Chapter 3 - Christmas Packages

Wrapping And Mailing Wrap It Right

It isn't magic! Wrapping a gift so that it is handsome, tasteful, and secure really isn't a trick at all, though it takes a little practice at the beginning. The basic procedures which follow are simple and foolproof.

One helpful tip is to keep all your wrapping materials together, throughout the year. Have a drawer or shelf or box that's handy, and stow them away. Get together a supply of paper, ribbons, tape, tissue, and gift cards (plus a pair of scissors that's attached to a long string, perhaps, so that it stays put and doesn't wander off on a dozen other errands). In addition, collect trimmings: fake flowers, a broken string of dime-store pearls, feathers, odds and ends of notions. You'll be surprised at the way they can spark up a gift wrapping.

That professional look which some packages have when we open them often lies in the fresh crispness of their tissue. All your gifts can have this look if you line the box with tissue in the following manner. Pleat each of two sheets of paper through the center: one to fit the length of the box and extend beyond it at each end, the other to fit the width.

Fit one sheet into the box, and lay the other across it, allowing the ends to extend equally on both sides.

Pleat fresh tissue to fit the box

Now add the gift. If it is fragile, or is to be mailed, gather extra sheets of tissue lengthwise and place them around the object, to keep it from shifting. Finish by folding the extended tissue inside. Write a card with your name, place it on top, and close the box.

Fit one sheet into the box; lay the other across it

Fold the extended tissue inside the box Try these ideas with tissue.

At each end, the paper should measure three-quarters of the box's depth

Line the box in a color to match the contents, or the color of the outer wrapping paper. Tissue is available in pastels and in red, green, and bright blue.

Use tissue that is dusted with sparkle in confetti colors, or in gold or silver.

Sprinkle sachet into the surrounding tissue on gifts of lingerie, hosiery, or gloves, for a personal, feminine touch.

Paste on bright stars or colorful seals.

Fringe or cut with pinking shears the tissue edges in lining boxes for smaller gifts.

Now for the outer wrapping.

Measure the wrapping paper and cut it to fit the box. Follow the accompanying diagrams closely, since they apply to a rectangular box of any dimensions.

Measure the paper around the box, allowing about an inch for overlap. Fold back excess, and cut off.
Measure the paper up three-quarters of the box's depth at each end, and cut off excess.

Seal paper at the box's edge with cellophane tape. Tape may be concealed by overlapping the ends of a small piece of tape, then folding, keeping the sticky side out. Place the tape between the edges to be sealed, and press them together firmly.

Tuck in paper at each end of the box, crease sharply, add tape (concealed in the same way as above), and press the end flaps against the box.

Measure the paper around the box, and cut off

Seal the edges of the wrapping with cellophane tape

Tuck in paper at each end of box, and seal

For a fitted wrapper, finish the ends with cutout circles

For a fitted wrap, trace the ends of the cylinder on the wrapping paper and cut out two circles. After the overlap is pleated, spread paste on the edges of the circles and attach one to each end of the cylinder.

To wrap a circular box, measure and cut the wrapping paper as for a rectangular one. Place the box on its side and roll the paper around it. Seal the paper with cellophane tape.

For wrapping, place a circular box on its side

Pleat the ends down flat, and seal

Pleat the ends down flat and secure with matching seal or tape.

How can a gift be wrapped if the box is too big for a sheet of gift paper? One way and it can produce striking results is to wrap the lid and the bottom of the box separately. Use two different papers that will harmonize or contrast attractively. Cut one sheet of paper to a size that will fold over the ends and the sides of the lid. Fold the paper over the sides and secure with cellophane tape. Fold the remaining flaps up and over the ends of the lid. The bottom of the box is wrapped in the same manner with the other sheet of paper.

Use two contrasting papers to wrap a too-large package

Ribbon and decoration can be used as desired, secured to the underside of the lid with tape.
 
The easiest way to wrap round gifts is to use the shape, rather than disguising it. Cover with paper, securing the overlap with tape. Don't tuck the paper ends in; tie them off with ribbon and cut them to make a spaghetti fringe.

Wrap round gifts to show their shape

What can be done with a boxless bottle of perfume? Cut the wrapping paper in two squares large enough so that the four corners reach well above the height of the jar or bottle. Place one square over the other so that they make an eight-pointed star. Center the bottle on this star, and bring the paper up to the bottle top. ¦X Fasten with a ribbon and fluff out the points of the star.

