Toy Thursday: Wrapping Presents with Toddlers can be a Game!

If you have a toddler in the house then chances are you are going to go through a lot of wrapping paper, bows, tape, and stickers this Christmas season. Unless you happen to only wrap gifts after toddler hours.

A while back I wrote about how I like to set up a wrapping station. This will allow me to wrap Christmas gifts as I get them (or have them delivered, rather) to save time later wrapping at the last minute.

This concept works great except when you want to wrap daddy's gifts during the day while he is away at work. Not only do you run into the problem of your toddler spilling the beans on his every gift (sorry dad, no surprises), but you run into the problem of managing your little elf helper.

So the other day, I did just that. I got out the wrapping paper and tape to spread out on the floor below my wrapping station. I also got out the scissors trying to keep these out of reach of little hands. And we started wrapping.

Judah was my big helper if you can only imagine. He unwrapped the roll of paper and proceeded to jump on it crinkling it all up. Next, he wanted to help with the tape and by helping I mean one very long piece of crumbled up on the gift box. He then found some stickers in with the gift tags. So I started him on decorating a gift box while I finished wrapping the other gift. This lasted until he stuck all the stickers on the box and because I was not finished, he wanted to move the stickers over to another box. And now you guessed it, we have remnants of Christmas stickers all over the house. Still he was excited about his sticker decorations, showing dad when he came home all the while telling dad what the contents of the box were.

And now days later, Judah walks around with little scraps of wrapping paper with rolled up objects. He pretends to give them to you as your present. Your part is too act excited and of course surprised (perhaps it is to find something you have been missing in the process).

It is all in good fun I suppose. Kids are what make Christmas memorable including the chore of wrapping gifts. Just turn the chore into a game and a fun activity. And forget about perfect looking wrapped gifts knowing that the time spent is more important doing it together. I may be wrapping twice as long and cleaning up more after the fact (not to mention the floor needs vacuumed now), but it is fun to have my little elf be my helper.

Make Monday: Gift wrap your own Box!

Now that Christmas season is upon us, it will soon be time to start wrapping presents. Many people wrap presents as part of their Christmas festivities while some simply check off this chore from their to do list.

Personally, I like to wrap my presents as I get them. Setting up a wrapping station for the month of December eliminates the stress and hassle of waiting at the last minute. My parents on the other hand enjoyed wrapping everything together before Christmas day. I can remember waiting with anticipation as they would bring one wrapped gift after another from their room every few minutes. As they put it under the tree, us kids would try to guess who it was for and keep track of how many we had.

Looking though for a different way to wrap gifts. This year I have a whole lot of finger painted banner pictures from our many projects to use as wrapping paper. In the past I have enjoyed using recycled paper bags for an antique look with giant fabric bows. Colored cellophane also is fun to use to wrap odd looking shapes. And of course, recycle cards to use as gift tags.

Here is one of my favorites though that could involve a family craft....I discovered this delightful, pretty way to wrap a shoe box from a friend who gave us a box of Christmas cookies once. I even liked hers so much, I store Christmas decorations inside.

As you wrap your regular presents, save all your small Christmas scraps of wrapping paper. Then recycle an old, empty shoe box by decorating the scraps onto the box as a collage. Use clear tape to overlap different pieces (shapes and colors) onto the box . Decorate the lid so that the box can still close. Line the inside with tissue paper and store the gift contents inside.

Happy Gift Wrapping!