Creative Ideas for Wrapping Christmas Presents

Creative Christmas wrapping ideas that are free and or easy to do using items you already own. All the doable ideas will get your gifts in festive holiday style in a matter of minutes.

I am at the finish line to Christmas preparations. I just completed wrapping presents that I bought to give to family and friends this year.

I can now sit back and enjoy the days up until Christmas Day. I have everything that needed to be done checked off my to-do list. :-)

Do you have a lot of gifts to wrap and want to get the task done quickly, but in an elegant and festive way?

Here are a few gift wrapping tips, ideas and even gift tags for you to use that will coordinate with any style and color gift wrap you are using.

Gather Christmas Gift Wrapping Supplies

To get started, first, go around your house and gather a few supplies beyond just paper, scissors and tape.

  • If you have any craft supplies or office supplies, head there first. I bet you will find many items that can be used to wrap gifts this year.
Gift-Wrap-and-Craft-Room

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Creative Christmas Gift Wrapping Items to Consider Using:

  • Kraft paper, maps, sheet music, brown paper bags, butcher paper, and freezer paper are just a few types of paper you can use besides ready-made holiday gift wrap
  • Any gift wrap or bows you may have on hand
  • Yarn, ribbon, tulle
  • Glitter
  • Spray glue
  • Gift tags  – A collection of Free Printable Gift Tags
  • Christmas greeting cards that you may have saved from previous years
  • Vintage brooches or old junk jewelry
  • Office file sticker labels
  • Scissors and clear tape

I gathered all my gift wrapping supplies on my work table and started wrapping.

Having set up a gift wrapping wall in my studioffice makes wrapping a gift much easier.  If you don’t have a work table, a kitchen or dining table is the next best surface for wrapping.

You can find how I set up my craft room in this post:  Studioffice Tour

Creative Christmas Wrapping Ideas

1. Free Printable: Minimalist Gift Tags

Free printable Gift tags that are printer ink friendly

I recently made free printable minimal gift tags. I wanted tags that will coordinate with any color or style gift wrap as so many found online have a distinctive style or color.

Plus, unlike many other free printable gift tags that use a lot of printer ink to print, these will be friendly to your printer cartridge.  I printed the tags on white, red and green card stock.

Christmas wrapping ideas elegant and minimal

The gift tags are designed to be used both vertically or horizontally. They can be glued directly on a gift with a glue-stick or can also be punched with a hole to tie on a gift with a ribbon.

Minimal Gift tags free printable
Free Printable gift tags for all occasions

The link to print them out can be found here:

2. Christmas Gift Wrap Done in Minutes

I worked for Nordstrom one Christmas many years ago. They used tulle when they wrapped their signature boxes. Since working there, I have used tulle as a fast and elegant way to embellish a gift. It is what I call, elegantly simple or simply elegant.  Either way you look at it  – gifts wrapped in tulle are very festive.

Tulle-Ribbon-for-Making-gif

Tulle is sold in rolls at craft and sewing stores. It comes in many colors and it very inexpensive.  Some rolls even have sparkly glitter which looks especially festive for holiday gift wrap.

Gift-wrapping-tips-and-tric

I bought it in a few colors since I think a little sparkle always looks right for the holidays.

Easy-Giftwrap-Idea

As you can see on the flat package above – a small piece of tulle packs a lot of punch.

Gift-wrap-ideas-with-tulle
Inexpensive-Holiday-Gift-Wr

3. Add Glitter to Make Any Wrapping Paper Look Festive

If you have old paper that is faded or wrinkled, or if you simply want your gift to say festive and holiday, glitter your gift wrap. All you need is some spray glue and a container of glitter.

White and green wrapped gift for Christmas sprinkled with glitter

I like using white glitter, but gold, silver or any color glitter will look just as festive.

How to festively wrap a Christmas gift in a hurry.

And don’t stop at just glittering the gift wrap paper. Glitter the whole wrapped box, ribbon, bow and all.

I had a pre-made bow that was a little smashed, but when sprayed with spray glue and sprinkled with glitter, it came to life again.  I placed it on a paper snowflake to give it more pizazz.

How to wrap a gift in a creative way using glitter

4. Use Satin Ribbon, Old Jewelry or Jingle Bells

Nothing says what an elegant gift more than satin ribbon.  I look for satin ribbon all year long and when it goes on sale. I have even been lucky to find a few rolls at my local thrift store for 95 cents a roll.