Ribbon can be used in many ways, now that cellophane tape does so much of the job of holding the paper on the box. Choose a color of ribbon that enhances the paper, ami try these decorative ideas.

Wrap around. Wind the ribbon around the gift box once. Cut and secure.
Basket weave. Wind three ribbons around the height of the box. Fasten the ends. Weave three ribbons between the stationary ones, around the length of the box. Secure.

Use tape to secure ribbon and decoration to underside of lid

Another treatment for a big box such as a coat box is to use two sheets of paper and wrap half of the closed box at a time. Start from either end, attaching the paper to the box, and join securely in the middle with tape. Cover the joined edges with ribbon.
To give a cylindrical package the look of a snapper the kind used at parties roll the box in paper which is long enough so that the ends may be gathered and tied. Use ribbon to tie the ends, and cut them in a fringe.

Wrap a cylindrical package to look like a snapper

Try an eight-pointed star to wrap a perfume bottle

Use ribbon to fasten the star at top of bottle

Crisscross. Hold one end of the ribbon at one end of the box. Wind the ribbon around lengthwise, cross the ribbon at the starting point and wind around the width. Fasten at starting point.

Double crisscross. Follow instructions given above, and repeat, forming two crisscrosses,
Single hourglass. Wind two or more bands around box. Tie together and separate the bands at the edges of the box.

Double hourglass. Follow instructions given above, then wind the ribbons around in the other direction. Fasten the bands together at one end of the box, and separate at the outer edges.
Corner cross. Hold the end of the ribbon at one corner. With the other hand, wind the ribbon in a clockwise direction . . . over a corner, under the next, over, then under and back to the starting point. Secure the ends.

Wrap ribbon around the box once, Weave ribbon around a package, Crisscross ribbon around a box, Try a double crisscross, Tie the ribbon in an hourglass shape, Try two hourglasses

Cross the ribbon over the corners, A double corner cross

Double corner cross. Tie the ends for a single corner cross. Reverse the direction. Wind the ribbon around the box in a counter-clockwise direction. Secure the ends at the starting point.

Add a bow for the finishing touch that will beautify your gift, but always make it separately. Never try to tie the bow from the same piece of ribbon you're tying up the box with. Tie the finished bow to the package with the knotted ends of the ribbon already in place.

Learn the basic bow, pretty in wide or narrow ribbon.

In making a bow, remember to pinch the ribbon tightly between thumb and fingers as the loops are formed and secure them with spool wire. Bend a short piece of wire round the center of the loops and twist the wire ends together tightly. 

Making a basic bow

A pinwheel bow saves ribbon

The ribbon-saver! Save all the short lengths for this easy, attractive pinwheel bow. Cut ribbon into strips 4 inches to 6 inches long, and tie together with spool wire. Use several different colors for one bow; or combine wide and narrow ribbons in contrasting colors for another.

For a rosette bow, use the same beginning technique as in the first basic one, making about 3 loops on each side. For variations: try placing contrasting colors one over the other; or use one color for half the loops, cut the ribbon off, and join in a second color to complete.

Some bows that are different.

Open a pair of scissors or use a kitchen knife to pull narrow ribbed ribbon into colorful curls. Do it either of two ways. Curl a yard or two, then gather it into casual loops and tie to the package; or tie on several shorter lengths and curl them individually.

A rosette bow

Pull narrow ribbon into curls

Make a small circle of ribbon around the thumb.

Add other circles, each slightly larger, until the bow is the desired size.

Pass a short strip of ribbon through the center loop and secure on the back.

Use crisp ribbon, and this will make a shimmering and unusual bow.

For a poinsettia, cut three red petals from crisp ribbon. Make one of each of these three sizes: 3 inch, *2½ inch, and 2 inch. (See page 48.)

Arrange petals one on top of another, with the largest on the bottom. Tie a knot in a strip of yellow ribbon. Cross two sets and tie together with the ribbon, placing the knot in the center.

Tie on the third set of petals.

Separate all the petals by tying across the flower in all directions. Lift all the small petals, then the next larger layer, then the third, until they all stand up. Add green leaves, made of ribbon.

Ribbon looped in circles makes an unusual bow

A poinsettia b

The beautiful poinsettia which is the result will be taken off the gift and cherished the nicest kind of Christmas bow.

