To dress up your holiday gifts on the cheap, add evergreens or edible tags made of iced gingerbread, Good Housekeeping says. Make gifts into the likeness of a cartoon animal or attach cut-out paper snowflakes. Use a tulle pouf instead of a bow, or weave ribbon on top of gifts instead of tying it. Wrap gifts in reused paper from maps, newspaper or sheet music. Make beaded gift toppers or attach sparkly monograms. Or top your gifts with mini ornaments or candy canes — your creativity is the only limit when it comes to decorating your packages to make them stand out under the tree.
Tag: holiday gifts
Use Kraft Paper as a Canvas for Gift Wrapping
Kraft paper is an inexpensive canvas to use when wrapping holiday gifts, Loves the Find says. Simply wrap up your gifts in the plain brown paper, then use your creativity to make it distinctive. Tie them with ribbon, fabric trims or twine and add tree trimmings or pine cones — or go more exotic with feathers, chalkboard paint and glitter. To create a repeating pattern, cut simple stamps out of potatoes, linoleum or a lint roller, and imprint the paper with a stamp pad or tempera paint. Kraft paper isn’t just for the holidays, either — you can use it at any time of year gifts are given.
Use ‘Santa Sacks’ to Wrap Sustainably
If you have a lot of gifts to give to one or more young children, go a step beyond the stocking with a sustainable Santa Sack, Holidappy suggests. Personalize a cloth laundry bag with a tag or embroidery, and have the child put the empty sack under the tree on Christmas Eve. Then fill each sack with unwrapped gifts; in the morning, the kids can open their sacks and discover what Santa brought overnight — and you’ll save money on gift wrap and ribbon while saving time on cleanup. And if you have large or oddly shaped gifts to give, hide them and leave clues around the house for the recipients to find.
Wrap Your Christmas Gifts in Creativity
Do-it-yourselfers know that it doesn’t take a lot of money to gussy up a gift if you think outside the box, the Creative Live blog says. Try alternatives to store-bought wraps such as colorful fabric, butcher paper or paper towel rolls. Or to showcase the ubiquitous-but-boring-to-look-at gift cards, build snowglobe holders. Wrap bottles of wine in the sleeves of thrift-store sweaters. Put your gifts inside unused paint cans or tuck them into folding Chinese takeout containers. The “big reveal” of any gift is always more exciting if you can amp up the anticipation by having a little fun with the packaging.
Give the Gift of Decluttering
While we at the Organizing Blog often preach minimalism, we still maintain a childlike sense of anticipation about finding brightly wrapped gifts under the tree with our names on it — not to mention the many hours of “retail therapy” that go into giving a thoughtful gift.
But the many new things you’ll give and receive during the holidays do take up space, and when left haphazardly around the home, they become clutter. And when left unchecked, clutter not only crowds tabletops, hallways and closets, it can crowd the mind.
That’s why some of the best gifts are ones that organize all of the stuff in one’s busy life into spaces that make sense — or even cut down on what and how much of any category of thing one hangs onto. Treat decluttering as a gift, and you can show you really care.
This year, try giving things that maximize the space already available in one’s home. SimpleMost suggests 19 clever gifts, for example, that will help your giftees create more storage space in kids’ rooms, mud rooms, kitchens and closets.
Another excellent gift at year’s end is a daily, weekly or monthly calendar, planner or journal. You can’t magically make someone into a Type A, but having a place to write down and organize one’s appointments is a great start. Self offers a number of options.
Some of the best gifts are things that hold other things. Sorting small, like items into a designated place can help keep them from scattering around the house or getting lost. Pop Sugar has selected a bunch of bins, hooks, caddies, shelves and holders that can contain the clutter in style.
You can also give a gift that doesn’t add to the clutter whatsoever. Anything that can be used up is a great choice — homebaked cookies, a nice bottle of wine or a gift basket of gourmet charcuterie. Or you can gift an experience with theater tickets, dinner out at a local restaurant or a spa treatment.
If you get something for which you just can’t find a place, there’s no shame in getting rid of it. The goodwill won’t go unappreciated— even though whatever it is might get lost in a heap of surplus stuff. Quietly set whatever it is aside and include it in your donation to ClothingDonations.org so it can’t clutter your home.
Less clutter means less stress. And who doesn’t want that?!