Gift Wrapping Fun (Part One)

It's December, so I know I don't have to ask if you're in the Holiday mood yet.  I try to hold strong to my "No Christmas to December" but retail stores and all you're cute posts about decorating made it really hard this year.  I did good except for getting my Christmas CDs in the car out 2 days early (N'SYNC and Hanson Christmas in case you were wondering, don't judge me).  I have a good excuse though, don't we always?  I'm heading out on a cruise right before Christmas so I'm losing 15 days of Christmas in the car during my commute.

But none of you want to hear about my upcoming cruise, although with this nice weather (at least here in OH) I'm sure no one is jealous.

I'm here today to show you some fun wrapping ideas for Christmas.  I have ALWAYS loved wrapping gifts.  When I was younger my mom let me wrap everyone's gifts....even my own.  Don't tell me you never did the pick out your gift and have Mom wrap it up for a "surprise" on Christmas morning.  I always got other real surprises too and would frequently forget the gift I picked out, so it worked out just fine.

I started my wrapping fun by doing my husbands gifts first.  He happened to be out of the house for a basketball game (since I am rarely at home without him there) so I got to work.  Our first Christmas together was last year.  It was actually our first EVER Christmas together.  The 3 Christmas we were together when dating (and even engaged) were spent separately with our own families.

With no fireplace at our townhouse, we set out to find the perfect spot to hang the stockings.  We considered below the TV stand, along the staircase, on the wall and under the window opening into our kitchen.  Guess who won?

I really do love this spot.  It sticks out into the hallway so it's a great additional Christmas decoration.  It also helps keep down on the amount of gifts since they get in the way otherwise.  Our rule is only gifts that fit in the stocking.  Is that always possible....no.  The day before I wrapped these I bought my husband some more early gifts for our cruise (dress clothes) so those obviously don't fit in.

Enjoy the little sneak peak of my Christmas decorations there!

Here they are all wrapped up.  I try to stick with one or two different wrapping papers.  My parents always wrapped my gifts from Santa in a single paper so that they didn't have to write our names. 

I tried to dress up each package with a bow or embellishment.  I always used some of my favorite bows on the husbands gifts because then I can keep them to re-use.  It's a disease I picked up from my great-grandma....savings bows, tissue paper, bags and I have been known to save wrapping paper pieces

What's my number one tool in wrapping gifts (besides scissors and tape)?  Yep, it's my foot.  I apologize to anyone getting a gift from me.







I have some slight OCD tendencies, so I get pretty crazy with making sure seams line up.  It's not always possible, but when it is I have to make it work.

Here we have simple and sweet with a sparkly bow.  Decided on green since my other paper is green.

This one got a fun red and white snowman ribbon.  It was short so couldn't be used on a big gift.  Since it's for my husband and I get to keep it after, I'll use it in a different way next year.

I really like the felt Christmas tree I attached to one of the gifts.  I hit up a lot of after-Christmas sales last year at various stores to add to my wrapping collection.  These felt trees came in a 3 pack and I got 3 or 4 different colors.  I plan on using others this year for family gifts to color code so I don't need tags.

Well, that's a wrap for now.  Hopefully I'll be back with a few more fun wrapping ideas as I work through all my gifts and get everything packaged (aka "Part 2" to this post).  I'm excited to wrap all the gifts for the baby girls in my family.  There are 4 and each one gets a cute outfit!  Here's a better look at the window nook we hung stockings...and by stockings I mean stocking.  My husband still needs to fill and hang mine. 

My dad cross stitched my husbands stocking and my mom finally got it put together for this year.  Mine is also cross stitched and I have had it for years.  I love how sentimental they are.  My dad is even working on ones for my nieces now.  I love that we will always have these and one day my kids will too!

Next up?  Hopefully our Christmas tree.

Who wants to take a guess on how many of the 4 packages for my husband are the same (or similar) items???  I'll be back to spill the beans on that after the Holiday!