Gift wrapping is an art. It is an extension of the gift itself, showing extra love and care in addition to the thought you put into its selection.  Truth is, the Christmas tree doesn’t look complete until it has dozens of presents under its lowest branches.  They are an organic part of the decorations.

What makes a beautifully wrapped package?  A friend has done her tree in white and blue, and all of her packages are black, white and gold.  It looks terrific! I prefer red, green and gold for my own tree and packages, but the truth is I have all of the colors of the rainbow on my 2-300 ornaments, so almost any color wrapping will do. I just want it to be colorful.

Second is the care taken with the wrapping.  It is important to use a big enough piece of paper so that none of the gift shows through and you can fold neat corners and edges. When the paper is wrapped around the package, there should be enough over that you can crease it and fold it under to make an almost invisible seam.

Third, of course, is the ribbon.  It should be coordinating or contrasting.  Stick on is fine, as long as it is big enough for the package.  Too big is not a problem.  There is no such thing as too big a bow, and if my bow is not big enough I stick on two or three for good measure.  I use stick on bows mostly, but if I had enough time, I would go the traditional way with ribbon wrapped around the package,  On occasion I’ll use curling ribbon and wrap the ribbon around the gift, tying on lots of curls.  If you need to know how to make curls with curling ribbon, check youtube.

Last is the tag.  Tags are important, even though they are occasionally skipped if the gifter and recipient are both going to be present.  I love to buy special gift tags at Costco that are 3-D and little works of art all by themselves, but stick on labels are fine if they are festive and appropriate to the rest of the wrapping.

A word about bags.  My husband loves bags because they can be recycled, and he has a good point.  They are also very fast and convenient.  What I do find, however, is that lots of people just plop the gift in the bag and consider it done. I do try to arrange tissue paper so that it sticks out like flower petals and find a nice tag to tie on.

My husband thinks that wrapping packages is a waste of time and money, but I disagree.  I love to see beautiful gifts collecting under the tree in anticipation of the big day.  They are little boxes of potential energy that add life and excitement to the whole Holiday season.

Go forth, wrap, and enjoy!