Wrapping A Christmas Present

[RIDISNEYLOVERS]

I am hoping someone can help me.

I have to come up with a way to wrap a Christmas present as uniquely as possible. The gift will probably be a gift certificate and the gift has to be incorporated into the wrapping.

To make it a bit more interesting we also put a wager on it - $5 per person so the total "jackpot" is $40 - a pretty good amount of money for being a little creative in wrapping a present.

I would like to get some of your ideas on what I should create - please if you give a suggestion let me know what materials you think I would need and the way to do it so I can get a clear picture so I can make it.

I have never won the "jackpot" but hey I didn't know about the Dis any other year. I am hoping I can be crowned the winner this year with the help of your creative ideas.

Thanks in advance for your help. I am looking forward to getting some responses!!

Lisa

 

[Snow White]

Can you give an example of how they've done it in the past to give us a better idea about what you're looking for?

 

[crazyme5kids]

Wrap yourself up! Use the tin foil like wraping paper (or even tin foil) Put bows and ribbons all over, and then put envelopes and small boxes hanging off that have to be opened. They can just be empty or write little sayings in them. Your gift certificate should wraped up on you so that when all the envelopes and boxes are opened, you must be unwrapped to get the gift!

 

[RIDISNEYLOVERS]

Sure I can give you some examples - warning - some of these may be hard to beat but I have faith in my Dis family to help me out!!

My DH has won 3 years in a row - so he is hard to beat because he is very creative!!

Last year DH made (from scratch) a gingerbread man. He purchased fabric, cut it out and sewed it by hand and stuffed it to make it look like a cookie and decorated it with gum drop buttons, eyes, a mouth, a bow tie and trimmed it with shoelace type string. It truly was a great job and he put a lot of effort into it - he was the winner.

I made a wreath made out of sandwich bags. A wire hanger was the base where you can hang it up and the bags were cut into strips and tied onto the hanger and then spray painted green with sparkles and a red bow.

Some others through the years were a washer machine amde out of a cardboard box with a lid that opened and inside had an agitator (also made out of card board) and blue metallic ribbon - the present was a warm up suit in the washer machine.

For Christmas 1999 there were some really good ones with the Y2K bug rumors going around. DH made a computer (monitor, tower, keyboard and speakers) out of cardboard. He put broken styrofoam for the monitor screen and fake "bugs" crawling through it. Very unique he even had a mouse and a mouse pad (Mickey mouse of course).

The millenium ball that drops on New Years Eve was made out of foil and stuffed with newspaper to make the sphere shape.

A fireplace with small stockings hanging and smoke coming out of the top (incense burning) and the present was a GC to Home Depot in $10 increments that filled the 3 stockings hanging from the mantle. This was also made out of cardboard and he painted each brick!!

A small amateaur replica of the Empire State Building - again this was made out of cardboard boxes and gradually got smaller and smaller - the present was a bottle of perfume and that was the small box on the top. This person colored windows to make it look real.

A melted snowman on a mirror. Three different sized balls made out of cotton looked like they melted and made a puddle of water (mirror) the hat, carrot (nose), coal (eyes) and twigs (arms) were laying on the mirror too.

The scene in the movie "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas" where the dog is hanging off the cliff was recreated!!

A candy cane made out of the core's from packing tape and the rounded end was a Leggs pantyhose container. Made with red and white packing tape.

A life size spool of ribbon.

A reindeer made out of wood.

A Christmas tree made out of garland.

There are some others but I just can't remember them.

Thanks again for any help you can give me.

Lisa

 

[RIDISNEYLOVERS]

Also, this may be helpful information for you too.

This is kept a secret until Christmas!! No one knows what you make. You have to wrap it in a black garbage bag to transport it.

My grandfather opens all of the bags by himself (he does not participate) and lays them out and gives each one a number.

Each person is called into the room - oldest to youngest to make sure their gift is presented the way it should be - at this time we can do any last minute touch ups!!