Wrap A Gift With Imagination

Gift wrappings can be more than practical, and even more than beautiful. They can be, as well, intimate, funny, teasing, ingenious, or sentimental. They can reflect the gift inside or they can be deliberately misleading. They can make an inexpensive gift seem more substantial, since they speak so eloquently of the affection and thoughtfulness of the giver. Homely gifts, staples, necessities, all can become light-hearted. They say, far more than the words could say, "What fun I had, what care I took, how nice it is to give you a present!"

Allow time for this kind of gift wrapping. Manage some privacy away from the family and sit down with room, lots of materials of all kinds, and a devil-may-care spirit. Be as different as you like; anything goes. Finish wrapping as long before the holiday itself as you can; it's great fun to look at pretty, amusing packages and joke about them and guess. Pile them on a hall table, except those for little children who might not be able to bear the suspense, and those that would too clearly reveal what is inside. The following ideas may only start you on your own; sit down and wield your scissors and your imagination!

Don't overlook all the following aids to package wrapping that you'll find in the stores: cellophane tape; spool wire; casein glue; non-woven ribbons; tissue in many new colors; crepe paper in every shade; seals of many kinds; made-up ribbon bows; tiny painted wooden angels; sequins in many sizes, shapes, and colors; spray-on paint, in a large variety of colors, metallic and otherwise.

Commercial packaging is so handsome these days that all through the year you can acquire good-looking containers without thinking much about it. Find a spot in a closet in the kitchen, and start saving them, even though at the time you can't imagine what use you would ever put them to. Jars, bottles, glasses, berry baskets, plastic containers of all kinds, as well as boxes, can be spruced up with paint or gilt or glitter at Christmas and can make a package more handsome than one you might contrive out of the materials of the moment.

A book or the first magazine of a year's subscription, packed as shown in the illustration, is simple to manage and fun to receive. Cover the gift with real newspaper, except for a white strip at the top which will show, when the eyes are cut out. Then wrap the gift in red. Cut out eyes and an opening for the newspaper; paint on spectacle frames with ink marker; and paste on shiny black eyes.

An unusual wrapping for a book or magazine

Everyone can always tell a record; here the decoration makes a happy admission of the contents. White and black paper are attached to a box top, then the box is wrapped in gold. Cut out the drum, and paste on diamond shapes in vivid colors, and black dots. Drumsticks are plastic drinking straws, with crushed foil tips.

A drum wrapping for a record

Any gift for the golfer, whether or not it's a golfing gift, would bring smiles when given in this kind of wrapping. Put green paper underneath the outside decorative paper. Cut from the outer wrapping the shape of a golf green, so that the green paper shows. For the flagpole, twist white paper in a tight roll, or use a drinking straw. Add a triangle of red paper for the flag, wads of paper for golf balls; and a bow, if you like.

A wrapping for a golfing gift

Almost anything could be in this clock-box; whatever gifts come in round tins or boxes would be charming, wrapped this way. But you might use powder boxes for small gifts and hat boxes for larger gifts of any shape, and so puzzle everybody. You might even package a clock this way, since nobody will think you would be so obvious. Start as you would with any cylindrical package, then paste on a black paper ring to indicate the face. Paste on twelve dots, or gilt numerals. Attach gold or silver foil hands and a bow. (See page 50.)

If there's anything a child would like more than a present (aside from two presents), it would be a present with candy, too. This simple gift wrapping will be greeted with cries of delight, and many a child will feel compelled to try one of the lollipops even before he opens the package. Draw up your own design, starting with lollipops, a candy cane (or any other cellophane-wrapped candy), and dark shiny paper, ribbon, gummed tape, and stars to hold everything together.

A clock wrapping for a small gift

Candy decorates a child's package

Santa Claus is always a happy fellow for us to find on a package, no matter what our age. Here pieces of construction paper are pasted on a solid-colored paper to make a raffish Santa. A gift to Dad might well be wrapped in this way, for he'll be sitting there near the tree feeling just right to play the part of Saint Nick, himself.

Santa Claus appears on this wrapping

A jack-in-the-box Santa is made of a ping-pong ball, covered with pink gummed crepe paper and bearded appropriately with cotton. Bash in the back of the ball a little so that it will attach to the box better, and improvise cheerfully for the rest of this boisterous fellow.

Many a funny face can be made up out of a package, and it strikes a cheery note every time one sees it. This one is a pirate, but try others. Always start the face with the box tilted up into a triangle, and place the hat in one corner. Construction paper makes all the features; the earrings are gilt paper; our pirate has a brown-paper face. Suit the color of your wrapping to the clown, cowboy, or Indian that you've dreamed up.

