Christmas Wrapping Ideas

Christmas Wrapping Ideas 

Any good business recognizes the importance of delivery and presentation. If you use a company like Amazon, then the entire differentiating factor that the business has to set itself apart with revolves around the delivery. Amazon impresses its buyers not only by offering a great selection of products at low prices but by getting them delivered in great condition and on time. And the little ‘smile’on the box is something many of us now have a Pavlovian response to.

This is something that we can all learn from.When you give a gift, consider not only the gift itself but also the delivery. How will you present it? How will you make it stand out? How can you make it more memorable?

Here are some ideas you can use to ensure that your gift looks the part and that the presentation is up to snuff.  

Basic Christmas Wrapping

Basic Christmas wrapping has a simple system that ensures you can create beautiful looking gifts every time. First, take your sheet of paper and cut just enough to wrap the item. Place your item in the middle of the square you’ve created and fold up two of the sides. Pull them taught and tape them down – and don’t forget to cut the tape ready so that you won’t be trying to do it while keeping the paper in place.

Once you’ve done that, the present will now be encased in a ‘sleeve’. The next step is to flatten each end in the middle, then to fold down the sides. This should create a triangle at either end. Pull the triangle over the end of the gift, tape it down and you’re finished!  

More Creative Options

That’s your basic wrapping, but if you want to make things a bit more interesting then there are some ways you can mix things up.

One is to twist the ends of the wrapping instead of taping them down. This makes the wrapping look more like a sweet wrapper, which is a great way to make it standout under the Christmas tree.

Another option is to swap the wrapping paper for something else – which works especially well when you use what you know about the person. If they love comics, then the wrapping paper could be pages from an old comic book. If they love music, why not some sheets of music?

Or make it more fun, by making the gift look like a mysterious parcel with multiple layers and cryptic clues on the outside!

Or if you’re feeling cheap… toilet paper.

You can also think about containers. A fun container can help to make it less obvious what is inside your gift: especially if it’s a bottle of wine!

You can also use this as a purposeful misdirect. For instance, why not take an empty bottle of wine and put your gift inside it? This way, it will look like a drink under the tree and that will be very surprising for the recipient when they open it up!  

Containers

Using the wine bottle as a container can also be used for creative effect – especially if you decorate and paint the bottle.

The same goes for jam jars and a range of other containers that can be made to look attractive. In some cases, the container itself can add to the gift. My sister for instance loves pirates and has a penchant for eclectic looking containers. She also likes rum.

So my wife had the rather excellent idea of getting my sister a treasure chest that would look attractive on her desktop as a gift. Inside, she then put in all manner of ‘pirate’ inspired gifts: such as a small bottle of Rum and a piece of weathered-looking jewelry.

This is also a good example of using the gift itself as a container – which is often a fun way to make more of a ‘journey’ as the recipient opens your gift (similar to ‘user experience’ in web design – think of the way that the recipient opens the gift). For example, if the gift is a handbag, then you could fill that handbag with more gifts – especially if those gifts relate to the bag itself. This way, the recipient will be excited to receive the handbag, but then even more excited and pleased when they realize there’s more inside and they can enjoy exploring through it to find what else is there!

As you can see then, there are tons of ways you can wrap gifts more creatively and attractively. And when you do this, it improves the entire experience of receiving them. Bear all this in mind, especially when giving a gift that might otherwise be construed as dull, or that doesn’t lend itself well to wrapping. Vouchers anyone? Money? (Consider origami for the latter!)