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Wrap It Up

You’ve found the perfect gift, one completely appropriate for your loved one. However, you’ve realized that this present also happens to be very difficult to wrap.

The excellence of a gift lies in its appropriateness rather than in its value. ~Charles Dudley Warner

Maybe the gift is digital and doesn’t have a physical form. Maybe the gift is oddly shaped and won’t fit in a box or maybe the gift is too big and can’t fit through your door. Here are some ideas about how you can easily “wrap” even the most impossible gift.

Japan Gift Wrap Hack [No Tape, No Ribbon]
BeatTheBush

Virtual Presents

The computer age has brought a whole new challenge to wrapping gifts. Gifts like electronic books, downloaded software, or downloaded music have no packages, boxes or bags.

Here are some ideas that can turn your digital gift into something to put under the tree:

• Write the files for the digital gift onto a CD or a thumb drive that can be wrapped
• Print download instructions for the digital gift and include the print-out inside of a nice Christmas card
• Create a goodie basket related to the virtual gift to give them a preview of what they’ve got coming.
  • If you’re giving season tickets to a sports team, you could include fan tchotchkes and sport-related snacks
  • If you’re giving movie tickets, you could include popcorn and movie candy
  • If you’re giving a day at the spa, you could include bath beads, massage oils and loofah sponges
  • If you’re giving golf lessons, you could tuck the virtual gift directions in a stocking with some golf balls
• Punch a hole in the short side of a gift card from a store or restaurant, feed a bit of ribbon through the hole and hang it around the neck of a small stuffed animal or container of something tasty that’s related to the virtual gift
• Print a customized QR on a label that you can stick to a bottle of wine, perfume or other related gift item

One of the ways to customize a virtually deliverable gift is to create a custom QR code that can be scanned by their smartphone or tablet. A QR is a web address that is represented as a series of dots that can be read by a scanner.

For this reason, there is a “safe area” in the middle of the code block where a logo can be safely inserted. You might have seen these at restaurants or on corkboard flyers. You can take the web address of your virtual gift and convert it to a QR code using a site like QR Code Generator as demonstrated in the video below.

If you look at the QR code in the example graphic, there are 3 big squares in the upper right, upper left and lower left corners. The inside corners of these boxes is the safe area for embedding a logo into a QR code.

The technical magic is that the patterns you see repeated throughout the QR code is actually the web address that you encoded being repeated over and over and over again. So, in the areas outside of the red box, you’re most likely seeing the web address repeated in its entirety at least once. That’s what the QR reader on your smartphone is picking up. You can use a site like TinyURL to shorten the web address of your virtual gift so that it is repeated more frequently (and therefore legibly) outside of the safe area.

For instance, if you wanted to use the recipient’s favorite colors, you could have a red QR with a green background and a gift box overlay in the center. The QR reader would still recognize the green squiggles as your web address and jump forward to the virtual gift.

Random Shapes

Some gifts defy the typical wrapping techniques. Try any of these ideas to get that oddly-shaped gift attractively covered.

• Gift bags are a popular way to deliver an oddly-shaped present, covering them with brightly-colored tissue paper
• Create a teepee out of gift wrap
  • Place a large sheet of wrapping paper on the floor, design side down
  • Put the gift in the middle
  • Pull the four corners of the paper up and toward the middle
  • Close the top by tying the corners with a festive ribbon
• Find a bigger box and stuff with packing peanuts, small soft gifts, Christmas tree ornaments or even chocolate candies
• Depending on the shape of the gift, you can wrap it in sections. If it has a handle, you can wind a ribbon around the length of the handle and top with bows or garland

Won’t Fit Under The Tree

How to gift wrap a large gift – Howdini

For a very large gift, you’ll have to find someplace to hide it until Christmas morning. You might be able to store the present at the retail facility until just before Christmas or your garage or a storage shed can serve as a good hiding spot. You might even consider getting permission to use a relative’s or a neighbor’s garage.

With the gift in a safe spot, you can still “wrap” the present and put it under the tree with one of these ideas:

• Use a Christmas card to announce the gift with a photo or a clue to where it’s hidden
• Wrap a small item to represent the gift to put under the tree, such as:
  • A bike tire pump to represent a new bike
  • A helmet to represent a new kayak
  • A car owner’s manual to represent a new car
  • A house key to represent a new house
• Set up a treasure hunt of related items, each with a clue to the next larger gift until they find the big surprise

Some gifts defy conventional wrapping techniques, but if you care enough to give a special someone a spectacular gift you’ve got some great ideas at your disposal for delivering on your vision. Ultimately, what people really want underneath the tree is you and the love you share.

Underneath The Tree – Kelly Clarkson