I love to wrap gifts! I think I get it from my mom because she always made gifts look so pretty with her handmade bows. And my sister, Allison, is the master of finding good deals at TJ Maxx and making them look like a million bucks with her lovely packaging. My sister, Katie, has always added a fun flare to her gifts with handcrafted pom poms and such. So, it just runs in the blood!
I have loved wrapping gifts since I was a little girl, and my dream was to work at a store that had a gift-wrapping department. How cute. Well, that childhood dream came true in high school while I was working at Kirkland’s. Does anyone remember when Kirkland’s offered gift wrapping? It was a little room with a window in the back of their stores.
During Christmas season I would ask to stay back there for my whole shift. Wrapping gifts made the hours fly by! Some of the girls hated gift wrapping so they were happy to oblige me. I remember one really uppity customer in particular that still makes me laugh to this day when I think about her. She purchased some pretty placemats, brought them back to my station, and with a smug voice said, “Young lady, I want you to wrap them up and make them look like they came from Sack Fifth Avenue!”
In college I worked at a sweet children’s boutique and furniture store which also offered gift wrapping. I always loved it when a grandmother would come in to purchase Christmas gifts for all of her grandchildren and ask me to wrap them all! I also enjoyed the challenge of wrapping large or oddly shaped items such as baby bathtubs, strollers, and even cribs.
I still enjoy wrapping gifts, especially at Christmas! I like to use pretty ribbons, lace, rick rack, twine, and baker’s string, and I tie on fun little extra embellishments like bells, ornaments, holly, dried oranges, rosemary, and stockings (stockings are great for holding a gift card you want to add on top of the wrapped gift). I like to add touches that make the men’s gifts a little more masculine and the women’s gifts more feminine.
I never purchase all new supplies each year. I collect discounted tie-on trinkets here and there; I keep an ongoing supply of ribbon year-round (I rarely purchase Christmas-only ribbon); and I carry over rolls of wrapping paper and gift tags each year until they’re used up or I just finally get tired of them. My favorite papers come from Hobby Lobby which I use for my nicer grown-up gifts like the ones pictured in this post. But for “Santa” wrap, cheaper dollar store paper and a bag of stick-on bows has always been the tradition in this house. This year I’ve been collecting velvet ribbon (inspired by my sister-in-law) when it’s been on sale at H.L so I’m excited to add that to my Christmas packages this season.
The gift below was for my mother-in-law last year. We all went in together on a video bird feeder for her, so I tied on a cardinal ornament that was hand painted by a local artist.
Even gift bags can be fun to embellish!
The gifts pictured in this post are some of last year’s gifts because I haven’t yet wrapped this year’s. I plan to do it all this weekend. I like to get my supplies set out, put on a Christmas movie, and wrap them all at once. It’s just one more part of the season I look forward to each year!
Merry Christmas and happy wrapping!
Your wrapping is beautiful. I think that gene skipped me. I love wrapping but wish I was better at creativity with wrapping.
I completely forgot about Kirkland’s gift wrapping department. Yes we definitely had wrapped a lot of Christmas gifts at work in college. I remember one time Katie and I teamed up to wrap a rocking chair that I am pretty sure was fully assembled inside its awkwardly shaped box. That took a while but was fun working together to wrap it for Christmas.
I hope you have a very Merry Christmas!
Oh Heidi, that is hilarious!😂 What a cute memory. Those were such fun times working together! Merry Christmas!! Loved your Christmas card! ❤️
Aw.w thanks for the sweet shout out, however, you are setting the bar high for gift wrapping! My wrapping is sadly lacking this year even though I purchased all new wrapping materials, ribbons, and gift tags in Nashville this past fall! There are just so many in this wonderfully large and delightful family (and still growing!) for whom to wrap, so I’m having to resort to a quicker way. The trade off this year is that I’m on track to get all gifts wrapped this weekend and not late on Christmas Eve!!
That’s a great trade off!! 30+ grown kids and grandkids is a blessing but we certainly wouldn’t except you to keep up with the growing number of gifts to wrap every year. 😅 Plus, you lost your “wrapping elves” when we grew up and moved out of the house!😂 sorry about that!