Holiday Gift Wrap Hints and Tips
Once all of your holiday shopping is done, you’ll probably have a lot of wrapping to do. Some people, of course, wrap as they buy, but at our house, usually my husband I stay up late on Christmas Eve in order to get everything wrapped just so. We normally stock up on paper from Walmart, Target or whatever discount store we find ourselves in a few days before the big day, but this year I’ve found several ideas on Pinterest and other places on the Web that I’d like to try! Here are some creative ways to wrap gifts:
- Use fabric. One of the great things about using fabric as gift wrap is that it won’t take up room in your garbage, and you won’t have to go through any great pains in order to reuse it! Buy fat quarters for a dollar or two for small gifts, or just buy a yard or so of whatever festive fabric you can find on sale. I actually have some gold lamé fabric that I found on sale for $2 per yard last year. Right before Christmas, many craft shops steeply discount their holiday prints, too. You could also use cheap fleece throws, either whole for big gifts or cut into pieces for smaller ones. Gather the fabric around the gift and tie with a strip of a different fabric, some yarn or a long piece of ribbon.
- Use scrapbook paper. Many of us have a nice stockpile of pretty papers, and these make great wrapping paper for small presents. Just cut and fold as you would any other wrapping paper, and make a scrapbooky nametag to tape to the gift with a coordinating print or solid.
- Use wall calendars. You’re going to be getting rid of your 2012 calendar in a few days anyway, right? Use the pictures as wrapping paper! It’s glossy and attractive, and will definitely look unique. You can also use the side featuring the days; particularly if the gift is for family, it might be fun to remember what you were doing earlier in the year by the notations that you’ve written down.
- Make brown paper packages tied up with string. Remember that simplicity has a certain charm, particularly around the holidays! And this particular combination made the cut for Julie Andrews’s favorite things!
- Use creative embellishments. Whether you’re using wrapping paper from the store or brown butcher paper, little add-ons contribute that something special to your package. Some seasonal items that you could use include pinecones, holiday-themed cookie cutters, a little bunch of holly or mistletoe, pompoms or a piece of costume jewelry.
What are some creative ways that you’ve wrapped or embellished gifts?
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i have nothing wraped so i defentially need these tips
All great ideas, thanks for sharing them.
using the calendar is a great idea. I would have never thought of that.
I am terrible at wrapping. Thanks for these tips and hints!
Thanks for sharing!These are great tips I will put to use.
I really love the idea of using fabric for wrapping presents! I never thought of that, and I have a lot of beautiful fabric that I can use as wrapping paper! After using fabric, then I can save it to use it next year, or even use it for birthday presents!
I hate wrapping gifts, but there is nothing prettier than a gift that is wrapped with care.
I am going to pin this for next year, to bad I just got done wrapping our presents 🙂
my bf used the comic on his grand son gift but we used to make our own when i was kid go and get buther paper and then decorate
i love the idea of using fabric. We always have left over pieces from crafts and that would be cute!
I do have a lot of wrapping to do and I really love the tips and I especially enjoy the idea of using paper bags to wrap.
I’ve used newspaper before, comic strips, and when I was a Preschool teacher we would potato print red and green on newsprint as wrapping paper.
Great ideas. I am a horrible wrapper but could be caused the wine I drink while wrapping late at night lol
I think I will use the brown paper bag idea, but with ribbon as well:)
Im so bad at wrapping so these tips are great!
Thanks for these tips. I hadn’t thought of some of them.
i have never thought about using fabric as wrapping paper! that is a great idea. i just think kids love ripping the paper off though
I like using sheet music, and old maps pulled out from magazines.
I’m lucky that I’m all done with Christmas shopping and wrapping, but I will have to remember the scrapbook paper for the next time I don’t have “birthday” wrapping 🙂 Thanks
I like the idea of using fabric, great idea!. Thanks for the post
I lvoe your ideas, especially the fabrics. Burlap and country ribbon would be darling. Thanks for all the tips!
I never thought about using wall calendars, especially since they are about to be thrown out.
I like brown paper. It looks clean and you can use decorative ribbons
I use plastic bags that I get from shopping. At Christmas time some stores have bags with Christmas pictures on them. When what I’m buying is to big to fit into my reusable cloth bag, I like to use the bag they give me to wrap a large gift. Add a big bow and a tag and it’s done!
Thanks for all the wrapping tips. As I am one of those people that hates wrapping presents.
I am the worst wrapper in the world I believe , no matter how hard I try to make it look nice.
I usually wait till a day or two before Christmas and wrap them all at once. I end up asking for help alot of times from someone else. Trying to wrap them all at one time is so time consuming maybe I will wrap as I buy them – may be alot easier for me. What I like to do is wrap some of the kids in the comic papers. Or tiny ones can be wrapped in aluminum foil.