For a gay package that is great fun to make, and easy enough for children, too, wrap the box first in a bright, solid-colored paper, the shinier the better. Spread on a thick coating of glue in whatever design you choose: a wreath, a tree, or a star. Sprinkle on multi-colored confetti, more than seems enough, and when the glue has dried, shake off the excess. Decorate the wreath with a ribbon bow, or the tree with a gilt star.

A pingpong ball is the start of this Santa jack-in-the-box

Confetti forms a gay wreath

Perhaps you're giving a man a shirt or ties and though you feel sure it's what he wants and needs, it still seems a little un-Christmassy. Try a funny wrapping that will turn the gift into a happy package. After making the wrapping paper secure with cellophane tape, tie wide ribbon around the package in a regular four-in-hand knot. Add anything that tickles your fancy; use a little ball ornament for a stickpin; or make a white paper collar, or a loud vest of striped paper. A bow tie is fun, too; if your man wears them you might use a real one on the outside, as a little extra gift. If the gift is for a woman, the package motif can be a blouse. Use a bright solid, or lively printed, paper for the wrapping. Then cut out a peter-pan collar of crisp white paper. It can be plain, scalloped, or frilly, as your imagination dictates. Paste the collar to the top of the package and fasten a row of ribbon roses, paper discs, or candy dots down the center to the bottom to suggest buttons.

For the golfer the trimming on the package can be an extra gift. In giving golf balls or any other equipment or accessory for the sport, punch a pattern of golf tees on the lid of the box.

Add a little fun to a prosaic gift

Decorate a gift for a bridge enthusiast with a perfect bridge hand of actual playing cards. Fan out the cards and glue them down; a cut-out hand in paper of another color (traced from your own hand), appears to hold the cards. Decorate one finger with a ring made of a seal, or the wrist with a paper bracelet or lace-doily ruffle.

A winning way to wrap a bridge-players gift

A very fancy package for a very important person can be wrapped in this simple, elegant way. Using a bold checkerboard or striped design in the paper, trim the box with a row of stars stuck out from the box on colored toothpicks. Attach the toothpicks to the box with more stars. Be sure to have two stars fastened together over each toothpick tip.

For the golfer, this package's trim is an extra gift

Stars add elegance to this package

His and Hers wrappings made with pipe cleaners

Any gift about the sea around us from a book on fishing to a pair of skin-diving goggles could be charmingly wrapped in this fishy wrapping. Use blue paper, and glue onto it a tin or plastic fish from the dime store; add horizontal strips of blue ribbon to show water levels; and tiny Christmas balls, in ascending sizes, to show the fish's bubbles.

To add a marine touch

Maybe your gift to a child is rather small even though it's just what he wants and you are giving his brother a pogo stick or something else enormous. You can catch his envious eye right away by using the right packaging.

Put the real gift inside a soda straw cage; it's simple and effective made with brightly colored sippers and a gift box. Cut out large windows in four sides of the box, leaving intact, the four corners, and a strip at the top and bottom of each panel. Glue soda straws to these strips from the inside, put your little gift inside (glued, so that it won't slide), and put on the lid.

HIS and HERS wrappings are entertaining for the couple's first Christmas and suitable for many a pair who've been married much longer. One easy way to make them is with pipe cleaners pasted onto bright gift paper; one in the shape of pants and one in the shape of a skirt. Spell out HIS and HERS in ribbon or tape.

A soda straw cage for a child's tiny gift

Someone who knits or sews will be pleased with pretty little trifles that acknowledge her skill. A bright red pincushion in the middle of green leaves is charming: stick sequins all over it with straight pins. Wind the wrapping round and round with red and green wool, for a different effect. Or, make rosettes of embroidery floss or, string tiny, shiny nylon thread spools across the package, in unusual colors. To start a young girl on her first sweater, give her the skeins of wool and secure the needles on the outside, tucked into the bow.

A sequinned pincushion for one who sews

A wrapping for a handyman's gift

For the handy man of the house, push nails (with large heads) right through the lid of the box, to spell out his name. Take care that the gift inside is protected from the points. Tie with wire or twine and ~ especially if there's a family joke about it finish off with a crisp rosette, of packaged bandages and a bow.

Adorn a gift for a student, from kindergarten to college age, with a row of red and green colored pencils. For boy or young man add a pocket, and clip a couple of ball-point pens inside. Out of white paper cut a pocket that is deep enough. When you glue it on be sure you don't press it flat have the pocket curve up, off the wrapping paper, enough to accommodate the thickness of the pens.