Once everyone has 'fixed' their gift we have a piece of paper and we number it from 1-8 (8 people participate) and we have three columns. One column is the person who we think made it. The second column is the person who we think the present is for and the last column is the rank we are giving it based on creativity and uniqueness.

The one that has the most #1's is the winner. After that is established then the gift giving begins.

We start with #1 and the person that made #1 will go and get the gift and give it to the person it is for and they open it up!! Sometimes you have to ruin the gift in order to get your present.

This is a TON of fun and it prolongs the whole gift giving and opening process. What is fun too is seeing if you were right on the person who made the gift and who it is going to.

Just a note that may help.

Lisa

 

[Disney845]

What kind of gift certificate are you giving?

 

[RIDISNEYLOVERS]

I am not sure what kind of GC I am going to give.

When we pick the names we write down a few gifts that we would like and also we put our favorite stores down. We try to make it a little bit easy for the person buying the gift!!

 

[Cindy B]

See, it would be very helpful to tell us what kind of GC.

If it was a sports one, you could do something with a cut tennis ball or something like that.

Target, you could do something with a dartboard/target practice

Best Buy, you could do something with the letter B, or the word Best.


Books, well you could hollow out a book, or make a hollowed out book

 

[wovenwonder]

I collect snowmen and my BIL knows this.

He always comes up with some creative gifts for all. Like the year my son wanted a tree stand to use for deer hunting -- -he received a christmas tree stand -- well -- it WAS a tree stand!

But my gift was the BEST. He wrapped a large barrell that said handle with care -- keep frozen! Well I opened the barell and took the lid off and inside was a hat, scarf, carrot nose, coal eyes, and stick arms all laying on the pile at the bottom of the barrell with some snow and water in there too. Ofcourse it appeared like he was giving me a 'real' snowman but it melted into a heap! It was a gift I'll remember forever.


Forgot to mention that my gift certificate that year was for a variety package of frozen meats. The note enclosed said the BIL thought he better give me the gift certificate and I could pick up the meat -- as sometimes he doesn't handle packages with the best of care.

 

[Disney845]

Ok, maybe these sound stupid but.......

Idea 1: Cristmas Dinner

Make a long wooden table (cardboard?) then totally set it up with fake dinner ware, silverware, and then the dishes of food you customarily have (make it look like a miniature version of the table you will eat from) try to paint the dinner plates the same pattern and everything. Make all the food like you would make a pinata and paint it all. Put the gift card inside of the turkey and have them "carve" it to get the card out! If you get really ambitious you could even put chairs around it and make little people dolls decorated like your family members.

Idea 2: Birthday Party

(Got this idea from someone here on the boards) I don't know if your family does the whole "god" thing, but since it is christmas maybe you could make a birthday party for christ. Out of a big box make a room with a table and furniture. Have happy birthday banners and decorations all over the room. Have a pin the tail on the donkey game (with all the tails placed around it like they played) have a birthday cake that has lightup candles (get a miniature battery powered white light set, put it inside of the cake with the light parts poking out). Have opened presents all around with "god" like gifts (the three wisemen gifts, etc...) the only unopened present will be your gift.

Idea 3: Cristmas Lights Fiasco

(Got this idea from a cristmas card) Build a mock house. Put snow on the ground out side and maybe a snow man. Make a big jumble of christmas lights that is all tangled up into a messy ball and put it on top of the house with a line running down to plug into the power outlet. Make a little sign that says something like "After 14 1/2 hours Bob decided not to untangle the christmas lights this year." Put the gift card inside the front door, or in the mail box.

If these are anything like what you are talking about I hope they help!

 

[Baboo]

How about a mail box? You'd take a large box and paint it to look like a mail box and put a slot in it for the mail to go in. Then you could take a pile of envelopes and put a joke or a cartoon in them all. The person would have to open all of the envelopes to find the one with their gift in it.

 

[RIDISNEYLOVERS]

Just Bumping Up!!

Thanks to all that have responded!!

Anyone else have any other ideas or suggestions???

Lisa