Every year the decision looms–how will I wrap my Christmas gifts this year? Sometimes I make a trip to HomeGoods or a nearby store to check out the gift wrap, but for other years, I have enough to work with in my current stash of wrapping paper. If you’re looking for a few gift-wrapping ideas this year, here are three ideas that I’ve done in the past that were easy and stress-free.
Option 1: One idea that worked really well a few years ago was a color scheme of red and gold. That year, I had a plethora of red wrapping paper in various designs and patterns. I had solid red wrapping paper, red paper with a gold, glittery design, and pretty plaid paper that was mostly red with a bit of green. All three papers looked great together and the best part was they all paired well with gold ribbon, giving them a common element under the tree.
The gold ribbons/bows were not all made from the exact same gold ribbon–I think that it made it a bit more interesting. Take a look at your current stash of paper and see if you have 2 or 3 wrapping papers that all look pretty together. Is there one particular color of ribbon that would work with all of them? Gold is usually a safe bet since it’s a neutral, yet very festive for Christmas. Red, silver, or white are also great options. If gold would work, you’ll find it available in various widths here: Gold Ribbon.
Option 2: One year I kinda went outside my comfort zone and decided to go with a gift wrapping paper that was a lot more casual than I would normally use–craft paper. I had seen it used to wrap gifts in much more casual settings and loved how it looked, so decided to see if I could make it work in my very traditionally furnished living room under my traditionally decorated Christmas tree.
This definitely turned out to be the simplest and easiest way to wrap presents–much simpler than any way I’ve wrapped gifts in the past. To add some pizzazz, I chose ribbon in a brighter, zingier color than the traditional red and green I normally would have used. I mixed it up a bit with both solid color ribbon and plaid. I had so much fun with this! When you start with a neutral paper like brown craft paper, you can really go in any direction with your color scheme. Also, craft paper is inexpensive and plentiful, you’ll find it available here: Craft Paper for Wrapping Gifts.
Option 3: This 3rd option that I’m sharing from the past was the most time-consuming, but it was also the most fun and probably my favorite of all time. It all started when I came across this adorable, hilarious wrapping paper showing cars and trucks loaded down with Christmas trimmings, including HUGE Christmas trees. I loved the whimsy of this paper so much and it gave me a fun idea that I thought would delight my grandsons. Wrapping paper is available here: Whimsical Wrapping Paper.
After purchasing the paper, I purchased some colorful toys cars and trucks online, along with a few small, bottle-brush trees.
I wrapped each present in colorful red or green yarn, attaching a vehicle to the top of each gift in place of a bow.
I remember I had to get a bit creative attaching the cars. That usually involved opening up the doors of the car or truck and running the yarn through to the other side and out the other door. lol You can read more about how I attached the trees to the roof in this previous post: Unique Gift-wrapping Idea for Christmas.
This was a huge hit with the adults as well as the little ones. My grandsons were quite small and they loved this gift wrap so much, we had to keep prompting them to stop playing with the toy cars and trucks long enough to open their presents. Ha!
If you like this idea, you’ll find the wrapping paper here: Whimsical Wrapping Paper. The cute flower-covered Volkswagen Beetle cars are available here: Flower Beetle Cars. I found adorable, vintage-style VW vans here: Vintage Vans. The trucks are available here: Chevy Trucks. I love these old Chevy Bel Air Coupes here: Chevy Bel Air Coupe. You’ll find bottle brush trees in various sizes here: Bottle Brush Trees. Be sure and measure your cars/trucks so you’ll know what size tree you need. I think they are really cute if the trees are a bit too large for the vehicles, a la Christmas Vacation. 🙂
Happy Gift Wrapping!
FYI, Susan – the gift wrap with the cars/trucks is currently on sale for $4.99 per roll at http://www.currentcatalog.
I just checked it out at their website, pretending to purchase 2 rolls and unfortunately, they charge “Shipping and Handling” of $7.99 and a “Shipping Carrier Surcharge” of $2.99 unless you spend $40, so it’s almost the same amount after all the fees/shipping charges.
