The most important thing about Christmas or any celebration is to bring YOU to the party instead of the commercial hype. We all get caught up in it, but one of the best ways to not try and buy satisfaction is to invest your time in making good gift decisions and then making what you have chosen look amazing.
Gifts come from you and should reflect your personality and relationship with the person you are gifting. To execute this well, you need to consider your whole gift offering and be confident. Excellence in gift wrapping is about confidence no matter what you use - newspaper, gift paper or a well thought out alternative.
In fact, your gift wrap might even be the gift, costing more than the gift inside. It's just a different mindset. A gift of pillow cases might for instance wrap some jelly beans or chocolate. Just wrap them up and tie a bow.
If you are a family guest at celebration lunch, wrapping a small token gift in beautiful napkin for each person brings the napkins into the lunch and replaces disposable napkins. (And is an excellent way of making an eco difference without lecturing your family!) If you are giving corporate gifts, give this year's wine in a reusable tote bag.
Gifts wrapped in gifts can complement each other. In this example, we're giving a cookbook wrapped in an apron. There are many ways you can vary this idea of course - for example, children - give a book wrapped in a tee shirt. Soaps wrapped in a scarf. Lipstick wrapped in undies. Anything flat and pretty makes good wrapping. Be bold!
The Greengrocer's Diet is a beautifully illustrated cookbook by veteran foodie Judy Davie and it's philosophy is simple. Eat what is seasonal. Not only is it more nutritious, it is also cheaper - saving you money to buy something beautiful to wrap the cookbook in, like an apron.
In the main image, we wrap The Greengrocer's Diet in an apron that also doubles as a tote bag from Gingerfinch. This apron is not only well engineered and beautiful, but it also comes as a kind of double double gift wrap because when you aren't wearing it for cooking, you can turn it into a tote bag for shopping.
All you need do is to take the book and simply wrap the apron around the book as you normally would wrap any gift, being careful to stop at the ties, which you then use to make your bow & secure the gift. You may need to wrap the tie around the gift a couple of times and double up your bow (gracefully). If you can't get the apron ties in the right place, use some cotton tape that compliments your wrapping and you are done!
The most dedicated wrapaholics save found & used containers and wrap all year, ready for the right occasion or gift to arrive. If you are a wrapaholic and a planner, you are really headed for a MGW (Masters in Gift Wrapping) because you can actually buy your everyday things with a mind to their precise second use. Good examples are the tins that deodorants like Nayki, No Pong, Noosa Basics & Fresh Pits come in.
While this tip is about wrapping a gift in a gift, if you don't want to double gift, please don't waste money, not even one cent, on gift wrapping. There are so many options for using music books, textile scraps, broken jewellery and brown paper bags to make your carefully chosen gift show the love with which you chose it. (Which, if it's Christmas, you can be pretty sure isn't a roll of crappy Christmas paper from the supermarket that looks just like everything else under the Christmas tree.)