As my husband well knows, one of my favorite soundbites of the holiday season is my doppleganger, Lucy Van Pelt, exclaiming: “You know, Santa Claus and Ho-Ho-Ho and mistletoe and presents to pretty girls.”  But he also knows that I love PRETTY presents… where the wrapping is the pretty part!

In the spirit of Clever Girl Organizing, I wanted to share some holiday gift wrapping ideas which go along with my theme about organizing, in general:

SIMPLE * INEXPENSIVE *

REUSE WHAT YOU HAVE * CLEVER

Think about what you wrap in:

• Buy solid color wrapping paper or gift bags (red, green, silver, gold, white, blue) and use it year round. Emphasize the holiday or event with the ribbon or tag you use.

• Reuse newspaper (how about the comics, for kids gifts?) or beautiful full-page images from magazines. This time of year, most women’s magazines are filled with pictures of ornaments, decorations, etc. They’d make a great wrapping paper for small gifts.

source: sustainablewellesley.com

• Repurpose items from around the home, like a map or sheet music. Or have kids color pages from holiday coloring books to use to wrap grandparent gifts.

• Don’t use paper at all!  Use fabric remnants… especially the ones you might have around the house, that you’re saving for… what, exactly?  Tie up with ribbon, like a pouch, or use glue dots or heavy-duty double-sided tape to fasten ends together.

source: greeneyedmomma.com

• Find creative (but clean) containers: Pringles cans, tennis ball cans, Chinese food containers, pizza boxes, cookie tins, paper towel rolls, etc.

• Use a paper that can become your canvas for other work:  Craft paper or chalkboard paper!

source: goinghometoroost.com

• Use this site to make  your own holiday word search paper and use it for your families gifts! Add all the family’s names in there, and just circle the name for the gift recipient.

Gift tags, in a whole new way:

• If you use chalkboard paper or craft paper, you can write the names directly on the paper, with a chalkboard pen (different than chalk) or markers.

• Think about a fun paper or item that can be used to put a name right on the package, rather than a tag:

source: northhomewww.blogspot.com

• Christmas ornaments (personalized or generic) make a creative tag or tag holder.

• Make paper snowflakes, with a wide enough center (without holes) to write names on them.

• Use fridge letter or scrabble tiles:

source: HGTV.com

• Preprint labels, with Santa’s handwriting, which, of course, is different than mom and dad’s.

• Reuse last year’s holiday cards! Cut out the images from the front, writing the names on the back.

http://www.rufflesandstuff.com/2011/12/recycling-christmas-cards.html

• Cut trees or shapes out of paint chips:

http://www.createcraftlove.com/2012/12/paint-chip-gift-tags.html

Ribbons and embellishments:

• Ribbon is great, but yarn, twine, raffia and bakery string all work well, too.

• Decorate the paper with stickers, glitter, rubber stamps, or draw/paint a theme:

source: HGTV.com

• Washi Tape is great fun! Don’t know it? It’s a paper tape, decorative and easy to work with.

http://babbledabbledo.com/washi-tape-holiday-cards/

• Attach live flowers, plants or herbs; holly, bay leaves, spruce sprigs, pinecones, rosemary, pepper berry, with bakery string, etc. (Be sure to stay away from any item that would harm kids or pets if ingested.)

source: creativesoulspectrum.com

Finally:  In a pinch!  Grab a last minute wrapping option:  Aluminum foil or brown paper bags!