Festive wrapping inspiration

I don’t know about you, but I love wrapping Christmas presents. I tend to set aside a weekend afternoon, put on some festive tunes, pour myself a glass of wine, and take over the entire living-room floor with paper, tape and tags. In fact, it’s become something of a seasonal ritual.

I always think beautiful packaging makes a gift seem that little bit more special, but that doesn’t mean spending lots of time and money on fancy ribbons and ties. So, here’s my take on easy yet stylish wrapping.

Simple parcel paper is always my favourite choice (there really are few better things than brown-paper packages tied up with string!), and this year I’ve mixed it up with a bit of plain white paper. White wrapping paper can be hard to come by, but you can always buy another colour and use the other side – just make sure it’s thick enough to prevent any pattern from showing through.

For the decoration I’ve opted for grey and white baker’s twine (available via my shop), grey gardener’s twine and simple white string. I try not to worry about tying anything too neatly as I prefer a relaxed, natural look, though I often use double strands on larger parcels to give them a bit more impact.

For the tags, I’ve chosen a combination of brown and white luggage labels, which are easy to find at post offices and craft shops. If, like me, you have a cat who likes to play with presents waiting under the tree, you can tuck the gift tags behind the bows to protect them.

As a finishing touch, I’ve slipped a sprig of festive foliage under each bow. I’ve used leaves and berries from the woods, along with a few branches snipped from the back of our Christmas tree, but almost anything works – flowers, holly, ivy…. It’s best to leave this bit until the last minute to stop the greenery from dying, but if you need to wrap anything further ahead then I’d suggest using eucalyptus or fir, which will slowly dry out without shrivelling up.

So there you have it – wrapping that’s very quick, very easy and very pretty!

Photography by Abi Dare

P.S. There are more gift-wrap ideas on my Pinterest page – just click here.