I got a notification that I had received a gift. I checked and I appeared to have randomly gotten a present. it seems to have come from the 'Wrapping Elf'... is this just a random event? not even attached to Christmas? I got 5 items from my wishlist.

It was an anonymous user gifting you under the name 'Wrapping Elf'. There are no random gift events like that.

The wrapping elf is just the NPC that runs the gift wrapping center. The gift will say From: under it, either with Anonymous or a username.

, : you're telling me that someone randomly gave me 5 expensive items from my wishlist? wow, people are so nice! :')

Yup, they did c: Congratulations~ There are some really great users around