Pencil· mark the gift for the student

Games are a favorite gift at Christmas, for young and old alike. For fun, let your outside wrapping give a hint of what's inside. Using checkered paper, which you can make or buy, set up a checker game, in progress, with wrapped candy mints for checkers. Even though you glue them on, you'll be surprised how soon the tasty checkers disappear!

Try a package wrapped with different papers, half and half. This has a practical side, too, since it will use up odds and ends of papers and it's excellent for large or ungainly boxes. Make it dramatic, with bold contrast between the papers, or with one solid color and one plain white. Put seals in a strip down the joined edge; in the illustration we have snowmen.

Last year's Christmas cards can be used as a source of exciting decoration for packages. Cut out a Santa, or a resplendent, glittering tree, or balls, bells, snowflakes; anything beautiful will be fine. Make paper strips that measure ½ by 2 inches and pleat them. Attach the cutout design to the wrapped package by gluing one end of the paper strip to the design and the other to the package.

A tasty hint of the gift inside, Use cutouts from Christmas cards as decoration

There can't be a woman anywhere who wouldn't delight in frothy lace-paper snowflakes on her gift package. Cut out circles of various sizes from a doily and paste them here and there on a package wrapped in brilliant red, or green, paper. Tie the ribbon around the edge of the lid so that nothing interferes with seeing the pretty white flakes.

White snowflakes are pretty against a bold background

Wrap with contrasting papers half and half

When a gift fails to arrive, has to be installed, or is too big for the Christmas tree, give a promissory note. Get a clip board from an office-supply house; cover with gold paper; fasten a decoration to the top. With pinking shears, cut out a sheet of white paper; glue to a 1 inch larger colored sheet; add ribbon, seal, star. Clip note to board.

A promissory note tells of a gift to come

When the gift is large, another way to preserve a surprise around the house (from Mother, especially, who knows everything that goes on) is to buy and wrap a miniature of the gift to come; doll furniture provides stoves, refrigerators, washing machines, television sets everything. Wrap it tastefully as the small gift that it is, and keep the guessing going until the very last moment on Christmas Day.

If you find yourself on Christmas Eve, after the last delivery truck has come and gone, in that awful position of a person who counted on something that didn't come, there is something to do besides weep. Wrap a picture. Go through magazines for a picture in color of what you were waiting for; put it in a frame (even if you have to oust another picture for the day); and wrap the whole thing as gaily and lavishly as you can, with a note or card explaining what the picture represents.

This package can be opened without spoiling the decoration, so make it as pretty as you can. Mementos, letters, almost anything can be kept in it on the closet shelf, and the person you give it to will have a year-round reminder of you. One possible color combination follows; try any that you like. Cover 2 sides of a hatbox with black paper, 2 with white, and the lid with turquoise. Cut Christmas-ball shapes from colored paper; glue to sides. Above each ball, punch a hole; tape yarn end inside. To open box, just untie the yarn bow on the top.

This box will be perfect for keepsakes

Be the first one you know to make penny paper wraps for children's packages. Fifteen or twenty cents' worth of brand new pennies from the bank, glued at random on solid-colored paper, will make any child's eyes shine and will very nearly divert him from the gift inside while he unstuck the pennies for his pocket. Such a wrapping will make any gift more memorable, whether it is a token gift or an important one.

An engaging clown will delight children of all ages. Cut a circle, 3 inches in diameter, from shiny white paper. Slash from the outside to the center; overlap edges slightly to form a shallow cone. For eyes and mouth, use gummed seals. Glue cone to box; add ears and hat. To make ruffle, cut circle of gold paper, 8 inches in diameter; slash to center; pleat like a fan.

A clown wrapping for a child's gift

If you're going to visit a whole family or a family is coming to you make a merry package family. It's hardly any effort, particularly since the children will help on a project this engaging. The packages are first wrapped in plain white tissue paper, then colored papers (or use paint or crayon) are added to make clothes and features. Hold extra pieces in place with cellophane tape and decorate with bows of non-woven ribbon. You can have the most fun if you try to make the packages distinctly feminine or masculine.

A map! What could be more fitting as a wrapping for any travel gift, such as luggage, a cosmetic case, a man's toilet kit, or even books on travel. Maps are easy to find and free or inexpensive, and they solve the paper problem handsomely for large pieces of luggage. Almost any size box, or book, can be made up to look like luggage, if you tie on the ribbon to look like suitcase straps. With luggage itself, let the handle come through the map.

