Today on The Peaceful Haven, this helpful quick guide to Christmas Gift Wrapping and fancy finishing touches comes all the way from Great Britain! I am excited to share with you some simple, stunning, and eco-friendly wrapping ideas just in time for the Christmas season!
From Smithy’s tin-foil trick (Gavin and Stacey) to Martha Stewart’s mastery – when it comes to Christmas wrapping paper and presents, there’s certainly a spectrum of expertise. And a range of styles too. To help you get the look you’re going for, we’re going to look at:
Quick Guide To Christmas Gift Wrapping
- Gift bags and wrapping paper rolls: the particulars
- Basic gift-wrapping technique
- Tissue paper and finishing touches
- Wrapping paper top tips
Gift wrapping can be as straightforward or as intricate as you want, but with these few bits of advice, you’ll be well on your way to expert-status…
Gift Bags And Wrapping Paper Rolls: the particulars
To wrap a present in the most basic way, all you need is:
- The present
- Some wrapping paper
- Some scissors
- Some tape
With these four things, you can make someone’s day, but there are a few other things to consider.
Think of the environment, for example. Not all wrapping paper is recyclable, especially if it’s covered in glitter! There’s a simple test that can give you an idea if you’re using Eco gift wrap and that’s the scrunch test. The idea is, if you scrunch up the paper into a ball and it stays in a ball, it’s recyclable. If it unfurls itself, it’s likely not and will need to go in the general waste. To be extra sure, you could always make your wrapping paper using brown paper and a festive stamp.
Top Tip: Remove all the tape from your wrapping paper before recycling – it will speed things up for the paper mills.
To simplify your measuring, try and use wrapping paper rolls with a grid pattern on the inside – this will help you maintain a straight line and reduce wastage.
Next, if you have a lot of presents to wrap, you will need a comfortable and sharp pair of scissors. Crafting scissors might be best and will not tear the paper either. They often come with ergonomic grips and cushioning around the handle too. If you’re going the gift bag route, try to find recyclable ones or encourage people to pass them on and reuse them. If you’re not wrapping the present as well, then fill up the bag around and over the gift with some tissue paper to keep it a surprise until they ‘open’ it.
Basic Gift-Wrapping Technique
Before you cut anything, you need to make sure you have enough wrapping paper to go around the present. You can do this by laying the gift on the paper and ‘rolling’ all four sides across it until you know how much you’ll need. You also need to allow for extra overhang to cover the top and bottom.
Once cut, put the present close to one edge and fold the paper over the top corner. Then crease it using your finger and thumb to create a nice sharp edge. Holding onto this starting edge, fold the rest of the paper around the gift until the end edge meets it, keeping it taught the whole time. Then seal with tape.
Top Tip: For a straight line, fold over the end edge.
Once you have this nice snug roll around the sides, you need to tackle the top and bottom ends.
First, choose an end. Then fold in and crease the overhanging paper on the sides of it so that they are flush to the box. This should create a top and bottom flap, each with 45-degree triangles at the edges – you’re looking for symmetrical trapezium shapes. All that’s left to do is fold down flaps so that they crossover to cover the end of the box and seal it with tape. Repeat with the other end, and you’ve got a smartly wrapped package.
Tissue Paper And Finishing Touches
Christmas wrapping is about more than the paper – it’s a way to bring in the atmosphere you want to your Christmas day. Do you want it classy and elegant? Childish and fun? Bright and colorful? The presents under the tree are part of the Christmas decorations at the end of the day, so here’s how you can make them just right:
- Go for double-sided tape for a neater finish.
- Choose the right ribbon for your paper and add a twirl or curl if it calls for it.
- Make a bow out of wrapping paper for a matchy-match look by folding a piece into quarters and cutting long strips towards the centerfold until it looks like a fringe. Curl all the strips and then open the fold. Roll it up long ways, tape it together, and curl the strips again. Once you’ve finished, ruffle them about to cover the tape, and ta-da, you’ve got a ruffle bow for your present
Wrapping Paper Top Tips
Wrapping paper is one of the largest Christmas wastage items – the UK uses around 227,000 miles of it a year and most of it goes in the bin! So, go environmentally friendly where you can, and make the most of what you have by being crafty. For example, did you know that wrapping diagonally uses less paper? If you place a book on your paper, you can fold around it like an envelope to use less paper!
You could also make a gift bag out of recyclable paper, or use old boxes and potato chip tubes to save paper on weirdly-shaped gifts – wine or champagne bottles for example.
Top tip: If you are wrapping these as is, don’t try and wrap around the spout, gather up and twist the overhanging paper and secure it with a ribbon instead. They’ll know is a bottle from the shape, so there’s no use trying to hide the cap or cork. Plus, the gathered paper looks pretty fancy if gift-wrapped right.
Gift wrapping is one of the finer arts of the Christmas season,
and possibly the most time communing next to the turkey,
so grab your Christmas wrapping paper or DIY hand-stamped roll and get wrapping.
Blessings,
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