Christmastime was always fun for me as a kid because my mom put so much thought and effort into not only the gifts she bought, but also into how she wrapped and distributed them. Over the years she’s come up with several awesome ideas, because it’s her love language to give gifts to others. So I am thrilled to welcome her on my blog today to give a super simple Christmas gift wrapping hack that’s especially awesome for big families.
It’s a great way to build anticipation about what gifts are under the tree, who they’re for, and what they are, while also allowing for some organization to sometimes an overwhelming situation at unwrapping time!
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The easy and fun way to organize & wraps gifts for big families
It has taken me a couple of years to figure out but after adding five grandchildren to our family in a short time span, I soon discovered the need to organize my Christmas wrapping more systematic manner.
One of our family traditions at Christmas is to go around the room one at a time when unwrapping gifts. This not only gives each of us the opportunity to share in the experience, rather than everyone opening at the same time and no one knowing exactly what the other person received but also allows for acknowledgement of who the gift was from.
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In addition to this idea I have tried to insure that each person has the same number of gifts to unwrap. This can be a challenge if one gift is more expensive than others but there are solutions.
- A quick trip to the Dollar Store can still make this an enjoyable experience
- I have been known to make adjustments by grouping items together to equal out the number of gifts.
I simply bring all the gifts into the living and spread them out, making one line for each grandchild and then group accordingly to ensure that they each get to unwrap the same number of presents.
As our family has grown so have the number of gifts.
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This can present a challenge when trying to pass out gifts especially if tags have fallen off and I am left frantically trying to recall what that particular item was and for whom it was intended. And that’s when I figured out a great idea for a gift wrapping hack that would not only be a life-saver come Christmas day, but it was also FUN!
I now wrap each person’s gifts in their own wrapping paper and no tags are needed.
By making this simply adjustment I no longer have the need for name tags that get misplaced and it can even add to the suspense during the approaching days or weeks as family members try to determine which gifts might be theirs.
They can shake and guess all they want but no one will know for certain until the night we exchange gifts!
My family has also spread out over a number of miles this year and as an added bonus this simple adjustment has made it much easier to prepare for traveling.
Since most people wrap gifts with multiple styles of paper anyway, this is just a way to mix up how it looks under your tree while still having a system & organization. So scramble them up, don’t tell the kids which wrapping roll is theirs, and make it a fun guessing game all the way to Christmas day.
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Teresa is Kara’s own mother! Professionally, she is a retired National Board Certified Elementary Physical Education Teacher. She is now the grandma to 5 beautiful babies and is the planner and coordinator of games and activities for the toddlers, preschoolers, and young kids at her church.
Jackie
Kara, your mom is BRILLIANT. I seriously love her. Lining all the gifts up, grouping things together to make it all even-Steven… I love her system! And the WRAPPING PAPER. Oh my. I’m pretty much giddy. I seriously can’t believe that I’ve never thought of that before. Gosh, it makes EVERYTHING so much easier – the handing out, no lost gift tags (worst nightmare on Xmas morning), and YES, the kids can’t snoop NEARLY as effectively. Your momma is one smart lady, Kara!
Kara Carrero
Jackie, you are SO sweet! My mom sure does put a lot of love and planning into Christmas and that’s part of why it’s so special. It’s even just the small little things that can make such a big difference, right?!
Jenae
Wow! What a great idea! Thanks for sharing…we are going to try this!
Kara Carrero
You’re welcome! It’s such a simple, but fun little trick that even helps the youngest kids who can’t read sort presents and hand them out.
Terri
I love this idea!! Absolutely brilliant.
Jennifer
The photo shows gifts that are wrapped so badly. I would have expected pretty paper and properly wrapped gifts.
Kara Carrero
They’re wrapped just fine and the holidays are about fun, not necessarily perfection. Love, care, and thought went into planning and buying for every grandchild and that’s far more precious than a perfectly wrapped piece of paper that’s going to get torn off anyway. Because that’s not what the kids will remember.
Anon
Wow… just wow. This reminds of a comment soneone said about my Christmas tree… “it’s covered in junk” well, yes if you compare it to magazine trees because nothing really matches but when you know, the ornaments are made one per child every year and tiny Christmas momentos from Christmases spent with other’s. So let others have their beautiful & keep on with the fun! Those presents look totally fab! I have 3 children of my own so will be using this trick for them too… I was sold at the suspense of who’s gift is who’s! 😀 thanks very much for the tip!
Rita
Dear Jennifer, my Christmas wish list for you:
– ability to see the beauty of self-made things
– Christmas spirit in your heart
– a poster to hang on your wall “Must remember: If I have nothing nice to say, I should say nothing at all”
Wishing you and your family a loving Christmas!
Thank you Kara for this wonderful post – I am a new grandmother with only one grandkid but will be saving this fantastic idea for the future. Your presents are wrapped not only in beautiful paper but with the greatest love and care. Precious!
Anon
Oh my goodness Jennifer, what a stuck up and snarky thing to say . They look great, what a smart idea!
Judy11
I have been doing the single paper per person for years at my house. For a variation, each person can be assigned a color – red, green, white, black, silver, gold, blue -you would be amazed at the amount of colors of Xmas paper. Or even pick a pattern for each person – snowmen, penguins, santa, animals, disney characters, stars,etc. Makes it fun for them to hunt for their packages under the tree. And if you don’t want to remember whose paper is who, give each a card with a sample of ‘their’ paper inside, to b e opened first.
Kara Carrero
Oh I love the idea of the card! What a simple, yet effective way of making sure everyone has the right packages. I also saw someone else mentioned that you can wrap their stocking stuffers up in the same paper and then that’s a good cue as well. So many fun, effective ways! And you’re right, there is everything under the sun in terms of wrapping paper. So easy to get something each person would love.