Thanks for all the ideas and tips!!!
My presents are all wrapped, but some great ideas I will keep in mind for next year!
thank you! This is going to help! 🙂
I love the idea of using scrapbook paper! I have so much of it that I’ll never use. Thanks for the tip!
Brown paper with string is my fav! I have done this for years, and everyone loves it!
I like the ideas about using cookie cutters & costume jewelry! Thanks!
I love shopping for the gifts but not good at the wrapping. Thanks for the ideas, I am going to use some of you tips. Thanks for sharing. Merry Christmas!
When in a bind we use aluminum foil to wrap presents! no tape needed! and if you let the kids use permanent marker to decorate them, its a really super cute personalized gift wrap!
I love wrapping presents and crisp edges with lots of ribbons and bows. In the 80’s I worked at a small toy store and Pogo Balls and Skip-Its were all the rage, but wrapping them was an awful headache and there were never crisp edges or ribbons when I wrapped them-lol
These are great ideas. I especially like the calendar idea since this is the time of year that we are getting ready to take one calendar down and put up another one.
I have used fabric, sunday funny comics from the paper and all sorts of stuff for wrapping. It’s great when you can re-use stuff and it still looks great! Thanks for the tips!
These are great tips! I think a package in brown paper with a ribbon is very pretty! I love the calendar idea! I never know what to do with them and I always feel bad throwing them out!
thank you for these tips! i hate wrapping presents and i am horrible at it!! and the mess on christmas morning…no fun. lol
I love the fabric idea, that is so cool.
Great ideas. When the kids were smaller we used comics to wrap gifts, fabric, brown wrapping paper that was stamped with holiday objects like trees and snowman etc.
Carol L
LOVE THESE GIFT WRAPPING TIPS AND IDEAS, THANKS
these tips are helpful for last minute christmas wrapping.
Sometimes I wrap small gifts in aluminum and use a photo for a tag. I love the fabric idea, may try that next year 🙂
Great tips. I love putting extra little gifts as decoration on the package.
I am LOVING the idea of using fabric to wrap with1 I would have never thought of that one. Really such a creative idea and I plan on doing it all the time now. Thank you so much!!
I like to use rubber stamps and different colored inks. It even looks cool over printed newspapers.
great ideas!! jazz up the presents
Thanks for posting. I love being creative when wrapping gifts.
Thanks for sharing your ideas. I love my packages to look pretty. I like the idea of using brown paper bags.
I never thought of using my wall calendar as wrapping paper! Interesting idea.
i love to wrap presents thanks for the tips!!!
Seeing how i’m most likely one of the worst wrappers of all time. I may just do the paper bag route haha! wrapping is deff not my forte.
love the idea with fabric never tried before…thank you for sharing the idea
I’ve thought of using fabric over the years, but never tried it. I pretty much use (and re-use) gift bags – I just hate wasting things and money.
One off my favorite tips – buy a vertical paper towel holder and put your ribbon spools on it so all it takes is a pull and a cut – easier than trying to keep it from rolling away or having to hold it while you are wrapping.
These are great ideas! I’ve also used comics from the newspaper as wrapping 🙂
I LOVE the idea of using fabric! That is a great idea. I need to remember that for next year. Thanks for the article 🙂
I love to wrap presents for Christmas. I love using the holly and mistletoe when wrapping my special presents.
I should have read this before I wrapped everything. These are some really great ideas
sibabe64 at ptd dot net
This year, instead of buying Christmas tags for gifts, I used USPS adhesive shipping address labels from the “free” shipping supplies we use for sending out items that we sell online. I just had to cut-off the top/logo portion and they worked great.
I always keep the gift tag inside the gift, so when I write thank you notes I don’t get confused as to who sent the present.
Those are very creative ideas! I love the idea of using fabric. I have to use a blanket to wrap one of my son’s gifts this year! It’s too big for wrapping paper.
Wow old calendars…great idea
I like so many ideas about using different types of Holiday wrap! I like the Brown Paper packages all tied up in string! That sounds so interesting and different. Also using Christmas cloth to wrap presents is so awesome. I am going to try this!
there are so many unique ways to wrap presents these days other than using just wrapping paper…..newspaper, comics, bags, burlap, old pieces of fabric and ribbons,
I’m a fantastic wrapper but always looking for new ideas
I would never would have thought to use fabric to wrap gifts. Thanks for sharing this. Merry Christmas.
I like the idea of using fabric to wrap gifts in. I think maybe making a bunch of shirt and robe size “pillow” cases to put the boxes in would be a quick easy way to make a plain box look festive. Thanks for the idea.
Clever ideas! I always like something a little different!