Christmas Gift Wrapping

I remember helping my grandmother wrap presents and being amazed by how neatly and beautifully she could manipulate the boxes, wrapping paper, ribbons, and gift tags. She did every step with ease and it turned out gorgeous.

Now that I've been wrapping presents for about 10 years, I would say I can adequately wrap a gift if it's an easy shape (rectangular prism, please!) but not with the same fluidity as my grandma. I also don't get the same pleasure from crafting a wonderfully wrapped present. And it kinda bothers me that all that my hard work gets torn up and tossed to the side in about 12 seconds flat. 

So for the past few years, I've been using more and more gift bags and boxes because they are super easy, can be reused from year to year, and look just as pretty when the opening is through. Here's part of my stash:
Paper and cardboard gift boxes, fabric and paper bags, giant fabric bow, and free wrapping paper (a charity mailed it to me in hopes of a donation). The bow has twisty ties on the back so I can adorn oversized presents with it or wrap it around awkwardly shaped items, like ornaments.

Basically, I just put the presents in the gift box or bag, cover with tissue paper, and move on. Once I get all the supplies out, the process takes about a minute per present. No one has complained about my new (lazy) style of gift wrapping (you can usually count on family to give it to you straight). One caveat: I only use the gift boxes for my husband, parents, and siblings, so I can ask for the boxes back afterwards. Otherwise, buying the boxes would be a pretty costly expense every year.

As for the wrapping paper, I still wrap gifts for little kids, who seem to enjoy tearing the paper more than anything else. I keep it cheap by using the free wrapping paper charities love to send me and wrapping the actual items rather than putting them inside a box (which usually adds bulk and requires more wrapping paper to cover). 
I like my low-key, lazy method for wrapping gifts. Gives me more time to read :) How do you tackle gift wrapping? 

Comments

  1. In my family (parents, brother and sister and their families), we also use gift bags - we keep whichever ones we receive, and reuse them for the next occasion, and no one minds getting the same ones back. We've had some of the same Sailor Moon gift bags (for birthdays) circulating for about 15 years so it's become a family joke. I used to use a lot of wrapping paper and bought a new colour every year, but I gave that up and have been using my existing stash for about 3 years now!

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    1. We pass around gift bags too (they're cheaper, so I'm not stingy with them like I am with the gift boxes), but none as memorable as Sailor Moon. Too funny! It's awesome that you've been able to go 3 years without buying any wrapping paper :)

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  2. This sounds like a great idea! I'd love to recycle bags etc but my family just won't go for it. I even floated the idea of a 'no gifts Christmas' for adults - that didn't go down too well!

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    1. Oh man, that's too bad. We had some very awkward conversations with my husband's family the year we decided to stop giving gifts to other adults (there are just so many kids!). It did not go over well. All the other adults still buy for each other, but not for us - and we don't buy for them. Family stuff is tough :(

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  3. Awesome idea! We reuse the crap out of our bags, but for some reason, I MUST wrap a box -- even if it's already decorative. Must be a sickness. ;-)

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  4. I have never mastered the art of wrapping. My son can wrap a mean gift....when he is around I let him do the wrapping. :)

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    1. Wrapping does take a lot of practice . . it's nice your son will help out :)

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  5. I wrap in brown paper, except I did find a roll of Christmas paper in the trash room last year, so I reused that. I reuse baubles with my family's names on them every year too. Interestingly, gift bags seem cheap to me. As it their patterns and styles. I wouldn't be opposed to moving in that direction though, especially now I'm out of brown paper - though the brown paper is pretty useful for all occasions (yep, used it for weddings) as I make awesome ribbon bows.

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    1. PS I just noticed how similar we are - you read YHL & Postsceret, of course in addition to all our shared readers/commenters.

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    2. Brown paper is so versatile! It's really trendy in the US now. I'm no good at making ribbon bows, about the best I do is curling the ribbon ends, haha.

      Nice! I love YHL & Postsecret :)

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