The Art of Gift-Wrapping

By Mommy Donna and Kib - November 27, 2014

I must admit, I suck at wrapping gifts.  I cut and fold gift wrappers unevenly.  Most of the time I ask my mom to wrap gifts for me; if not, I will just buy a gift bag and put my gift inside.  Sometimes I would just avail of the free gift-wrapping service of some department stores.  Hey, anyway, it’s the thought that counts, right?!

Gift-wrapping has been a family tradition.  We buy gifts to our loved ones as a family, and when we get home, we are all around the dining table, arranging all the gifts to be wrapped.  My father is the one who writes the names of the receiver on the wrapper, my mom wraps the gifts, and my siblings and I are cutting scotch tapes (we don’t have a tape dispenser then).  My mom likes using themed Christmas wrappers so the gifts underneath our Christmas tree look festive and colorful.

As I grow old, I got sick of seeing a lot of colors under our Christmas tree.  A friend of mine gave me a gift and it was only wrapped in newspaper.  Eureka!  An idea struck me that not only predesigned gift wrappers can be used to wrap gifts; basically, you can use just any kind of paper!  Since then, I’ve been challenged to think of a gift wrapper theme yearly and not just buy predesigned Christmas gift wrappers.

There was a year that I used red and green Japanese papers.  Since Japanese papers are too thin, I have to wrap the gifts twice.  There was also a time that I only used red Japanese paper.  I also bought a generic gift wrapper (with white and gold stripes).  Creativity struck me once when I bought a roll of Kraft paper and my son and I decorated the paper with anything!  Instant personalized gift wrapper!  There was also a time that I just bought brown paper bags and tags.


We used different techniques in decorating the wrappers, from finger painting, to brush painting, to stamping


Last year, I used Manila paper to wrap gifts. I cut cardstocks to make it a gift tag.  I tied the gift tag with baker’s twine.  I let my son write on the gift tags since he cannot contribute that much on gift wrapping.  I haven’t thought of a theme for this year yet, but maybe, I will use magazine pages since we have lots of it at home.


Kib writing on the gift tags


Indeed, gift wrapping can be both a family activity and a mental challenge.  It brings out your creative juices especially if you want to have a themed Christmas and a wonderful way of spending quality time with your family. 


For this holiday season, how do you plan to wrap your gifts?

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4 comments

  1. My gosh we have a lot in common! I also suck in giftwrapping. Mama has to do it for me. When I was in college and away from my parents I had to ask my dormmates to wrap them for me. Ha ha! Then I found other ways to wrap them like newspapers, magazines, manila paper, japanese paper (my fave!), and sinamay. I have improved through the years but still cut and fold papers unevenly. :-) I haven't tried painting wrappers yet, that's a great idea-maybe I should try that, too :-)

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    1. Yes, painting wrappers also add up to the personal touch that we want to our gifts, but you should really plan this waaaay ahead, hihi...you have to wait for the paint to dry first before using the wrappers =)

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  2. One of our Christmas traditions as a family is to design our own gift wrapping paper and make our own Christmas cards with the kids.Nothing extraordinary - but it is a good bonding activity for the family. :) P.S. I don't mind receiving unevenly wrapped gifts. I'm not so good at it either, haha.

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    1. Yes! Gift-wrapping is indeed a good bonding activity =)

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