Tips for Letting the Kids Help Wrap Holiday Gifts
I love sharing fun and useful products for parents! Some links I use are affiliate links including links for Amazon.com. I get paid a small commission without additional charge if you purchase from the links. The commissions fund this site to bring parents fun and helpful content! Thank you!
It’s December, and that means all the kids are hyped up for Santa, and all the parents have a million tasks to do.
If you play your cards right, you can turn the gift wrapping into a fun activity for the kids and lighten your to-do list, or you could also set up a gift wrapping station and create a fun family evening of wrapping gifts for family and friends!
Learning to wrap gifts is a good life skill for kids, and can tap into their creative side as their excitement overflows!
Here are a few tips for letting the kids help with wrapping gifts. Some ideas are for younger kids and others for older kids, so choose carefully!
Kid Wrapping Ideas
Remember that having the kids help may require some teaching time, set up, and clean up, but the added charm of giving a specially wrapped gift from a child will add to the sentiment of gift-giving!
Older kids will be able to manage more independently and can help younger kids as needed as well!
Pre-wrap gifts in a solid color, or use solid-colored gift bags, and let younger kids decorate with stickers, crayons, or markers. If you are brave, let them do a little fingerprinting on the box or bag.
Sticking with the solid colors of paper, kids can make thumbprint holiday decorations like the ones in the Klutz Thumb Christmas Book or use stamps to create patterns on the paper or bag.
If the kids need spelling or handwriting practice, they can use markers or crayons to write out holiday words in a pattern on playing wrapping paper. Happy Hanukkah! Merry Christmas! Joy! Santa!
Have the kids create origami boxes for gifts by watching this tutorial.
Here is a video tutorial teaching kids how to wrap gifts.
How about turning a gift bag into Rudolph?
Glue on some confetti or glitter to spice up a package.
Kids can cut shapes from scraps of wrapping paper to tape or glue to presents.
Share some ideas on how to make guessing the gift inside tricky. Add some pasta, pennies, or unpopped popcorn inside a gift box in case a recipient likes to guess what’s inside! Wrap a gift inside a bigger or differently shaped box.
Ribbons and Trimmings
Here are a few ways kids can add the extra trim to a gift…
Have a box handy of craft odds and ends, ribbons, buttons, or anything that could be used to decorate a gift further.
Here are 5 Different Ways to Tie a Bow on a Package and How to Curl Ribbon tutorials.
Use old cards or wrapping paper scraps to craft gift tags for presents. Add a Holiday joke, trivia, or a riddle to the tag for an added touch.
Set up a Wrapping Station
All of this fun can get messy fast. Have a plan for clean-up before starting. Then set up bins for…
gift bags and tissue
tape, scissors, glue, and pens
gift tags, old cards, extra paper for creating tags
rolls of wrapping paper
box of craft odds and ends
keep a trash bin close by
You are ready to begin! Whether you set up a family wrapping assembly line or a free for all wrapping station, I hope you got some good ideas here for getting all of your gifts ready!
Need more parenting ideas and tips? Check out these posts…