Holiday-gift-wrap-Ideas

I also use all sorts of leftover ribbon and snippets of pretty items that I have accumulated over the past year to embellish wrapped gifts.

Vintage looking pins and earrings are perfect for embellishing bows. I find them in the bargain bins at the craft store and at thrift stores.  I think they make a gift look extra special – as do jingle bells. I hot glue the pins on and thread the jingle bells through the ribbon or yarn.

5. Use Two Types of Ribbon Scraps

If you don’t have enough ribbon, use two different types of ribbon for one gift.

Wrapping-with-scraps-of-rib

Since satin ribbon is a little more expensive, I use every scrap.  It is fun coming up with ways to use the smallest pieces. Here I wrapped a small piece around a small box.  I used tape to secure the ends.

How-to-tie-a-bow-with-ribbo

I then took a piece of tulle and placed it under the satin ribbon and made a bow with it. This hides the tape and creates a box that anyone would be delighted in receiving.

Thrifty-Gift-wrapping-Ideas

Add a tag and it is ready to go.

6. Repurpose Old Christmas Cards to Make Gift Tags

Save each year’s Christmas cards you receive to make budget-friendly gift tags.

How-to-make-gift-tags

Some Christmas cards are just too pretty or cute to throw away.

Ideas-for-using-old-Christm

Cut out designs, words, or images that you like or think is a good fit for the recipient of the gift and punch a hole in them to use as free gift tags.  Reuse, repurpose, and recycle at its best.

  • When cutting out your images, always cut out an extra part of the card above the image to make the hole using a paper hole punch. This way the image stays whole.
Used-Greeting-card-craft-id

When attaching the tag to ribbon: thread the tag onto the ribbon right before you start to make the loops for the bow.

You can write  To: and From:  on the back of the cut out images so you know who every wrapped gift is for.

7. Label Stickers Can Become Simple Gift Tags

No-gift-tag-idea

On some gifts, I don’t use gift tags. I use white office file stickers on the underside of the box and just write the recipient’s name.

Holiday-Bokeh

Have you finished wrapping yet?  What are your favorite ways to wrap the gifts you give?

Christmas-Creative-Gift-Wrap-Ideas
Free-Gift-Tags-to-make-for-Christmas-gifts

More Creative Christmas Ideas

Now that you have all of the gifts wrapped or at least have a plan, don’t miss the ideas for budget friendly Christmas decorations for your home.

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25 Comments

  1. Lisa Marie says:

    I’m late to this party (obviously) but your gift wrapping ideas are adorable and they are not just for Christmas. I hope you had an enjoyable holiday season!!!

  2. Very well Explained! Great work!

  3. Linda L Weeks says:

    Thank you, Diane, for all you do for us all year long! Merry Christmas and a happy New Year!

  4. I do like the look of tulle ribbon, but found that my cats went nuts for it a few years ago, practically destroying our packages under the tree. It was like catnip! I now like to use grossgrain ribbon rather than the usual Christmas ribbons on sale. It can be purchased throughout the year in all colors when you have those extra coupons.

  5. I use wide wired red ribbon on packages of every size. Sorry but no pre made bows in this Santa Workshop. I add little jingle bells or small stars or snowflakes for added appeal. Of course candy canes make children’s gift a double treat. Take two and make a heart shape with them on top of the box. I have an under the bed box filled with ribbons and add ons. After Christmas sales are my stock up time. I also have another under the bed box for all other occasions.

    Thank you for all your great posts.
    Merry Christmas to you and your dear family.

  6. I pick gift bags with outdoor scenes and staple green or white garland around the top of the bag to make them look more 3-d.

  7. I love using yarn or rick rack as ribbon on my packages. It’s resuable and if you’re transporting gifts from your home to another, they stack better with these items rather than slick, shiny ribbon with a bow.

  8. eric cortes says:

    I like your who-ville style image. This would be perfect for the project that I’m currently working on. I’d like to ask for your permission to allow me to use this image. Thanks and best regards.

  9. Definitely wrapping in Elegance. Absolutely Gorgeous for all season too!
    We thank you for your amazing creativity and inspiration!

  10. I’ve got to say, I hate wrapping and the finished product is seldom satisfactory, however your simple ideas should really help me look more professional.

  11. Barbara @ DIY Home Staging Tips says:

    Another lovely and helpful post. Thank you, Diane.

