Gift Wrapping Tips

The friendliest place on the web for anyone that enjoys cooking.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.

Barbara L

Traveling Welcome Wagon
Joined
Apr 4, 2004
Messages
15,716
Location
Somewhere, US
Ok, I am a complete fanatic about wrapping gifts. I love it! My mom didn't like to wrap gifts, and she sometimes even had me wrap some of my own (she put them in boxes, and she knew I would never look). I am one of those people who will work with a package for a long time just to make sure all the lines, designs, etc. match perfectly. Everyone always knew when they got a present that I wrapped because they are so tightly wrapped that they can hardly open them! lol

Some tips I learned and thought you might want to use:

If you are giving two people in the same family an identical gift and you don't want them to figure it out, here is what you do (this only works if they are in oblong boxes, not square): Use paper that has a definite direction to it. Wrap one with the design long-ways and one with the design short-ways. You won't believe how different they look. I just wrapped 2 video sets for our one daughter, using the same paper in different directions, and one looks smaller than the other. No one has ever caught on when I did this.

If I think of any more tips, I'll add them. If you have any tips, please share them with us!

:) Barbara
 
I just thought of the other thing I wanted to say. One tradition I started in our family years ago was that any gifts from Santa were always wrapped in special Santa paper that wasn't used for anything else. That really made the gifts from Santa stand out, and the kids noticed that Santa used different paper than we did.

:) Barbara
 
Erik,

If you don't like wrapping, and you can't find someone like me to do it :cool: just remember 2 things. Allow yourself plenty of time, and make sure you have plenty of room on a nice solid table. Also, if you make sure everything is in solid square or rectangular boxes, it is easier. If all else fails, buy some cute gift bags and tissue paper! They aren't nearly as fun to open, but they are good for really odd shaped things.

:) Barbara
 
My dh has had a hard time getting in the Christmas spirit this year so I told him I was too busy with other work to put up and decorate the tree and also to wrap the packages. He said he would help out, but I left him doing the entire thing. He has been less a scooge since then - and even went out and bought a few gifts. I did the mailing and most of the shopping so I think it was good for him to help out and it certainly improved his attitude.
 
Newspaper is the hottest wrapping paper at the Butler's house. Buy it today for 50 cents a package and get ads for free!

Cameron
 
Hey that might be a smart idea, Cameron, sometimes makes me wonder why do we have to spend even more money on top of the presents themselves, for something get all torn apart within a couple of seconds as they get them without hardly a look on how neatly they are wrapped!!

I don't mind wrapping and I am pretty deft at it, I have my unique way so that the seams will show just at the bottom, with only one piece of scotch tape visible. It also uses less amount of paper than the usual way if you size them right. People wonder how I do it but it is really easy maybe I should make a demonstration video!!:LOL: The object must be perfectly rectangular or square in a box form though, with odd shaped objects I still have no clue how to do it!!
 
I actually saw an ad this year that most presents can be wrapped for between $60 and 75.00. I don't have any idea who those ads were directed to, but many of my presents didn't cost that much.
 
cartwheelmac said:
Newspaper is the hottest wrapping paper at the Butler's house. Buy it today for 50 cents a package and get ads for free!

Cameron

I used to HAVE to do this. We could barely afford the gifts, much less the paper, bows and ribbons! I even used construction paper one year and let the boys draw pictures on them. They were so cute.
 
cartwheelmac said:
Newspaper is the hottest wrapping paper at the Butler's house. Buy it today for 50 cents a package and get ads for free!

Cameron


I actually save my Sunday Comics all year long (well, a few get trashed), just for Wrapping Purposes.

of course, I still end up buying 6000 square feet of gift wrap (and scotch tape, and ribbons, etc) anyway.

--J
 
cartwheelmac said:
Newspaper is the hottest wrapping paper at the Butler's house. Buy it today for 50 cents a package and get ads for free!

Cameron

cam, that's what we used to do when i was a kid. aluminum foil works well too.
i remember getting hockey sticks wrapped up in newspaper. it's pretty easy to figure out what you're getting when it looks like that.:)

and please, everyone, remember to recycle as much as possible.
 
I've used tin foil in the past too bucky. It looks great under the tree all bright and shiney. I also have used butcher paper that I've painted on.
:)
 
If you are among the wrapping challenged, you can do all of your shoping at stores that gift wrap free or at low cost. Around here some charity organizations set up stands at the mall to wrap gifts with the proceeds going to the charity.
 
Or you can go to WalMart and buy a few yards of Christmasy fabric and some cord and make a few gift bags. Excellent for the environmentally friendly gifts.

Oh, and I heard a great tip about gifts. If you have several kids try using a code instead of putting names on gifts. Like for example one kid is a triangle and one a circle or something. That way, you can put gifts under the tree sometime before Christmas eve and they STILL won't know whose is whose. They MIGHT figure out what is in the boxes, but will they know it is theirs?
 
Alix said:
Or you can go to WalMart and buy a few yards of Christmasy fabric and some cord and make a few gift bags. Excellent for the environmentally friendly gifts.

Oh, and I heard a great tip about gifts. If you have several kids try using a code instead of putting names on gifts. Like for example one kid is a triangle and one a circle or something. That way, you can put gifts under the tree sometime before Christmas eve and they STILL won't know whose is whose. They MIGHT figure out what is in the boxes, but will they know it is theirs?


I use to incorporate my boys first initial in with the design where I would know where it is. They never knew whos was whos:LOL:
 
The comics make good newspaper wrapping paper - nice and colorful.

I like Barbara's idea of special paper for Santa presents - wish I would have thought of that when it mattered!

Another inexpensive idea is to use brown paper grocery bags or lunch bags. Cut them out flat, then stamp them with Christmas-themed stamps, or just tie them up with raffia and affix a sprig of holly to the bow. Or use some nice red or green ribbon. (Make sure all the stupid advertising on the bags is on the inside.)

I also like the idea of putting a teeny tiny present in a big box, or series of boxes inside each other that have to be unwrapped. I got a plane ticket to LA that way one year.
 
Check the library too--I found a great book on the art of Japanese gift wrapping.

Like urmaniac said, figuring out how much paper you actually need can really help out. I can usually wrap a lot more presents with a roll than most people I know (I am the same way when I sew, I can often get an extra outfit (at least one for one of the kids) by folding and refolding the fabric--I never just lay out all my pieces and then start cutting).

Also, pay attention to the kind of print you use. You should always have something with a tiny print (like dots) on hand to wrap very small boxes. It looks a lot nicer than seeing one of Santa's eyes on the front of a little box, or a corner of a Christmas tree!).

:) Barbara
 
Or if all else fails, have your DH who was taught how to wrap for mailing in Pharmacy school and really gets that paper on tight, boost his ego and let him wrap all the stuff as you do the cards and put on the ribbons..Works for me :LOL:

kadesma
 
My beloved Grandma would keenly watch over your shoulder as you unwrapped your gifts from her... and smack! :mad: if you ripped the paper..... cause she re-used it the next year. I was a sweet granddaughter and got her silver cellophane paper that wouldn't rip, and we saw it for many years thereafter! :LOL:

I, myself, am OK with wrapping gifts... but my daughter always seems to want stuff in oblong, octagonal, crazy shaped boxes. Not to mention, once she does get them open through all the tape I have to use to get it to stay wrapped, the toy is surgically attached to the box, and that takes an hour to get out, then you forgot to buy batteries.... on and on, the madness! :mrgreen: I do admit to cheating and buying equal amounts of wrapping paper and gift bags though!
 
Back
Top Bottom