Peaches & Honey: The Wrap Game

Praise the Lord, it is finally feeling like December again! It's getting closer and closer to Christmas, and I've been in a self-induced sugar coma for 48 hours. I have GOT to stop baking and start doing productive things. Like wrapping all of Santa's swag.

Now that a lot of gifts have started arriving in the mail, I have been on a mad dash to wrap them up before Bobby sees them and I have some explaining to do. Gift wrapping with a toddler around is on my "Worst Things Ever" list. Right under hangovers. I hate wrapping to begin with, as anyone who has ever worked retail in her life can sympathize. I worked at my family's furniture store during high school, and I wrapped enough gifts during those four years to meet my quota for life. Wrapping gifts at a store isn't so bad, though, because at least you have your tools handy and organized. Wrapping gifts at home is much, much worse. First, it takes me ten minutes to locate the wrapping paper/boxes/tape/scissors out of the black hole that is our stairway closet. Then it's a matter of keeping the scissors away from the beastie. Then he gets into the bows. Then he rips a handful of paper. Then he takes the ribbon and runs around in circles, wrapping it around and around and around the base of our kitchen island. I'm gonna have to cut that apart once I can locate the scissors, which I'm pretty sure he has hidden from me so that he can haunt my dreams later. This bullshit is for the birds.

There's got to be a better way!

There is.

It's called Lilywrap, and it's the bomb. Lilywrap is a stretchy, reusable giftwrap that has completely revolutionized my wrap game. It marries the look of wrapping paper with the ease of sticking an item in a gift bag, and the best part is that it is reusable. If you are using Lilywrap for Christmas gifts for your family, then you can use these for years and years. If you are using it for a friend, then the wrap is an extra gift in itself.

Set, Cinch, Tie

It takes less than ten seconds from start to finish, and it virtually wraps itself. A lot of people will probably get hung up on how eco-friendly it is; my mom was really impressed, since she feels bad about wasting all that paper every Christmas. And while that is a bonus, the thing that I am most impressed with is how easy it is to use with a toddler on the loose in the living room with me.

There are no accessories-- no tape, no scissors, no ribbons. You need the Lilywrap and your gift, and that's it. Set, cinch, tie. Lilywrap comes in small, medium, large, and extra large sizes, and it fits a variety of shapes.

I don't want to divulge what this is, but it rhymes with shlip slops.

The worst that can happen is that said toddler gets into the gift and unties it. No problem, you just tie it back up. But you could avoid this altogether if you got yourself a Christmas tree jail. You can order Lilywrap on their website, and if you have Amazon Prime, you can get it in 2 days! Plenty of time before Christmas.

Some presents, of course, still call for an old-school wrap job. I am only wrapping with actual paper while the beasties are asleep, and I am keeping my tools to a strict budget. All of my wrapping apparatus came from the Dollar Tree and cost $1.

I like to keep the paper itself simple and stick to plain brown and white mailing paper, and then I make it interesting with embellishments like baker's twine, washi tape, jingle bells, pom poms, and inexpensive ribbon.

Again, all of these things come from the dollar store, so it's an inexpensive way to make each gift unique and customized. I do most of Bobby's gifts in jingle bells and fun washi tape; Vivi's gifts get a little more pom pom and glitter; Alex's gifts are dressed more rustically in baker's twine and tree clippings (I know y'all are getting sick of me obsessing over these tree clippings, but it's the best free decor in the world).

I did save Alex a few Lilywraps to use for himself, because they are husband-proof. He will decide to wrap gifts at 8pm on Christmas Eve, as he does every year. This year, I'm not rummaging through the closet to find all the wrapping gear for him last minute. Guys aren't the best at gift wrapping, but he can't screw up Lilywrap.