Tuesday, December 4, 2007

The Pink Elephant and other ideas

I just realized I messed up on todays topic. Please forgive me, this is not a quick fix for supper.

Christmas is almost here and some that are really on the ball have presents wrapped already. For those that don't I would like to make a few suggestions for wrapping and having some fun with the presents.

When my five kids were growing up we never had much money for Christmas. It was always a difficult time for us yet God always worked things out.

The kids, like most kids, would be all excited and want to know what they were getting, since we had little money we did not want to give hints.

Another thing I hate is spending money on wrapping paper and such, that just goes in the garbage immediately upon opening the present.

Here was some of the things we did to save and have fun with presents.
  • Wrap things in an unusual way, using parts of the present. My one daughter wanted a sewing machine. We could not afford new, but did find a nice, overhauled one, in a table, at a used store. We brought it home and had no idea how to wrap it. For weeks before Christmas, when she would ask or beg, we told her she was getting a pink elephant. So, I decided to give her pink fabric and I made the sewing machine look like a big pink elephant.
  • We saved our Sunday funny section and used those to wrap gifts in, saved a lot of money.
  • There is the usual towel, blanket etc for a set, used as the wrap, grab a pretty ribbon and it works looks great.
  • Trash bags will work with some gifts. White ones the kids can decorate with markers for grandparents, siblings etc.
  • One year my husband worked out a treasure hunt for one of their gifts, usually the one they wanted most.
This worked for me, but I am also interested in other ways you wrap gifts.

3 comments:

Infinity Goods said...

Wow, very creative with the pink fabric elephant.

Mom2fur said...

The pink elephant is a riot! That's one gift that would never be forgotten.
Aluminum foil looks really pretty for wrapping paper, too, as does brown paper.
My mil is the one who taught me to wrap with the funny papers.
And I think your topic is appropriate today--maybe the reason a lot of us don't have anything planned for dinner is that we're too busy wrapping presents! Your ideas help with that.

ashley said...

Doing a treasure hunt is a staple in my family for large gifts! It was always so much fun to make the clues, and then watch the recipient try to unscramble them. :-)

I like your idea of the pink elephant! That's great. :-)