I have hosted several wrapping parties but they were for a group of friends. They brought their gifts and wrapped them. We just kind of pooled our supplies
BUT that being said - here are some thoughts in addition to what has already been shared:
- On your sign up form, have a place where parents can indicate if they want their children's gifts to be labeled as coming from Santa
- Will you offer a special Santa paper? Plain red? Other?
- Will you give people the option of bringing in wrapping paper with the gifts? Could offset your supply costs but you'd then have to keep track of whose paper is whose. OR maybe on the form that you'll do your best but they may get some things with different papers?
- Also a place on the form to indicate how they want all the gift tags filled out (the non from Santa ones) - they may want to write in their own names as the giver or maybe not - but it would be good to know what they want ahead of time! The Smith Family? Bob and Bev? You don't want to be guessing that at the last minute!
- Another sign up form idea is to have the person list who is authorized to pick
up their gifts - and set an expectation for the timeliness of people doing so and what happens if they don't show up
- You might also want a disclaimer at the bottom of the form -
this is a free service in the spirit of the holidays. Blah, blah, blah not responsible for missing items. JUST in case someone tries to pull a fast one (I would HOPE not! Do they want COAL for Christmas???) and in case of actual mix-ups that could just happen! You could try to make it funny and Christmassy but still get the point across.
- Perhaps request that gifts arrive separated into groups by recipient - in trash bags or baskets or large paper shopping bags? So this bag is for Billy and this bag is for Sue - and individual gifts (i.e. there is only one gift for this person) all have the recipient's name written on something taped securely to the gift?
- Will you be wrapping stocking stuffers too? That is more of a planning thought - if you don't want to be faced with wrapping a bunch of small things it would be good to set that expectation up front - once again on the sign up form.
- I found that almost everyone at my parties forgot to bring their own scissors -
some remembered tape - so plan to have a good supply on hand for all volunteers
- Will you accept items that have to be arranged in a gift basket? If so, will you be providing those supplies? (Baskets, filler, cellophane wrap, etc.)
- In the middle of a wrapping session - if needed- you could use sticky notes to temporarily keep track of what gift is for whom - this could even allow you to setup an assembly line
- On that note, doing a large effort like this would probably lend itself really well to an assembly line approach!
One station to greet/accept and sort (keeping groups of items together) and get them to the next station as a spot opens up.
Stations for the actual wrapping - with a side area for anything that needs to be put in a box with tissue paper like clothing.
Station(s) for bows, ribbon or other embellishments. Hot glue guns at this station would be fun - to glue on extra doo dads and embellishments as desired. If using wired ribbon to make bows have staplers on hand.
Station(s) for adding labels and grouping items together again for transport/pickup. Any gift without a label on it yet could be required to have a sticky note on it/with it at all times?
You'd probably also want to have someone (or a couple of someone's) who keep a running list of groups of gifts that are finished - with a place to check off when they are picked up (and make sure the person is authorized to pick them up) Maybe this person(s) has the original forms people filled out - or copies of them?
I'm just brainstorming here!
Lots to think about!
- Finally it would be a great touch to have drinks (coffee, cocoa, tea, etc.) and low maintenance food items on hand to keep the volunteers going - in addition to playing Christmas music of course! If there is a TV around play classic Christmas movies with the volume turned down - just for the ambiance!!! lol
This is a
wonderful idea! Let us know how your plans are coming and if there are more details it would help to discuss!!! I'm happy to chat with you directly too - I'm a party planner from WAY back so I am very comfortable with creating planning documents, spreadsheets, etc. to capture every element of an event!