Sorry – didn’t think to check on that! Forgot Current added that shipping surcharge during COVID and I guess never dropped it – as if the general shipping charge isn’t enough!
That would have been a great price. I wish I needed to spend $40, I do love their products!
LOVELY wrapping ideas!!! It looks SO wonderful when everything matches, then Santa shows up and it’s a hodge podge of patterns and colors, LOL!!! When my kids were little, Santa wrapped all my daughter’s presents in one pattern and all my son’s presents in another pattern. It was fun trying to find coordinating themes, like Disney or favorite cartoons. Also made it easy to know what presents were for each of them. Thank you for the great ideas!
Susan-I love all three ideas for wrapping! I copied your idea using the whimsical vehicle wrapping paper when you first posted years ago. My grandson loves finding his gifts knowing there will be car on top to add to his collection! (I’m glad to see they brought back the paper). Since I ship my presents to several different addresses, I adopted a color-coding system years ago to simplify keeping the gifts sorted. Each household gets their own color where I use coordinating papers in that color scheme. A quick glance lets me know where they are going. But I love the idea of the kraft paper, and I can just change the ribbon color for each family member. As always, thanks for all the great ideas!
Oh, those minature cars…I, too, did those…at the time…there were NO “Hot Wheels” t/b found (Cabbage Patch kids probably ran off w/them.) Now, we see them at LOWES, etc etc!! I use the “pink butcher’s paper” to wrap & copper ribbon my “go to.” This year, dried roses, pine cones, hemlock greens (& one tiny strip of rhinestone ribbon tape in rose gold.) Merry wrapping!! franki
Franki, I would love to see a picture of that! It sounds wonderful!
Those are all great ideas Susan! I love the little cars with trees, and the toy cars on top – that’s so fun! And your red and gold is so elegant. Love them all!
I love the red and gold. So beautiful, traditional and classic. And the car paper and toy vehicles is so cute for kids. The little Christmas trees you added really top it all off. Great ideas, Susan. Thanks.
Susan – I just took a look at this post and the yellow VW Bug on the paper cracked me up. My husband’s and my first car was a yellow Bug long before some of the later models of Beetle came out. We lived in upstate NY and of course tied our live Christmas trees on top. We started a 600 mile trip home for Christmas in a horrible snow storm with two toboggans tied to the top! Now I check the weather eight times before I go to the grocery store one mile away.
My best friend got a Beetle when she was old enough to drive and it was cutest thing! I think her bug was red. Was that the car that had the built in vase for a flower? I loved that so much! Wow, I can’t imagine 600 miles in a snowstorm, even in a car with 4-wheel-drive and snow tires! I know you were glad when you arrived at your destination! I’m the same way with weather–I don’t even like driving in the rain!
Our VW was way before the Beetle with the vase because many years later I bought one of those. I remember a post that you did a few years ago with a bad trip home from your son and DIL when the rain ? ? caused you some problems. Safe travels if you are headed north this year. Merry Christmas.
Love the car and truck gift wrap. Anyone looking for cars, try Walgreens. They always have a big display. One year, I made an arrangement using a VW van from there. If you time it right, Dollar Tree and Publix sells Matchbox cars. Michael’s has them too. They aren’t as large as what Susan used, but cute. The price on the Red Truck is outrageous sometimes.
You could use that floral gummy stuff on a roll to stick them on packages.
I like all 3 Your cars atop packages inspired me to buy bottle brush trees as package toppers to coordinate w paper w tree design. Thx
Hi, Susan,
The metal vehicles you bought to put on top of packages are adorable; were they well made and sturdy for play? Have they held up, to your knowledge?
Thank you.
Maureen
Thanks! Yes, they are metal and very sturdy, just like the ones you would buy in a toy store. I think they held up great, I still see them in their toy bins when I visit.
Also, I meant to say, I love all your gift-wrapping ideas, and your Christmas tree is beautifully decorated!
Maureen