The Art of Gift Wrapping

No matter how you are decorating your home for the holiday season this year, I always feel that the one thing that really brings everything together isn’t necessarily the Christmas tree, but what’s found underneath: Presents! Beautifully-wrapped Christmas presents, in my opinion, really are the best holiday decoration you can incorporate into your home. It’s usually the first place where anybody looks when they come over, and people will definitely notice if they’re wrapped up nicely. I know that for some, it may seem silly because these presents will simply be torn into by the end of the month, and all that time and meticulous detail that was put into the perfection of present wrapping is destroyed in a matter of seconds. However, not only will the recipient truly appreciate the work that was put into the gift before tearing up your masterpiece and probably comment on how nice it looks, they truly will enhance your home.

Now, I’ll be honest. I’m not the best gift wrapper. Maybe it’s my lack of my patience, but I’m just plain terrible at it.

Luckily, Joe (my husband) is naturally “gifted” at wrapping presents. We normally head to places like Wal-Mart or Target for our wrapping necessities, but this year we decided to head to Michael’s for their Black Friday sale. Not only were their low-priced items discounted even more, but there were so many different color schemes and looks to choose from. Here is what we went with:

 Five tubes of wrapping paper at $2.99 a roll; two each of the traditional red and green, and we threw in a gold. We decided to just stick with solid colors, although some years we decide to get subtle patterns, usually sticking to red and green, and then adding either gold, silver, or white. While patterns of snowmen or Christmas trees are fun, we try to stick something a little more on the plain side.

This is some great quality ribbon that was available for only $2.99 a roll. Since our wrapping paper was plain and pattern-free, we wanted patterned ribbon that would encompass colors to match our wrapping paper. The subtle traces of red, green, and beige match perfectly with the red, green, and gold wrapping paper.The finishing touch, a beautiful red satin bow, is always a tradition we implement in our present wrapping. You would think these be a much more expensive alternative then the plastic shiny bowls that are sold in bundles at every drugstore, but they’re not. These bows, normally 99 cents at Michael’s, were only 50 cents on Black Friday. They look great, and you can always reuse them!So now the process begins. Joe is measuring out how much wrapping paper is good enough to fit our niece’s gifts. Right away, this is where I go wrong. I always measure out too much and waste a lot of wrapping paper, or not enough and I have to start over. When I asked Joe what his secret was to measuring it out so perfectly, he shrugged and said, “I just eye it.” Well gee, that’s helpful.

As Joe folds up the sides of the wrapping paper, he told me that this part is important: He makes this extra little fold so that there aren’t any exposed edges, giving the present a much more neat appearance.

Don’t worry about how this part is taped because it will be covered up by the ribbon.

This next step, when you need to fold the sides of the gift to resemble an envelope, is where things really go down hill for me. Once again, he wasn’t too helpful when I asked him how exactly he manages to do it so well.

 Now things start to get a little easier. After measuring out the ribbon for one side of the present and taping it down, go ahead and do the other side. Don’t worry about all that ugly tape in the middle; this will all be covered by the bow.

  Tada! Now just repeat this process. Over, and over, and over. It may get a little tedious for some, but the result is well worth it:

 

 
Some tips:

If you are not buying too many presents this year, or opting for small things such as gift cards, consider just wrapping empty boxes that you’d otherwise throw away. The more “presents” under the tree, the better this look will come together.

If you or nobody in your household has a talent, the time, or the patience for present wrapping, consider having your presents wrapped professionally at your local shopping mall before deciding to just gift bag everything.