Eliminate the “Counting of the Gifts” with this Gift Wrapping Tradition

Martha Stewart doesn’t wrap my gifts, does she do yours? I used to labor over wrapping every gift with the perfect bow and the right ribbons. Martha would have been proud. I’ll admit I was pretty proud of how beautiful my gifts looked under the Christmas tree. Then along came kids, and the annual shaking and counting of the gifts. The beauty of their packages was completely overshadowed by the number of gifts, and the “contents guessing game.”

To keep the kids from comparing who had the most gifts, by leaving off the tags, sparked a fun tradition our kids look forward to every year. Gifts without a tag was a way to keep the kids guessing and provide entertainment as they tried to reason why they knew certain gifts were for them. And frankly, I could wrap them all up in less time if I didn’t bother with all the extra fluff that made the package look like it came out of the “Martha Stewart Living” magazine. In small print on the back of each, I numbered them all. Then Christmas morning, the kids had to find the numbers and I revealed which numbers corresponded to each family member.

Over the years I’ve used a variety of ways to distinguish whose gifts belonged to whom. Different bows or different wrapping paper were simple ways I kept them guessing. One year I went a step further than a separate paper for each child and used a variety of papers with a distinguishing theme for each one. Another year, I used letters written on the bottom of the gift; A was for Karin, B was for David, C was for James, and D was for Ellen. Not wanting them to think the A, B, C, D corresponded to their birth order, I mixed it up to keep them in a state of wonder.

Because the kids made such a big deal about this tradition at dinner one night, this year, I felt I really had to do something new. The labels on the packages are without names again, but this time, they have to figure out what’s the theme of the labels. Some labels have a snowman, or a tree, or a Santa and each corresponds to a different person. All the gifts are wrapped in different papers. Since my girls don’t read my blog I figured I’m safe in revealing this year’s code. Who knows what I’ll come up with next year? If you have a fun idea, share it with me and feel free to borrow our tradition.

Maybe one day, I’ll have beautifully wrapped packages that beg to be photographed for Martha’s magazine. For the time being they’ll be wrapped and labeled in a manner that generates a greater sense of curiosity and a lot of fun.

Enjoy gift giving this year!
Anne

Tip for traveling with gifts:
Do you have to travel to different locations for Christmas for both sides of your family? When we do this, I use two different papers to wrap all the gifts for David’s family, and then two other papers for my side of the family. Since we put up more than one tree, we put all the Nelson’s gifts under one tree, and all the Wick’s gifts under the other. When it’s time to leave, we know by the paper or the tree they’re under, which gifts to pack up and take with us and this way, no gifts are left behind. Except of course for the gifts that are stashed in a place I wouldn’t forget about but have now forgotten and won’t find until the 4th of July.

© 2007 Anne Nelson, Joy Zone, LLC