Do you wait for the after Christmas sales? I remember, as a child, my parents would drive to Black's department store in the wee early hours of December 26th, and park outside the front door, so my mother and I could rush in the minute it opened and snatch up the most gorgeous gift wrap and cards at half price! That was in the 50's and my mother, who had great style, would wrap the most beautiful packages the following year.
I have had my moments. I have had some Christmas's where I have wrapped incredibly beautiful packages and some Christmas's where I have been lazy or rushed and didn't put much thought or effort into my gift wrap.
This year, most of my holiday items were in a storage shed not far from the new home that we purchased on East Lake Okoboji two years ago. We finally sold our Minnesota home this fall and had to move everything out of my storeroom. Unfortunately it did not all fit in the new home, so we rented a storage unit and things like holiday decorations, cards and gift wrap were several blocks away and it was cold trying to retrieve things.
Thankfully, my husband and I were walking through Target in Minneapolis early in the season and I spotted an unusual paper for Christmas time. It was not red, green, gold or silver. It was a shiny, metallic leopard print! Well, our tree was gold and bronze, but better yet, our daughter's Christmas decorations, (tree, mantel and banister) were all in gold and copper. It was a winner!
Here are some of the packages that I wrapped for our family. Target also had darling crocheted animal ornaments that I used on my granddaughter's packages.
Our granddaughters are 4 and under 1 year. I thought the colorful ribbon looked appropriate, if not Christmasy.
The four year old guessed this package with the fairy was for her, right away.
The adults got some of the leopard paper, too. Some packages were simple
.
I had these yellow and brown snowman gift tags from previous years.
I used a variety of copper ribbons that I found locally. I found some as craft ribbon and some came from a special florist and was purchased by the yard.
I had also found a glamorous slate gray paper in Arizona after Christmas, last year. It had silver glitter on it, so I used that for the adult gifts, too.
The jingle bells had the Minnesota Twins logo on them! Those gifts were for my son-in-law.
This gift, for my daughter, had a darling bristle-y hedgehog tied on!
The men got some packages with brown paper and gold glitter leaves, which matched our tree this year.
My daughter's house was decorated in copper this year.
She has rust colored silk draperies and a brown sofa and brown velvet chairs. The coppery colors look good in her home from Halloween through Christmas!
I wasn't the only one to wrap coppery gifts. I got one too!
My daughter Katy is very artistic. She chooses such interesting wrapping papers. She used silk flowers as tie-ons.
Of course we had some Christmasy gifts as well!
And of course, this is what it is all about!
Happy "Sale-ing!"
