I enjoy wrapping Christmas gifts, but I’m very slow at it, so I’m all for skipping a step when possible. I tend to have cat “helpers”, too, so it’s nice not to have constantly take the pen for writing names on tags back from them. Or go get another pen when they take off with the one I was using.
I tried this for the first time last year, and it worked incredibly well, so I’ll be doing it again this year.
Rather than putting tags on the gifts, I just designated a specific wrapping paper for each person we were spending Christmas with. It was really easy to do since I had found paper that was perfect for each of our recipients.
Nick’s mom, Susan, is an extraordinary baker, so she got the cupcake paper.
Nick’s step-dad, Alan, is very into cars; buying old ones and restoring them, so he got the car paper.
It was super convenient not having to look for tags, or worry about them falling off, or the cats taking them off. And I felt like it made the gift wrapping go a little faster. It also made it really easy when it was time to open presents since we knew exactly who each of ours was intended for just by looking at the paper.
I think everyone liked having their own kind of personalized wrapping paper, too. I’d like to think it added an extra little layer of happiness to the day.
Our friend Alex took a similar approach. She used the same paper for everyone’s gifts, but we each had our own color of ribbon. All of my gifts had green ribbon, Nick’s had red, etc. That also worked really well.
Have you found an easy way to keep track of which gifts are for which person? Or a way to convince your cats that you don’t need their help wrapping?
I’ll leave you with Julie Andrews and My Favorite Things, since it references packages. I know it’s often played as a Christmas song, but I don’t consider it to be. What about you? Do you think of it as a Christmas song?
Nope. Not a Christmas song. A nice song. Not a Christmas song.
ReplyDeleteThat's a terrific idea. And kind of fun (until you have an odd shaped present and then what do you do?!) I love how you did cupcakes for the baker, etc. Very clever!
Great idea, Danielle!
ReplyDeleteIt is a good song, but not a Christmas song for me either. I got lazy a few years ago and rather than gift tags, just wrote with a sharpie the name of who the gift went to, LOL.
ReplyDeletebetty
That's a good idea! I recycle greeting cards into gift tags.
ReplyDeleteYes! It's a Xmas song to me because I remember singing it in choir at Xmas.
Such beautiful papers. I recycle my late m-in-laws collection of postcard from all over the world. I use a neutral paper to make the postcards stand out.
ReplyDeleteThat is a fun idea! I love wrapping gifts!!
ReplyDeleteWhat a fun and creative idea!
ReplyDeleteIt's not really applicable to me, since most of my family doesn't get together for Christmas these days, so I have stuff sent from the places I brought from. But I definitely think it's a great one.
Regarding the cats: I only stopped having cat and present issues after I stopped having cats, so... Yeah. Good luck with that one. It's easier with Lilie and the rodent gang. We can put things out of Lilie's reach, and the rodent gang are in cages anyhow.
My mother used old cards for tags. I've gone a bit more modern. Once I know how many gifts for each recipient, I print out tags. Using address labels. I go into Word, find Christmas clip art for the front, then type "To: [recipient]" on it. Print and go. Then I can stick the labels on as I wrap.
ReplyDeleteclever idea.
ReplyDelete