GiftPup’s Easy Guide to Perfect Gift Wrapping This Festive Season
We all love to give gifts at Christmas, but ensuring we get it right is often a trickier task to manage. The following quick guide will help you make the most of your gift wrapping this festive season, giving your presents a little added appeal.
Store all your wrapping in one place
Keeping track of all your gift wrapping can seem like an almost impossible task to master, particularly if you’re buying for lots of different people. However tricky, we strongly recommend you keep all the items you need to wrap – and all your wrapping materials – in the same, safe place. This way you’ll know exactly where to look when it’s time to put your personalised Christmas gifts on display, and it’s also a helpful tip if you’re wrapping in a smaller space.
Mix-and-match wrapping paper
Opting for a few different styles of wrapping paper is a wonderful way to add some new texture and vibrancy under your Christmas tree this year. Choose colours and patterns which contrast in an interesting way, to help make your festive décor even more interesting. Alternatively, why not choose a more environmentally friendly alternative to traditional wrapping paper and wrap your gifts in kraft paper? You could even decorate each gift differently and really let your creative side free.
Use colour-coding as you wrap
If you have a lot of gifts to distribute, why not try colour-coding by recipient? This will make things a lot easier to find on Christmas Day, and helps you avoid any confusion over whose gift is whose. It’s also a fun activity, particularly for children, who will love locating their gifts under the tree, especially if they have a fun pattern, or even a homemade one! Colour coding is a wonderful way to ensure you don’t need gift tags, and helps to add an extra special (and more colourful touch) to Christmas.
Take special care with soft items
It’s much easier to wrap boxy gifts than soft items like clothing or scarves. You want to ensure the integrity of your gift wrap isn’t affected, and help prevent rips. We recommend placing a sturdier material such as cardboard around the gift before you wrap it, helping to create a more robust shape. Reusing old packaging, or even finding spare boxes from shops and supermarkets, works perfectly for giving soft gifts some added support.
Add decorative accents
There are lots of great additions you can add to your gift wrapping, many of which are particularly well-suited to the festive season, to add an extra touch of decoration. Stores are stocked with decorative ribbons and bows plus charms and trinkets for topping pressies, and they come in a wide variety of different materials, so pick and mix and get creative. Don't just think not only of how much you like the add-on itself, but how well it’ll work in the context of your gift wrap ensuring your presents look particularly fantastic this Christmas.
Use double-sided tape
If you struggle with taping your gifts closed, then be sure you have some double-sided tape handy as you wrap. Even if you're a wrapping-whiz, double sided tape can help to speed up the process, and makes presents look more neat and professional. Double sided tape can even be used on any additional embellishments, or on gift tags, to help keep the gift looking its best. This is also a great way to avoid wastage caused by wrapping-related mishaps, and a little goes a long way.
Opt for gift boxes instead of wrapping paper
If you really can’t get your head around wrapping gifts, then there are other ways to make your presents look just as decorative and distinctive. Gift boxes are a wonderful way around this conundrum, and they can be stacked for added appeal or wrapped with a bow to add a chic finishing touch. The added bonus to a gift box is that it can also further obscure the gift to prevent the recipient from guessing what they have too early. Alternatively, a simple gift bag and some tissue paper is a quick and easy way to send a gift.
Choose natural materials
Want an eco-friendly approach to gifting? Then choose more natural fibres and renewable materials for your gift-wrapping. Not everyone is a fan of the look of plain paper, but when done right it can have a big impact – and will certainly help your gifts stand out from the crowd. Look for Kraft paper and paper tape for wrapping, and perhaps use wood wool, tissue, or even fabrics to fill your gift box and protect the present inside.
You could even use Christmas tree trimmings, and add these to your gifts for a rustic look.
Get sophisticated with your wrapping
If you find yourself getting unsatisfactory results with the conventional gift-wrapping tools, then consider investing in some tailor-made items like self-healing cutting mats (to avoid any damage to soft-furnishings while slicing through wrapping paper), or a rotary cutter and ruler to give your gifts a more professional look. Alternatively, you can always opt to call in a professional gift wrapping service. This can be especially useful if you are only giving a few gifts, or for one or two of the more challenging-to-wrap items.
Gather your supplies
Great gift wrapping is about more than just the paper you choose. Depending on how luxurious you want your Christmas gift wrapping to be, you need to also make sure you have everything you need before you get started. For those keeping it simple, then just the essentials should do – some tape, your wrapping paper, scissors and the gifts of course. Anyone taking things a step further needs to also ensure their additional supplies are at the ready – ribbon, glitter, gift tags, decorative twine - the possibilities are almost endless.
Start wrapping early
It's always a good idea to set aside some time to wrap your gifts as you go. This will not only mean you can fully assess what you've bought and check for any gaps, but its also a fun activity sure to get you into the festive spirit! We recommend leaving the added decorations for later, and adding a sticky label or a note so you don’t forget which parcel matches each of your recipients. Alternatively, set yourself aside a day for wrapping, put on some Christmas music, and turn a room into Santa's workshop.
GiftPup Suggestions
We have a wide range of gifts perfect for the festive season, each of which can be personalised to make them extra-special! Here are a few of our favourites in 2019…
A Bear Is For Life Christmas Bear
This delightful Christmas Bear comes complete with the recipient’s name and a special message on its T-shirt, encouraging them to keep the bear close throughout the year, not just for the festive season. Wearing a decorative green hat and scarf, this gift is sure of a warm welcome this Christmas.
3 Trees Christmas Chocolate Bar
You can never go wrong with a sweet treat for Christmas, like this personalised chocolate bar. Each wrapper can be personalised with both the recipients name, and a small message from the sender. This is a great gift for co-workers and Secret Santa’s, offering the right levels of both the personal touch and accessibility.
To push the boat out this festive season, we recommend this Magenta Hamper, which can be customised to include a short message for your recipient. The box includes a bottle of sparkling rose and a range of tasty chocolate truffles, sweet treats, and biscuits, all packed in a decorative wooden crate.