Ideas for making Santa gifts look special

[FrostyShimmer]

Hi everyone,

I'm thinking I would like to make Santa's presents look different that the normal presents under the tree.
My thought right now is to wrap them in Brown packing paper for an old-fashioned Christmas kind of look. Does anyone have any suggestions for how I might dress them up to look really special?

Here are a few ideas I've thought of:

- A stamp that says "Inspected by Elf #XXX, Elf Union, North Pole" (Found on Ebay)
-Using pretty ribbon in a select colour for each family member
-something involving pinecones, little bells, cinnamon sticks.

Any ideas appreciated! I've already wrapped DD's gifts in brown paper just in case she finds them again (and I wrapped six gifts for under $1 in paper!), but they look awfully plain and not very alluring for a child. I'm not dead set on the packing paper idea, so any other ideas are also appreciated.

Thanks

 

[sloanmama]

We have always made the Jolly Guy's gifts look different from ours. I actually wrap our gifts to the kids in the brown paper and usually tie it up with twine and tulle and pretty ribbons because these gifts are under the tree all from the time they get wrapped until Christmas morning. (I always think of the song from The Sound of Music when I see the gifts under the tree "brown paper packages tied up with string... these are a few of my favorite things)

But the kids gifts from Santa have ALWAYS been wrapped in candy cane striped paper. I have never had a problem finding candy cane stripe paper (though, I usually stock up with enough for a couple of years at a time) and my oldest son is 12 now. So, in 12 years... I've always been able to find the candy cane stripe paper. As far as fancy ribbons/bows/tags... Santa's presents don't get any of the frills. I mean (as I have told my kids for years) all the bows and ribbons would get crushed in his sack! So, he just does the wrapping paper and we print address labels on the computer with the kids names on them so they know which gifts are theirs.

Another idea I heard about somewhere and thought was super cute was the the kids get a scrap of wrapping paper in the toe of their stocking and in order to find out which presents under the tree from Santa are theirs, they have to empty their stocking and find the scrap of "their" paper. Of course, if you only have one child, this wouldn't work. But, I have 2 boys and if I didn't already have the 12 year tradition of the candy cane stripe, I would do this idea.

Good luck figuring out your wrapping paper tradition! If you want to see our Santa paper... you can check out my Elf blog (link in my signature) The second post down on the home page shows a good pic of what the paper looks like.

 

[HouseElf]

I like the Kraft paper idea, and bells are great! Here: is an idea with bells from Southern Living

I also like this idea from Brooklyn Limestone: naughty or nice tags

From etsy: special delivery tags

 

[luludou]

The special tags are great!!

 

[MrsSoup]

I always buy some type of paper with Santa on it and then hide it so the kids don't see it and those are their santa gifts. The rest are wrapped in different colorful paper. I like the paper in the stocking idea, but we usually do our stockings last. Hmmm, will have to think about that for this year. I saw it on Pinterest a while back and then forgot about it.

 

[Minta]

Each year we buy 2 rolls of Santa wrapping paper, each different from each other. One child's Santa gifts and stocking stuffers are wrapped in one of the Santa paper while the other child's santa gifts and stocking stuffers are wrapped in the other Santa paper. On Christmas morning they have to check their stocking and match that wrapping paper to the gifts under the tree. NO TAGS on Santa's gifts as that is how I found out as a child, I recognized my mom's handwriting. All the other gifts under the tree are wrapped in Non-Santa wrapping paper.

I always wait until a few days before Christmas to wrap the Santa gifts just incase I pick up any last minute Santa gifts or Stocking Stuffers.

 

[Kim Loves Snow]

I also used candy cane striped special Santa paper. I used thick yarn and used calligraphy to make tags out of the manila tags that already have a string and a hole in it. I had the adults secretly swipe the tags as gifts were opened and I've been known to go through the discarded gift wrap to pull them out too. If you'd like to see a picture, let me know.

 

[missjane]

If you put in on a search engine, "gifts wrapped in craft paper," you can find all kinds of ideas about ways to wrap using it. Click on images...some really neat things out there.

 

[Winged One]

We are really boring - we leave the pile of Santa presents out in the middle of the room completely unwrapped...it's how both our sets of parents did it too..

The year DD was about to turn 1, we hid them under the rug in the middle of the floor - just so that we could get her to eat breakfast first. And then pulled it off.

 

[Kim Loves Snow]

Wings- my patents never wrapped Santa either. There was something magical about walking in on Christmas morning and seeing the Santa gifts.

 

[FrostyShimmer]

Thanks for the ideas everyone! Sorry it took me a few days to reply. My mother is visiting and I’ve been occupied.
Sloanmama – I like the idea of the striped paper. I think it would be harder for me to keep a pattern every year as I don’t drive or leave the house much…..sometimes I’m lucky to be able to get paper at all. The stocking idea is cute! I only have one now, but in another year or two my second should be old enough to get in on the fun.
HouseElf – Thanks for those links! The tags are really cute.
Mrs. Soup – We always had Santa paper growing up, but now I find that gifts from my parents and others sometimes come in Santa paper. I think it’s something people tend to pick because they think it would appeal to kids. Probably for my parents since they’ve always wrapped kids gifts in Santa paper, it’s just what they’ve continued to do.
Minta – That’s a good idea. We tend to do the passing each gift out one at a time thing. When I was a kid my Dad used to tag all the tags into work and have a friend fill them out so we wouldn’t recognize the handwriting. Then one year I left a letter asking Santa for his autograph.
Kim loves Snow – I like the idea of doing the tags with thick yarn on the manila.
Missjane – Yeah there are some amazing ideas out there. Came across one where you could use a woodgraining tool to make craft paper look like wood and then stack your gifts like a pile of firewood. Very cute and rustic.
Winged One – I plan on leaving a few gifts unwrapped. She is receiving a dancing singing Mickey Mouse that I plan to leave sitting out and a set of cars on tracks, which I want to set up infront of the tree….also a big ride-on turtle. She loves unwrapping, so I still want to wrap some of the things…but I’m taking most things out of their original packaging so everything will be assembled, have batteries installed, etc. Last year she got a slide and climber and I just threw a big blanket over it since she was up at 2 am.
KimLovesSnow – I had three brothers within a few years ago. I imagine if our gifts had been left unwrapped it would have been a battle at our house. One year two stockings were too close together and you wouldn’t believe the amount of arguing over who owned which bag of chips!