There's something very heart warming and festive about seeing a pile of beautifully wrapped Christmas presents beneath a Christmas tree. It makes each present look as special and expensive as the next because someone has obviously taken the time and care to make it look stunning.
Wonderful if it's underneath your Christmas tree, if it's under someone else's it really makes you feel secretly envious. And do you find that beautifully wrapped Christmas presents tend to be the gifts you want to open first on Christmas morning? The enchantment and excite from the first moment you receive the gift because beautifully wrapped Christmas presents make people feel special.
All well and good but you have so many Christmas presents to wrap and in the beginning you enjoy Christmas wrapping but before long you hate every aspect of it. It bores you to tears and you try to get it over and done with as soon as possible, cutting corners if need be, and wrapping up items together in one untidy mess, sticking a bow on the top to try to improve it's appearance. We've all been there and we have all had to try to look grateful and excited when presented with such an eyesore gift.
Remember, it's the thought that counts- so try to put some thought into it! We have 10 Christmas gift-wrapping tips to help you to produce stunningly wrapped Christmas presents we ease and give you relatively no stress.
1) Get a box to keep all your Christmas present wrapping gear in. Scissors, labels, selotape, pens, ribbons and all your other bits and bobs need to be kept all together. This saves time and energy, as you won't have to go looking for all the tools that you need for the job.
2) Always use a selotape dispenser that can be used with just one hand. Wrapping Christmas presents can be fiddly and a selotape dispenser males Life easier. Also selotape loses it's stickiness when it has been previously been stuck on the back of your hand, and the table or on your arm.
3) Prepare your labels well in advance. Making labels from last years old Christmas cards is environmentally friendly and cost-effective. Cut the card into any shape or size. Use a hole-punch to create a neat hole to thread ribbon on to attach to your gift.
4) Whenever possible, use boxes. Uniform box shapes are easier to wrap than unusual shapes. Traditional box shape presents are also more pleasing to the eye.
5) If you are wrapping an unusual shaped present, don't try to wrap it with paper because it will be frustrating and will end up looking like one of those ill wrapped disasters that we mentioned earlier. Either buy one of those beautiful metallic gift boxes as they come in assorted shapes and sizes and can be as much appreciated as the gift inside. Alternatively, you can use a gift bag. This is especially great for bottled gifts. Place your gift into the gift bag but before taping the bag closed, cover the top of the gift in streamers. Streamers make your gift fun.
6) Only use enough paper to wrap your Christmas gift. This sounds obvious, however when you get to the end of the roll and the paper is 2 inches too long and too wide don't cut corners by not trimming off the surplus paper. When you come to folding the ends, if your triangle flaps are so long that they cover the sides and fold onto the base of the present they will give an unloved finish to your present. It's crisp edges and flat sides will be lost and rounded under a wad of paper, and you will have created an eyesore.
7) Using ribbons can really trim up presents to make them look special. Ribbons come in selections of colours and widths. When wrapping ribbon around the present use a colour that contrasts and compliments the paper colour and design. Don't use up leftovers for the sake of it if it doesn't compliment the package.
The general rule when wrapping the ribbon around the gift is - narrow ribbon can be tied into a knot on the underside of a present, before returning the ribbon round to come back to the top. Wider ribbon on the other hand needs to have a neat 45-degree fold put into it to turn the direction of the ribbon that can be held in place with a small piece of selotape. The fold to turn the ribbon reduces the bulk of a knot would make and it enables you to maintain the top side of ribbon showing, which is especially useful when using metallic ribbon.
8) Ribbon bows, cheaply obtainable from any shop, and as I'm sure you will agree, not very impressive or stylish. Less out dated bows are now available and of course you can curl the ends of the ribbon you wrapped across the blade of a pair of scissors. However, for a more designer look, using twisted stick cut to length from the dried flowers section or sprigs of golly or pieces of ivy. Slip them under the ribbon in the top of the present.
For extra glamour, why not try spray painting with festive metallic paint a couple of days before you need to use them. Copper paint looks particularly festive. You could also sprinkle on a little glitter whilst the paint is still wet to give it a frosty look.
Another alternative to bows is to use pinecones, which again can be painted. Either keep the cones attached to a piece of branch and slip it under the ribbon as before, or else tie a bit of thread around the cone and selotape it to your gift.
If you must use bows, use bows intended for Christmas trees. They have more style than the old tired retro gift bow.
9) Don’t buy cheap poor quality paper. It’s false economy because you have to use more of it. It is so thin you can see the gifts through it, or it rips, not to mention the poor quality designs. It’s much better to buy good quality gift-wrap with a stylish print. You may think that it doesn’t matter because it only ends up in the bin, but remember it sits under someone’s Christmas tree for two weeks first. You don’t want the embarrassment of blighting someone’s Christmas tree with your eyesore!
10) The most important tip of all, Don’t leave the Christmas wrapping until the last minute and don’t try to do it all on the same day. Falling into these traps will be stressful and will leave you with the Christmas wrapping blues. Pace yourself. If you wrap three gifts each day starting on the 1st December, by the 20th of December you will have wrapped 60 Christmas presents, and you will have only taken 45 minutes or so a day. You could even fit it in whilst doing other jobs, running a bath or cooking a meal.
I hope these ten Christmas wrapping tips help you to achieve beautifully wrapped Christmas presents for your friends and family whilst keeping your stress levels low.
Happy Wrapping!