Package families are fun

Travel is the theme of both gift and wrapping

A way to wrap your gifts with great unusual-ness and no money except for the extras is to use the pages from the large-sized wall paper sample books. Many stores give these books away after they've become outmoded, and you might try your luck at securing one.

A house gift couldn't be better wrapped than in this little house. It would be particularly appreciated by a young couple in their first home at Christmas, and it's very easy to make. Cut off the two long flaps of a shipping box. Cut the short flaps to points. With a dull knife crease a piece of cardboard in the center. Cover with plain paper for roof. Cover the box in patterned paper. Paste on windows and door. Cut wedge shapes in the bottom of the chimney (small box) to fit the bridge of the roof.

Just about as easy as a package can be is one with a taped-on tree, yet it conveys Christmas equally as much as one with many more holiday props. Use green sticky tape for the tree, and decorate with shiny paper dots and the little colored bells that actually jingle.

This inspired gingham package is for a truly kitcheny gift: herbs, a pepper mill, spices. Cover the bottom and the sides of the box with red-and-white checked gingham, the top with bright green paper. Glue on the kind of gilt initials you can buy in sign shops and hardware stores, and the receiver may well be able to use the box for a long time to come for kitchen odds and ends.

A shipping box makes a little house

Sticky green tape makes this tree

A gingham-covered box for a kitchen gift

If there is the slightest interest in your house in arts and crafts, making your own wrapping paper is a fine family project during December evenings. Start with sheets of plain paper in various colors; tissue, shiny, metallic, even butcher or shelf paper, is fine. Have poster or finger painting colors handy, also plastic sponges, a scrub brush, a clothes sprinkler, various sizes of jelly glasses, spools, potatoes and a sharp knife. Block prints are made by carving a design on a potato cut in half. (The V-shape shown here makes stars). The raised design is pressed against a sponge dampened with the paint, then onto the paper. Jelly glasses and spools dipped in color form snowmen; faces are added by hand. Spatter is done with a clothes sprinkler; plaids and stripes with the scrubbing brush. One color should be completely dry before another is applied.

Crisp fabrics of any kind make a gift outstanding; glazed chintz, for instance, is perfect. Always cover the top and the bottom of the box separately (see page 43) so that the box may be opened without damage to the wrap.

You can decorate your own wrapping paper
 
In this way the box may be used long after Christmas.

There's a simple way to wrap a tall bottle, such as an unusual herb vinegar for a friend who loves to cook gourmet foods. Set the bottle into a small, closed box with the lid cut out to fit the bottle's base. To enclose the rest of the bottle, twist a cone of stiff paper (colored, gold, or silver), and leave a small opening at the top. To transform this simple cone into a pretty princess' wimple, let an inexpensive chiffon scarf drift out from the top opening and paste gummed stars or sequins at random on the cone. Or, create a gay Mardi Gras hat with confetti streamers or shredded crepe paper spurting forth from the top and a few brightly colored seals or paper cutouts pasted near the bottom.

A cone makes a wrap for a tall bottle

Packages For Food Gifts

Simple gifts to a neighbor, containing jars of the family's best barbecue relish or perhaps a few flower bulbs are sometimes difficult to wrap, especially when you have no box. A good solution: Christmas paper bags, which come in a wide assortment of colors. Put your gift in a red bag and spread a generous border of glue around the bottom. Stick wads of cotton batting to the glued area. Then fold the top over on one side, secure, and glue on a white cotton pompom. You have a jaunty Santa's hat. Or, paste on some reindeer cut out from old Christmas cards, fasten a row of bells a few inches from the bottom of the bag, and a bow through the top.

Christmas bags are festive for hard-to-wrap items

A thoroughly nice way to give your Christmas cookies is to package them as candles; flat candies, too, can be managed this way. For each candle use only as many cookies or candies as you can hold easily in the span of your hand, about 15 or 20. Cut out 3 circles of cardboard the size of your largest piece of sweet. Put one circle on the bottom, one in the middle, and one on top. Roll the stack of candies or cookies securely in aluminum foil. Wrap this cylinder in heavy gift paper, allowing enough extra fold-over at the top and bottom to fold and tape these ends. Cut out a flame-shaped piece of construction paper and attach to one end with clear tape.

