Brown Paper Packages

Can you believe there are only eighteen days left until Christmas?! That means I need to get a move on my Christmas shopping and finish it sooner rather than later. Christmas shopping leads to one of my favorite activities…gift wrapping! I I love wrapping presents. I’ve loved wrapping gifts for as long as I can remember. As a child I would search for items around the house that I thought my parents or sister would like just so I could wrap the item and decorate the package. I would be so proud to give them the gift I wrapped! I realized at a young age that a gift can mean so much more when presented with beautiful packaging. One of the best feelings is finding the perfect gift for a family member or a friend and watching them tear into the wrapping to find the gift they’ve been wanting! Think about it. If someone gave you a beautifully wrapped gift or a gift just placed in a bag with tissue paper, which one would YOU want to open more?! I guarantee almost everyone would want to open the gift wrapped present. Taking the extra time to wrap your presents instead of throwing in a bag, shows your gift recipient that you put a lot of thought and care into not only their gift but the presentation as well. Oh…and another great reason to wrap your gifts, you can admire their beauty underneath your Christmas tree for the season!

A few years ago, I actually thought of opening a gift wrapping business. I had a name picked out too, “Brown Paper Packages” (Get it…from the song, “My Favorite Things” sung by Julie Andrews in “The Sound of Music”). I had this whole idea of what I wanted to do and what services I would offer. But then, I started think realistically about having to wrap other people’s presents during the busiest time of year and realized maybe this business idea was not the best. I also had the fear that if I started wrapping gifts all the time for a business, I might end up not loving it, and I did not want that to happen!

I’ve compiled some of my tips and tricks for gift wrapping that you can use to help you this season to ensure your gifts are wrapped beautifully. For those of you that don’t love to wrap gifts, maybe this will help you to get into the spirit of gift wrapping! And for those of you that love wrapping, I am happy to be in the same club with you!

Set up a wrapping station that is comfortable for you. Your station could be at the kitchen island, the dining room table, or maybe you have a custom built wrapping station (jealous if you do!). For me, my station is on the floor in the living room right by the Christmas tree. I turn a Christmas movie on (typically White Christmas) and enjoy my time by the ambiance of the tree. Wrapping can seem like a monotonous task, but take the opportunity to sit down, relax, and let your mind wander. Enjoy this time of year and everything that comes along with it, it’s only once a year, right?!

Set yourself up for success by having the right tools for wrapping. That means a sharp pair of scissors, clear sticky tape, thick quality wrapping paper, and thick sturdy boxes. I’ve found I have spent just as much money on the dollar store wrapping paper as the higher end brands. Invest in a quality paper and you will waste less paper, and your package will look like a million bucks. Just like anything else in life, when you have the right tools, your job will go a lot faster and easier. There is nothing worse than trying to cut paper with dull scissors, paper that keeps ripping, or trying to stuff something into a flimsy box that keeps collapsing every time you touch it!

Gather your wrapping supplies. For Christmas, I like to pick out at least 3 different but coordinating wrapping papers that I will use for all of our gifts (excluding Santa presents) as well as the ribbon and embellishments that coordinates with the paper. I typically pick all of this out before I even start buying gifts. This way when I am ready to wrap, I have everything all ready to go. This year, I chose a green ticking stripe paper, brown kraft paper, and an ice skating scene wrapping paper. Each paper uniquely different, but all go together cohesively. The ribbon I decided upon this year was a green & white velvet frayed ribbon as well as a brown twine that I was already using throughout the house for Christmas décor. So naturally, I decided to use that same ribbon & twine for the gifts as well; coordinating the presents back to the décor in the house. For the gift embellishments, I wanted to use a natural element, dried orange slices as well as a fun Christmas item, gold bells.

Wrap your gifts as you buy them. This is a really great tip! I do not save all of my wrapping to be done once I’ve completed all of my shopping, I wrap gifts as I buy them. This makes the task of wrapping less daunting, and the more likely I will do it.

Keep it simple. You do not need to overload your gift with tons of ribbon and embellishments for it to look beautiful. Sometimes less is more. A simple bow with a couple of dried oranges, gold bells, or greenery can make a big statement.

Remember it is all in the details. The smallest details can make all the difference to your finished present. Keep your wrapping paper tight to the package for crisp edges. Make sure to fold in the cut edges of your paper about a 1/4″-1/2″ to give that professional finished look to your gift. Always add the finishing touch to the cut edge of the ribbon. Instead of leaving the cut edge of your ribbon cut straight across, finish it by folding the cut edges (of each ribbon end) together and cut in a diagonal upward motion. This will leave a pretty little triangular cut out at the end of your ribbon. These simple little touches will set your gift apart from others!

I hope these tips and tricks help you when wrapping your Christmas gifts this year. Do you have any helpful tricks that you use when gift wrapping? Let me know by leaving a comment, I would love to hear from you! Links to products can be found throughout this blog, they are also linked here LiketoKnow.it (using this link provides me a small commission).

I look forward to sharing more of my home with you and inspiring you to have a well loved home! Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and LIKEtoKNOW.it.