Jenae
Yikes Jennifer! If you think that is poor wrapping, I would hate to think what you would say about mine! I think the gifts in the photos are beautifully wrapped!!
And I totally agree that it isn’t what it looks like on the outside that counts anyway, it’s the thought and love that went into the gift itself!
Sheila
What a great idea! I’ve also heard where in the toe of each person’s stocking, you put a little piece of ‘their’ wrapping paper, so then they know which paper to look for to find their gifts.
*I* think the gifts in the photo are wrapped just fine, thank you… there’s absolutely nothing wrong with the paper or the wrapping job. Just sayin’…
Kristina
What beautifully wrapped gifts! We often just use gift bags and I always wish I was talented enough (and patient enough) to make mine look this pretty. I think I am going to try to wrap all of our gifts this year and try out this idea. I also love how you go around the room and take turns unwrapping the gifts.Usually we have 20 plus people and taking turns takes forever, but this year we just have our own little family and I can’t wait to try it out!
Crystal
What a great system! I find myself recounting and reorganizing over and over again each year to make sure I have the same number of presents for each child and it gets kind of stressful! I love the idea of being able to just match the paper, count the gifts to make sure they are even, and throwing them under the tree 🙂 And I like the idea of building suspense, too. I’ve never thought of that before, but we may be starting a new tradition this year! Thanks for sharing.
Tove Maren
You should SEE the gifts that are wrapped under our tree – it looks like a toddler wrapped them… and no one cares – or notices.
However, on a positive note – I love this idea. With four kids, we could really use this tip!
Clare
Oh wow I’m so doing this this year. We had tags fall off last year such a disaster!!
The presents are wrapped beautifully. I’m so bad at wrapping presents that I have in the past actually told people my toddler did it when really it’s all me!!
vanessa levin
Absolutely brilliant, thanks for sharing! Anything that takes a little less stress out of the hectic holiday season is a good thing in my book. I flunked gift wrapping 101- these gifts look beautifully wrapped to me! I have resorted entirely to gift bags due to my poor gift wrapping skills. Internet trolls deserve coal in their stockings and a copy of the Grinch DVD. Merry Christmas!
Sharon Harding
What a great idea for families with more than one child! Brilliant! I love your photographs. The gifts look so colorful and pretty. Those grandkids must be pretty excited!
Cindy Howell
My mom started doing this about 30 years ago and now I do it. It makes wrapping gifts and then organizing them soooo much easier!
Shelah
What a great idea! The presents all look great, I wish that i could wrap that many gifts so well.
Melissa Ann
This is such a great idea!! I love this. Thank you to your Mom for sharing. My own Mother is trying to get the guts to write a guest post on my blog 🙂 so YAY to your mama!!
I think her gifts are beautifully wrapped, and MORE importantly, she clearly has a BEAUTIFUL heart!! Merry Christmas to your family!
Monica Lynn
What a lovely display of gifts under the tree. Beautiful! And this is such a great idea. It makes thing so much simpler and easier for the person wrapping the gifts (me!) and it creates anticipation for the kids! Thank you for sharing this with all of us who could use suggestions for simplifying things during this busy time of year.
cindy
I did this for my kids when they were little (they are in their 30s now). They always knew which was their pile of gifts. Try to find there favorite character (Ninja Turtles, Frozen, etc.) They love it!
Jodie
Such a neat idea. These are the memories and traditions that will be passed down through generations. I love to see how families organize for the holidays.
Kim
Love this idea! I never have gift tags handy and end up scribbling the name on the package and then later cannot locate where I wrote it.
trixi
Loved your ideas especially the idea about each person having their own wrapping paper…brilliant! Looking forward to your next post 🙂
Linda
I am definitely going to use this system. Such a wonderful idea. Here’s a hint: Moms, if you have kids who still believe in Santa, you may want to hide the wrapping paper you use for their gifts. Now that they are adults, my kids informed me that was how they knew I was Santa. They saw their gifts from him were wrapped in the same paper they knew was in my supplies!!! So now I keep some rolls of wrapping paper hidden from the grandchildren. I make sure to have a separate bunch of wrapping paper for everyone to use for gifts for each other, and for gifts from me to them, but I keep my “Santa” giftwrap hidden They always get some gifts from Santa, but also some from Grandma and Grandpa, too.
Kara Carrero
Hahaha, yes! My mom always says I knew by the wrapping paper 😉
Lowell
This is Kara’s dad. If you have an item that needs to be returned to the store, keep the receipt out of the hands of those who can read if the believe in Santa. We were returning a gift one year and Kara noticed that the gift from Santa was listed on the receipt. She was probably in first or second grade at the time.
Maureen
Yup, I always kept separate “Santa” paper hidden. My youngest (now 14 1/2) just talked about this and wondered where it was, as he had looked through the regular paper, and it was never there!
Maureen
I have 6 children and for a few years, I would pick a random list of numbers and assign each child a number. I wrote their number on their gifts, but kept the list hidden and didn’t reveal until they tried guessing which set of gifts was theirs. They loved this. I love the idea of each having their own paper. It is not needed now, as my husband and I typically now give each of our grown children 1/4 beef, so there isn’t much under the tree anymore, but they enjoy the gift all year.
Yvonne Grosella
I hope Jennifer got to read the replies to her comment and that she ULTIMATELY grows YOUNG with WONDER and APPRECIATION ❣️🎄❄️❣️🎄❄️🎄❣️
The presents were wrapped
perfectly & beautifully🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
Thank you for these awesome wrapping hacks
…a “Must Know”🥳🎁💖🎁🥳
A Merry & Blessed Christmas to all, including Jennifer🥰🎄🥰
Stay well & stay safe 😇🙏🥰