing for packaging with less plastic and more renewable or biodegradable materials.

MeadWestvaco, based in Glen Allen, Va., has developed packaging that uses paperboard and a smaller plastic bubble wrap. Costco has replaced some unwieldy plastic packs with MeadWestvaco's "Natralock," which can be easily snipped with scissors.

So this year's tip for Christmas? Spare your loved ones wrap rage. Free the entombed gift items from their hermetically sealed plastic and multiple tie-downs, and rewrap them. Especially if you've bought for little ones.

"That's the single smartest thing you can do to avoid screaming — you along with the child," said Tod Marks, a senior editor at Consumer Reports. Marks led an investigation last spring into 237 packaging nightmares that resulted in the magazine's first-ever "Oyster Awards." The award's name comes from what Marks said was "Public Enemy No. 1," the horrific clamshell packaging.

Last year's top vote-getter went to a Uniden digital cordless phone set that took 9 minutes, 22 seconds to open and required box cutters and a razor blade.

The second-annual Oyster Awards are due out in March, but Marks said shining a light on consumer-unfriendly packaging hasn't brought about much change.

"If retailers have to choose between theft and loss on the one hand and consumer usability on the other, they figure consumers may hate the clamshell packaging, but they'll forget about it by tomorrow," he said.

"But the industry listens to the public. If they know it's a choice between two products and that consumers will take the one with the better packaging, that will begin to make a difference."

Until then, consumers like Paul Whitlock of Minneapolis will keep innovating. Whitlock, 42, a freelance window designer, moved into a new apartment recently and couldn't find the proper tools to get at his new cell phone.

"I melted it on the stove," he said. "I wouldn't recommend it, but it worked."