Do you have lots of gifts for wrapping, and don't know how you're going to get them all wrapped before the holidays? Many hands make fast work, and this is no exception!
The holiday season is filled with all sorts of wonderful activities ---baking treats, shopping for neat gifts, decorating your home, celebrating with family --- but we often run out of time to accomplish all of the coordinating tasks. Make it easy on yourself and your friends this December, by hosting a Gift Wrapping Party. You can share the wrapping responsibilities with your friends, and everybody wins by completing the task in an engaging manner and by creating varied and colorful wrapping themes. Follow these simple guidelines for creating your own fun and easy gift wrapping party.
Choose a date and send out invitations
- Choose a day and time that is practical for your guests. Perhaps that time will be during the day if your friends are all stay-at-home moms with kids in school. Or, the best time may be a weekday evening, when your friends have some free time.
- Don't worry about sending out a formal invitation --- this is the perfect opportunity to blast-email your friends with your fantastic invitation. Use email as an easy way to have them RSVP their attendance, and then you can send out the following instructions to the attendees.
Guest Instructions
Email the following instructions to the guests that will be attending.
- Bring your own scissors and tape
- Bring at least 3 rolls of holiday gift wrap (1 each of elegant, kid/fun, and traditional themed wrap) and 2 rolls of ribbon to use and share (we're creating a gift wrap potluck)
- Bring all the gifts you need to get wrapped
- I will provide a variety of gift labels, some women-friendly snacks (aka chocolate), beverages and the holiday ambience.
Party Set-Up
- Make arrangements for your kids to play at a friend's house or to go to a movie with their father, if the party will be held during non-school hours.
- Maximize the holiday cheer in your home --- build a fire, play holiday music, use seasonal aromas to set the mood.
- Set out a small buffet of treats --- cookies, candies, chocolates --- in a pretty arrangement. Use a dark colored tablecloth or length of fabric to cover levels created from inverted bowls or stacks of books. Place simple white or transparent plates of treats on the levels, and dust the entire buffet with powdered sugar, for a wintery effect.
- Create wrapping stations wherever there is available space --- on the kitchen or dining room table, on temporary card tables in the family room, or even on an ironing board placed against a wall. Each station should have markers or pens and labels on it and a recycle bin or trash can nearby.
- Assign personalized gift areas. These spaces should be out of the way and identified by the name of each guest. This space is where your guest will store her unwrapped and wrapped gifts as she is working on her other presents.
Party Schedule
- When your guests arrive, collect their gift wrap and ribbons, which you will distribute throughout the wrapping stations. Have each guest deposit her unwrapped gifts at her assigned personalized gift area.
- Offer your guests a glass of wine, coffee or their beverage of choice. Explain that there is gift wrap, ribbons, markers and labels at each wrapping station. The guests are to move from station to station, depending upon which wrap they wish to use. They will take their own scissors and tape with them as they move through the area. They can use their personalized gift areas as a storage location for their other gifts. At any time, they can stop by the buffet, refill their drink, or help one another with excess wrapping.
Conclusion
When all the wrapping is completed, you can choose to return the remaining wraps to your guests or to keep the extra stock for your next gift wrap party. Take turns helping one another transport their presents to their cars, and enjoy the camaraderie and time management that this party has afforded you!
© Text by Janice Benoit. [November, 2006]. All rights reserved. Any unauthorized use will constitute an infringement of copyright
