'Twas the night before Christmas and throughout the net,
Not a question was posed, at least---not yet.
When what to my horror I suddenly realized:
One present was not wrapped, a present most prized.
For a juggler of the future, three balls all the same.
But how best to foil-wrap, within a tight frame?
Q1. What is the smallest square that can wrap three unit-radius balls, without cutting the square?
To wrap means to completely cover their convex hull. I mention "foil" above because one may want to crinkle the wrapping over sphere caps, analogous to how Mozartkugeln are wrapped.1
[![Balls3][1]][1]
Likely easier is this question, which may only require rough bounds:
Q2. Which of the two configurations shown above is easier to wrap, easier in the sense that a smaller square suffices?
1 The square of diagonal $2 \pi$ is the smallest square that wraps a unit-radius sphere. Demaine, Erik D., Martin L. Demaine, John Iacono, and Stefan Langerman. "Wrapping spheres with flat paper." *Computational Geometry* 42, no. 8 (2009): 748-757. [Journal link](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0925772109000182).