    I’ve used tulle as well. I always keep white on hand because it seems suitable year ’round — birthdays, weddings, graduations, anniversaries, whatever. I also use it to “top-stuff” a gift that’s in a paper gift bag, the kind with handles. I can never get tissue paper to look good as a “top-stuffer,” but with tulle, it’s easy and can be recycled by the recipient. I am sure you have the real name for what “top-stuffer” is!

    I like satin ribbon and I like grosgrain as well. I also keep pipe cleaners on hand to add to a bow. I shape them around a pencil first to make “spiral whiskers.”

    Love all your ideas. Merry Christmas!

  12. I too, cut up my Christmas cards this year for gift tags. My husband looked in the card pile as laughed that there were no fronts to the cards. I wished I would have thought of this years ago. Such a great and simple idea to recycle and repurposed. Merry Christmas!

  13. denyse@crazy beautiful life says:

    Diane, I just love these gift wrap ideas. I had to go pin a couple of them.

    I’m having a PINTEREST Social hop. I’d love for you to hop on over, grab a button and link up your Pinterest. If you don’t have Pinterest it’s ok, come link up your blog.

    http://mydailyphotojourney.blogspot.com/2012/12/pinterest-party.html

    I’m also looking for Pinterest Pinners to feature every week beginning in January. If you are on Pinterest and are interested in being featured come link up! Who knows you might meet some other great pinners and gain a few great ideas.

    http://mydailyphotojourney.blogspot.com/2012/12/looking-for-pinners.html

    Have a crazy beautiful week!

  14. I use one of my mom’s old pins (she died in ’91) as an ornament. It’s a favorite, and adds to the other memories I have of her on my tree.

    The top photo with the package of the aqua bow is quite similar.

  15. These are fantastic! How do you cut the ends of the tulle to make them look so finished? I’m all thumbs when it comes to bows, but these look doable/promising.
    Just love your blog, appreciate how thoroughly you explain/photograph each step!
    Thanks!

  16. These are just too pretty to unwrap! How lovely :)
    Merry Christmas!!!

  17. I never, ever get tired of your blog. Everything that you do is so well done. You could definitely give Martha a run for her money. Merry Christmas, Diane! :)

  18. Cheryl B. says:

    Diane, I’m always excited to see your email in my box! The sun is shining on fresh snow here today, and your beautiful pictured ideas are making the morning even brighter.

    Many wishes to all for happy and safe holidays.

  19. Diane, your presents look so pretty! I am going to use that jewerly idea from now on. Your blog is one of my favorites…you have such great style. Everything you do is so classy. Oh, and tell your husband I made his eggs benedict this morning. We love his recipe! Merry Christmas to you and your family.

  20. Hi Diane,

    I wrap my gifts in much the same way you do – I love using leftover Christmas cards for gift tags, matching them to the package wrap, etc. One difference… years ago, my mom sewed up numerous reusable Christmas gift bags in various shapes and sizes. She used a variety of Christmas prints and lush-looking fabrics. I use and re-use these, so I seldom use paper gift wrap any longer. You gifts are beautiful, however – very stylish!

    Merry Christmas to you and yours!

  21. Jackie Bowen says:

    These are wonderful, Diane, and best of all, doable! Thank you for continuing to contribute beauty to our lives, even at this hectic time. I was having a lower moment this morning and this has perked me up and refocused where I want to be. Merry Christmas!

  22. Athena at Minerva's Garden says:

    Wow–these gift wraps are gorgeous, Diane. I am a sucker for satin ribbon, too! The idea of using tulle is very pretty and one I will use in the future.

  23. How absolutely smart you are and so kind to share with us out here In blog land. Merry Christmas! I pray you are blessed in return!

  24. I love to wrap gifts! I only use bags when the gift is too awkward and will work best with a bag (or if I’m in a time crunch). I like your idea of tulle because it will travel well without squishing out of shape. Ok, and I’m going to save my cards from now on….thanks for the ‘how to’ tips on using them!

  25. Kathy @ Creative Home Expressions says:

    Your gifts look beautiful, Diane! Love the idea of using tulle. I’m going to have to pick up various colors when I see them. I never seem to find such pretty bling at my thrift stores. I’ll have to start checking yard sales, I think. Love your recycled tags from Christmas cards. You’re right about printing out the free ones. I’ll be saving all my Christmas cards this year for next year’s tags! Merry Christmas!