My top tips and wrapping hacks for Christmas presents

I love wrapping Christmas presents, albeit it takes me ages as I like to be creative and put a little effort into it. I thought I would combine my top tips and wrapping hacks for Christmas this year. I hope that one of these ideas can inspire you to put a little extra something into your Christmas gift wrapping.

Stock up on crafts

I always buy a bundle of Christmas crafts from Baker Ross each year, I use them for multiple things but also for use with my gift tags. I make my own using basic plain luggage tags. I use my shaped hole punches, stickers and stamp kits to personalise them. This year I got pipe cleaners and they can be twisted into a neat little bow on the tags which I thought was a fabulous idea.

Creating a bow with a pipe cleaner

Simply insert the pipe cleaner through the label half way, twist two loops in the pipe cleaner near the hole and then wrap one of the ends around the two loops. Twist. Separate the loops, which now look like bows and voila. Pipe cleaners are not recyclable (I do not think) but you can reuse them as they just bend into a different shape (unlike a gift wrap bow).

Colour code your gifts

This might sound crazy, but I colour code the gifts. This is mainly so I know, roughly, at a glance whose is what when you are dishing them out. For example, I wrap the Aunty and Uncles in one style, Cousins in another and kiddies in another. It works well when there are large groups of you giving gifts to each other.

Stack up your gifts

This year I wanted to reduce the wrap as much as I could, but still make them look nice. So I decided to scrap gift bags and just stack the gifts together in bundles. This works well as you can tie peoples gifts together, it also makes it easier to dish out the gifts on Christmas Day. I use string to tie the gifts together – this means I am using one lot of string per person (instead of each individual gift) and I am using one tag per person too.

Wrapping hack

I love this wrapping hack; have you ever got to the last bit of your wrapping paper and struggled with wrapping that last gift? Well, if you simply turn your gift so that it sits diagonally onto the wrapping paper – hey presto, you are able to still wrap it up. This means you can save on paper wastage. I love finding out clever hacks for gift wrapping, there are some fabulous YouTube videos out there too!

Recyclable paper

So, there is a rule that I have learnt with wrapping paper – if you scrunch the paper into a ball and it stays in a ball shape, then it is recyclable. Always read the labels too as they should indicate if the wrapping paper can be recycled. A general rule of thumb is that wrapping paper with glitter on it, metallic or a texture to it then it definitely is NOT recyclable.

Set up a sticky tape station

I absolutely hate it when you get the perfect fold on the paper and realise you haven’t got any sticky tape cut to stick it down. You end up letting go of the paper and it all unfolds! Feel my pain? Well, I find a hard surface near me and cut small bits of tape so I can quickly grab it without losing the fold!

Do you have any tips or hacks for wrapping gifts this Christmas? I would love to know in the comments below or on social media.

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