Sometimes I am accused of going overboard when decorating for Xmas. It’s not the typical way most people decorate. I’m not one of those people who string up 12,333,435 lights, nor do I put up nine trees in my house.

I like to decorate manually, mostly making all the decorations and putting it together myself. It’s very non-traditional and startling the first few times you see it. It has a better effect in person.

Much of what I assemble requires an inordinate number of boxes, hollow cardboard tubes, clear tape, several HUNDRED personal pictures, xmas lights, ribbon, etc. The trick is to use anything and everything in the house.

I stopped counting after using 600 pictures in 2011.

This type of decorating is ideal for having children help. The more creative and involved they are, the more interesting the display turns out to be. At least, for me that’s true.

I usually make several columns of boxes reaching floor to ceiling. I then paper them with different wrapping paper, affix about a hundred pictures to each, wrap them with lights, ornaments and ribbons. A couple of years I made them all intertwined. There’s no reason you can choreograph them to synch too, if you wanted.

Some of it is funny, such as the picture of Zach Galifianakis as Jesus, the zombies, and pictures of the grinch and Colin Firth.

I then also wrap dozens of “fake” gifts and sit them around the room. These “fake” boxes also make great places to hide real gifts, undetected. I also wrap stuff that we store, such as scrabble boxes, puzzles, etc. These then feel like real gifts, further confusing anyone looking for presents mixed in with the madness.

 

I don’t have video of the year from which most of these pictures were from. It’s shame, because the house would light up like a runway when all the lights were turned on.

 

In the above picture, you can see that there are boxes attached to the ceiling, too. There is some safe and strong tape and adhesive to attach this sort of thing so that it won’t cause a lot of damage. I love putting boxes on the ceiling, walls, floor, anywhere you can add color.

Another trick is to take down your pictures in frames, wrap them, and put them back on the wall. It adds another level of color and decoration to your room.

 

 

 

 

 

 

You can see the hundreds of pictures I used in these decorations. The above picture also have the Jesus-Zach Galifianakis picture that tickles me. When people come over, they usually spend a lot of time looking at every display, seeking out the pictures and identifying people, places, and times featured in them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you look on the presents to the right, you can see that each is decorated with pictures, especially of the intended recipient.

Everyone who knows me has seen that I can take anything and make it an interesting wrapping material for Xmas. Anything – with enough creativity.

For those of you lucky enough to have kids…

To get kids into the Xmas spirit, have them color or draw something they like. Or raid their coloring books and desks. Scan the image to a file. If you don’t have a camera, take the drawings to an office/copy store. They’ll scan it for a small fee.

Print the drawings in various sizes, colors, black and white, etc. Use these to wrap presents. They’ll be using paper they made and feel more connected to the process. They won’t be so stuck on how the packaging will look after they’ve wrapped it, either.

(Haven’t you noticed that people spend too much time focusing on how the wrapping looks? That’s just plain stupid in my opinion.)

Likewise, you can also scan stuff they’ve drawn or colored and give copies or paper to your friends and family. They can wrap your children’s presents with their drawings. The kids will be at least interested.

As for the other idea I often use… Print off pictures of the gift recipient. Use these pictures instead of name tags for all the gifts. This alleviates the need for a tag or emblem on the present.

Even small children who can’t read can recognize faces. It also allows for someone very young to be distracted on Xmas with the gift “hand-out” duties. They’ll have fun with it. To add an element to the process, use pictures of people from earlier ages.

If you don’t have a good printer, you can get 4 x 6 pictures for 9 cents each almost anywhere.

If you are feeling very adventurous, wrap presents using nothing EXCEPT pictures. These make some of the most memorable and best Xmas presents. Sometimes, people don’t want to open the presents because it will damage the pictures. Sometimes, presents wrapped totally in pictures are the ones that people remember, regardless of the range of price for everyone else’s presents.

You don’t have to use photo paper to do this. You can easily print off pictures on standard size paper and use it to wrap. Try printing on materials never intended to be printed on – it can be very interesting.

Final note: You can also do a ‘theme’ wrap for everyone’s presents. I personally love the crazy “Pitchforkkreeper” picture for gift wrapping. Nothing says “Christmas Spirit” like a crazy picture repeated constantly.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gift cards can be great presents for friends or family. They can be bought specifically to cater to the tastes of the recipient.

One aspect that everybody overlooks is how simple they are to wrap. Most people do the most boring option possible: they use the included little envelope or put the gift card in another simple envelope.

How about a more interesting and creative option?

One of my favorite ways to wrap a gift card involves pictures. Whether I use colored paper or black and white photos, I print off anywhere from 10 to 50 pictures, ranging in size from very small all the way through 5X7 and 8X10. Printing on colored paper but yet using black and white images is the easiest method. I place the gift card flat and create “layers” by wrapping the card with one of the smaller images. I carefully tape the first picture around the card and then flip it. I then put the second picture over the card. To add stability, sometimes I use increasingly larger envelopes. It makes unwrapping the gift card even more interesting. I continue to layer pictures one at a time, flipping the card/envelope stack as I go.

There have been times when I have layered 50+ images to the gift card! I’ve never had someone getting a gift wrapped like this not be totally excited by the process. Yes, they will often joke and laugh, but as each picture comes off the stack, they will look at the picture and talk about the memory of the image on it. Many times, my “ordinary” gift card becomes the one gift people will remember years later, even if they don’t remember any of the other gifts given, or the amount of the gift card.

Warning: this method I’m describing is VERY time consuming. But if it true that it’s the thought that counts, it shouldn’t be too difficult for you to spend some time wrapping a card like this, as it shows a commitment to the surprise. (Either that, or that you are crazy for spending so much time wrapping something.)

Above is an example of the resulting mess, about 10 minutes and 50 pictures later, she finally got to the center of the gift. 🙂

The left half of the picture above is someone holding one these “layered gift card” surprises before opening it. The right half is a picture of it after I finished it. The finished picture shows another detail that I sometimes do: I take little contact pictures and affix them to colored slivers of paper, which I attach to the main envelope with the gift card. Again, this takes a while, but it is fun watching a person get one of these gifts, especially a kid. Sometimes, they get frustrated at having to peel their present like an onion, but it always pays off for them at the end. (I’ve had kids almost refuse to tear into the gift cards wrapped this way because they are fascinated by how it looks when it’s not opened.)