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It’s less than a month to Christmas! Have you started ticking the days off your Advent calendar and your Christmas shopping already?

If you are still shopping, do stop before you pick up that overpriced Christmas wrapping paper or expensive gift tags. Often, once the aftermath of Christmas morning is over, all that remains of your expensive wrapping is a pile of rubbish and paper which will all be thrown away.

So, this Christmas, why not exercise some creativity and save on your Christmas wrapping with these great tips? Your recipients will love your creativity and you will love the savings you have made!

Kids artwork

Kids are naturally creative and what would bring more Christmas joy to a parent or grandparent then seeing their a home made gift and wrapper from their precious ones?

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Start with a piece of brown paper and let your child stamp all over the paper with pretty stamps which are quite inexpensive from the craft stores. Alternatively, get them to exercise their creativity and decorate it with their crayons, glitter, beads and sparkly sequins. Wrap up the gift with this paper, finish up with a pretty ribbon and you have a beautiful and personalised wrapping paper at a fraction of the cost!

Tip: Older children can even make their own gift tags and cards to go with the gift.

More saving tips on Christmas wrapping below.

Fabric

Fabric makes a great alternative to wrapping paper with its different textures and colours. You can buy fabric scraps very cheaply from cloth shops like Kamdar or Nagoya Textiles. Trim it to the right size for your gift, finish up with a pretty bow and you have a beautiful and uniquely wrapped gift sitting right under the Christmas tree!

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Tip: Fabric scraps are a great wrapper for odd-shaped presents!

Magazine advertisements

This is a great tip especially if you have lots of old magazines you are thinking of disposing. Simply remove the advertisement pages of your magazine to create your own funky and unique wrapping paper at almost zero cost! The glossy magazine pages make it a great wrapper!

If you don’t have magazines on hand, don’t fret because comic pages in your newspaper do more than making you laugh. They too make great wrappers and who knows, your gift recipient might find themselves laughing at the comics again too! If you are worried about your recipient’s fingers getting black and dirty from the ink, iron out the pages with a cool iron to set the ink.

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Tip: Do try to look for colourful advertisements to add a burst of colours to your presents.

Gift bags

Some presents are given out in gift bags or gift boxes. These make beautiful packaging and often, all you need is a pretty ribbon to compliment the present. However, instead of throwing them away after you have taken out the gift, why not keep them to be recycled the following year?

Otherwise, unleash your creativity and create your own special gift bag easily with a paper bag and colours!

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Tip: If recycling a gift bag, just ensure you do not give it back to the person who gave it to you!

Sweet wrappers

Stop before you throw away that crisps packet or sweet wrappers. Whoever would have thought they make great wrapping paper too? Often, sweet wrappers such as Mentos, Smarties and M&Ms come with lots of vibrant colours perfect for presents. Crisps and biscuit wrappers also make bright and lovely wrappers and are often made with glossy foil material which make it strong enough for wrapping. Simply clean them out, dry them and you’ll have a great wrapping idea that is environmentally friendly as well!

Tip: It will be best to use wrappers that are outside and separated from the crisps or biscuits with another foil layer to avoid grease stains.

Brown Paper

“Brown paper packages tied up with string, there are a few of my favourite things” – Sound of Music

Whoever said brown paper was boring? Some of the best gifts come in lovely brown paper packages tied up with pretty string! Brown paper is cheap and versatile. You can decorate it or colour it any way you wish or create an elegant package with plain brown paper.

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Tip: Buy your brown paper in a large piece to wrap many gifts.

Christmas can be a highly stressful period for some who are determined to find the best gift for their loved ones and with all that stress, it is easy to end up spending a lot of money on gifts that may not be suitable. so before you go into a shopping frenzy, take a deep breath, shop smart for Christmas and save on your Christmas wrapping with these tips. Despite the economic doom and gloom, you can still have a great Christmas!

Do remember that the best Christmas gifts are not the most expensive but those that come from the heart.