Secret to Present Wrapping for Kids

I remember, growing up, picking up presents and trying to figure out who they were for.  My dad?  My mom?  My brother?  Me?  Inevitably, the name tags had fallen off of some of the presents.  My mom tried to remedy this by writing an initial on the bottom, but it was often hard to read and there would an awkward pause as we all looked to mom to see if she could remember whom it was for.

I have 3 monkeys of my own these days, and after a few Christmas mornings where I was sweating bullets and praying I had guessed the right kid for the right present, my husband and I came up with a pretty good way to keep track of everything.

Every year, we go out and buy indvidual wrapping paper for each child.  It's fun to match the wrapping paper to each kid's interest that year.  We've had lots of princesses, Thomas the train, Peanuts and Barbie wrapping paper.  This year we have Phineas and Ferb for son, Cinderella for my 9 year old and Tinkerbell for my little girl.  When it's time to wrap, we sort the presents into kid piles first and then it is easy to wrap everything at once, according to their wrapping paper.  No more wrapping multiple presents and forgetting which one goes to which kid!

On Christmas morning, every kid figures out real quick what wrapping paper is for them and the little ones can even play "Santa" at handing out presents.  No reading required!

What about Santa's gifts, you ask?  Well, Santa is nice enough to wrap his individual present in wrapping paper made in his own image.  So those couple presents are labeled for each child.

We even buy a couple rolls of completely different wrapping paper for friends and others in our extended family.  Does it sound like a lot of paper?  It is, but the hassle-free-Christmas of preventing my son from accidentally opening his sister's Merida doll, are well worth it.  Plus it makes a really fun tradition for our family.

First, the sorting into piles

Look what Santa brought last year! So easy to find!

Has he been nice this year?  YES!

If you have more than one kid, you should think about giving this a try!