A chimney wrapping is good for sweets

Wrap cookies in a candle-shaped package

Cookies, fudge, or brownies, overflowing from an open chimney top, are almost irresistible to the eye. Cut out the top of a box lid; cover both lid and box with chimney crepe paper. Glue the rim of the lid to the box, upside down. Then fill with something good to eat and tie up with clear freezer wrap; it makes a perfect token gift. It's ideal if you have lots of children you wish to remember with goodies.

Save your coffee tins a long time before Christmas. They make fine packages for gifts of cookies and candies. Decorate them first by painting a good, bright color. Play around with decoration; one idea is to tape onto the lid a ring of colored pipe cleaners. Paste a star or sequin at the end of each pipe cleaner, then bend them all gently toward the center until you have a domelike effect. Tie a shiny ribbon in a contrasting color over the tape.

Decorated coffee tins are good containers for cookies

Start again with a painted coffee tin; cut several strips of ribbon, long enough to hang from the center of the lid to halfway down the sides. Attach a tiny Christmas bell to one end of each ribbon. Then paste the ribbons from the center of the lid outward, like the spokes of a wheel. Fasten a star to the center of the lid where the ribbons meet; the bells against the tin will make a racket, but children will love it!
 
If you prefer making your own bees, twist fuzzy black and yellow pipe-cleaners into a body; fasten on wings cut from clear acetate; and add wire legs.

Place jars of jam or jelly on large sheets of red, pink, and pale green tissue. Draw them all up and tie with ribbon; fluff out the layers of tissue at the top.

Children will love the noisy bell· on this coffee tin

You can give honey away complete with bees. Make a stylized flower of gold-paper stars and a small gold ball ornament, or use an artificial flower. To top it, attach by fine wire the bees to be found in notion departments or variety store jewelry sections.

Give honey away, complete with bees

Wrap jam or jelly in flowerlike colored tissue

An oatmeal box, filled with cookies or candy, can be wrapped as a great big Christmas candle. Use tinsel, signal dots, sequins perhaps, and the bow described on page 47, pinched a bit at the top to resemble a flame.

If you'd like to give some of your favorite cheese spread, or jelly or jam or relish, pack it in a little individual casserole that comes with a matching tile. Wrap the tile in Christmas paper, and attach the unwrapped casserole to the top, with ribbon,

Give a Yuletide coffeecake placed on a round breadboard, wrapped whole in clear freezer wrap, and tied with red ribbon.

Leave a loaf cake or nut bread in the baking pan (after having bought a brand new shiny one for the purpose) and wrap in wax paper and a box; decorate as you would any other package.

Use an oatmeal box to make a huge candle package

Give cookies in a cookie jar: the nicest, most traditional one you can find. Especially in a family of children it will become the focal point of the kitchen for years to come.

Give fruit frosted in sugar (see page 166), arranged in a basket. Wrap in clear freezer wrap, tie with a silver ribbon. It couldn't be a more sophisticated gift. It looks lovely as a centerpiece and it's good to eat, too.

Make Christmas mint trees; they're a wonderful way to package candy as gifts for children. They are an especially good idea if you have many children (such as a Sunday School class) on your list. They're also an excellent project for children to undertake, since both the recipe for the mints (see page 165) and the packaging are simple and fun to do. While the thimble-sized mints are still soft, press a 2 inch piece of wire into each one. (One end of each wire should be bent into a hook before the other end is inserted in the mint.) Let all mints harden. Make a cone from construction paper, and staple, or seal with cellophane tape. Hang the thimble-sized mints on it. Put the large mints in an olive bottle. Stand the tree cone on top of the bottle; secure with tape. Stick two gummed stars together at the top of the tree. (The recipe on page 165 makes enough mints for two trees.)

Mints are the start of this Christmas tree

Here's an easy, basic wrap; the children can make it. Fill a clean, washed rectangular carton {from ice cream or potato chips) with homemade candy. Cover the carton with gummed crepe paper of any color. Cut strips of plain crepe paper, of a different color, 2 inches wide and as high as your carton. Fringe each strip on each edge. Glue the fringe to the corners of the package. Tie on a bright ribbon and make a bow on top.

A clean carton is the start for this simple wrapper

If you have little girls on your list, there's no sweeter way to package Christmas treats for them than this. Pack candy or cookies, your homemade kind or any other, in a box. Cover the box with pink gummed crepe paper. Add gummed stars for eyes, and a heart mouth. Braid 3 long strips of crepe paper, preferably matched to the color of each little girl's hair. Tie the braids around the box with ribbon. A hair ribbon on top completes the package, so pretty that even a hungry little girl anxious for the sweets inside will linger over it.

