Are you done with your Christmas shopping? And if so, is your closet stuffed with an overwhelming pile of packages? Well, next up in the Holiday Planning series are tips for organizing and wrapping all those gifts. If you need to get caught up with your Christmas to-do list, check out the Holiday Planning Checklist. If you still need help with your gift shopping, check out my Christmas Gift Shopping Guide. Now, if you’re ready to wrap, let’s put on some music and get started. The following are my best tips for easy, organized gift wrapping.
10 TIPS FOR WRAPPING GIFTS
- Have a system for keeping track of gifts. You can have any system that works for you, but make sure you use some type of system to keep track of all gifts so that on Christmas morning, you won’t have any gifts missing. The system that works for me was explained in the Christmas Gift Shopping Guide. Beside each gift I write where the gift was bought, if it was ordered, if the order was received yet, and then I put a W beside each gift after it is wrapped.
- Keep all gifts in a designated area. It’s important to try to keep everything in one place and not scattered around the house in different hiding places. That makes it way too easy to lose track of gifts.
- Wrap as you go, if possible. I actually prefer to wait and wrap everything in one sitting but since my hubby likes to help with the wrapping (ok, I admit, he does most of it), he likes to wrap a little at a time.
- Keep all wrapping supplies organized. One of the best investments I ever made was a wrapping paper organizer that I bought through a school fundraiser. You can buy similar ones at several different stores. At the beginning of the season, take out everything and see what you need to add to it. Then group like items together.
- Wrap some gifts together to make sure family members have the same number of gifts to open. This is important if you have kids. They really shouldn’t be keeping score with each other, but they probably are. So, as much as possible, group some things together, to make the amount of gifts the same or close. For instance, you could wrap movies together, books together, or wrap a complete outfit instead of each piece separately.
- Be sure to label each gift. Put the name on each gift. If not, you’ll be opening and re-wrapping it later.
- Save bows and ribbons for later. For me, those bows get crushed when they’re all stacked on top of each other, therefor, I just wrap with paper and then, if we have time, we add bows and ribbons later.
- Get creative when wrapping large or bulky gifts. Some gifts are just too large or shaped oddly. For those, just hide them and find a creative way to bring them out on Christmas morning. You could use a large bow, an oversized gift bag, or hide the gift behind a curtain or something. Get creative!
- For digital gifts or gifts that don’t arrive in time for Christmas, print out a picture, put in a pretty box, and wrap it. That way, they will at least have a gift to open that shows what it is.
- After wrapping, keep all gifts together. I like to put each person’s gifts in a separate pile. It keeps everything organized and helps me to see if everything looks even. I keep repeating that because, as a mom, I want to make sure everybody is happy. That’s just what moms do, right?
Well, those are my best tips for simple, organized gift wrapping. I hope it helps. Let me know in the comments section below if you’ve got some more tips for us.
Next time, I’ll have a countdown to Christmas checklist, to get you through the final week of Christmas prep. For all the posts in the holiday series, go to my Start Here page, scroll down to the Winter section, and you’ll see a list. Click each one for lots of tips to help you through the season.
Till next time, have a wonderful day!