A wrap especially for a little girl's gift

If Your Gift Must Travel

Lots of packages must travel across the miles at Christmas gifts lovingly chosen, fancily wrapped, and carrying as well a precious burden of affection for someone. Yet millions of these packages travel at a time of year when the post office facilities are extremely overtaxed, help is often inadequately trained, and weather conditions are, in general, poor. How can we be sure our packages will get there on time, and in good condition?

Start with a packing plan. Make a list of the packing supplies that you'll need string, tape, labels, cartons and buy them all in one trip to the stationery store.

The very best container for a Christmas gift that must be mailed is a fresh new cardboard carton. Sometimes you can obtain from local merchants cartons which are in excellent condition, with firm corners and intact flaps. Or they can be bought; buying a carton is well worth while if it protects a valuable present.

If there is even a remote chance that a gift could be broken or crushed, use two cartons, one inside the other. The inner carton should be big enough to allow at least a 2 inch clearance all around the package enclosed on all four sides as well as at the top and bottom.

Don't let a present rattle around in a carton, whether you use two, as recommended, or one. The best, cheapest cushioning is shredded newspaper; crumpled newspaper doesn't have enough give to protect the gift from the shock of handling. Use enough shredded paper so that there is no rattling or shifting when the package is shaken back and forth.

It is not necessary to wrap a carton in heavy wrapping paper, whether you mail it or send it by express. Paper does not add to the strength of the carton, and if it is torn in transit there is the possibility of the label's being lost.

For the utmost safety, make out two labels: one for the outside and one to be placed inside the carton. The post office objects to more than one label on the outside, but if you express the package, use two outside labels.

Remember to remove or cover up all the old labels on a carton, if you're using a secondhand one. Write your labels in permanent ink or crayon. If you have any doubt, wet and smudge a test label after you've made it out, and see what snow, rain and friction would do to it under poor circumstances.

Use the full names and addresses of yourself and the recipient of the package; don't use abbreviations. And even if you feel you write a good hand it is always better to print than to use handwriting.

Tie up your carton with medium-heavy cord, wound tightly around the entire package at least two or three times and knotted with simple double knots. Very heavy twine is not as safe, strangely enough, because it is too heavy to pull tight and therefore slips off the package more easily.

Regulations governing packages to be mailed within 150 miles are different from those for packages to be mailed farther than that, as far as the weight permitted is concerned. There is another regulation for the weight of packages which have an APO address. Check these rules with the post office if you want to send heavy packages, since the rules may change from time to time. You may express a package of any weight, no matter how heavy.

The post office strongly advises December 1 as the deadline on mailed packages. It's better to chance their arriving a bit early, with a DO NOT OPEN UNTIL CHBISTMAS sticker, than to run the slightest risk of their not arriving until the day after The Day.

Expressing by rail or air are quicker methods, of course, than mailing a package; be sure to investigate these ways if you've let an important package slip past December 1.
In addition to these general rules, here are hints for packaging a variety of objects.

Flat, non-breakable objects, such as books, need a double corrugated-paper covering. Envelop the book lengthwise in a corrugated strip, seal with gummed tape. Wrap a second strip around the width and seal. Use heavy brown paper for outer wrapping.

If you are sending a very small package in a box of its own, you must enclose it in a larger carton to be sure of its safe delivery, and cut down the danger of loss.

Pictures, mirrors, and wood articles are best protected from scratches when wax paper is placed directly over the glass or wood, followed by a double corrugated-paper covering. Place the wrapped object in a box; pack space around it with shock-absorbing material.

Double corrugated paper for flat objects, Fragile objects need very careful packing

For sending cookies, there's no safer or nicer package stuffing than popcorn all around the cookies and between the boxes, if you use two.
 
Fragile objects without a box of their own should be packed inside a corrugated paper sleeve, and all spaces filled with shredded newspaper or crumpled tissue paper. If the object is hollow, fill it with the same material. For absolute safety, place this container inside a carton for mailing.

(Or, use popcorn as an added treat in sending a child any kind of breakable object.)

Other good insulating materials are hay, straw, and ground corncobs, if available. Shredded newspaper is always handy; it's a good thing to put the youngsters to work on, too.

Use wax paper to protect objects from scratching, Popcorn is fine for filling space in packing

Cut folded newspaper into strips about a half-inch wide, toss them about to separate them, and then lightly crush them between your hands. Cutting, tossing, and crumpling are activities you'll always find little hands eager to do.

Shredded newspaper is excellent for packing

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