How to Host a Chill Christmas Gift Wrapping Party

This year marked the 18th year for hosting my annual Christmas gift wrapping party. The great thing about a gift wrapping party is that it allows you time to socialize and catch up with friends while taking care of a necessary and often daunting task. It is one of my favorite Christmas parties of the year! In fact, I have only missed hosting a gift wrapping party two times in 20 years – one for an ice storm and the other for a holiday season in a pandemic year.

A Christmas wrapping party is mostly stress-free and doesn’t involve all the hustle and bustle of the usual holiday parties.

*This post was updated in 2021.

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You wrap. You yap.

Sending a Christmas Gift Wrapping Party Invitation

Typically, I send my Christmas wrap party invitation by text. In the past, I have also set up a Facebook event or used some other digital invitation system.  If you really want to get festive, you could send an actual paper wrapping party invitation. But I find this is such a laid-back, casual party that a paper invitation would almost be over-the-top. But, hey, over-the-top is some people’s jam!

Serving Food at a Gift Wrap Party

Depending on the time of the party, you can serve snacks or desserts or serve a whole meal.

Options 1: Provide a Dessert Bar or a Snack Bar

Afternoon parties or late evening parties call for a dessert bar or snack bar!

For my afternoon gift wrap parties, I often serve my coconut pecan praline cookies (always a hit), chocolate chip oatmeal pecan, and cranberry cookies with white chocolate and pecans. Sometimes, I serve cupcakes or cake bites from a local bakery. Again, a gift wrapping party should be stress-free. If I don’t have time to bake treats myself the day before or day of, I don’t worry myself about it. That is what bakeries and bakery sections of grocery stores are there for!

Options 2: Set Up a Self-Serve Soup Station

If I schedule my party during lunch hours or dinner hours, I will serve appetizers or a hearty meal. Sometimes, it is finger foods. In fact, my round up of over 50 charcuterie boards has some fantastic charcuterie board ideas for this gift wrap party!

The weather also dictates what I serve. If it’s evening time and cool, I sometimes serve my beef chili. This chili can be prepared on the stove top or in the slow cooker. Another hit is my sausage spinach tortellini soup with bread.

Option 3: Prepare a Make Ahead Casserole

Sometimes, here in Arkansas, it is actually still warm in December so chili may not fit the vibe of the gift wrapping party. In those cases, I might whip up my chicken spaghetti or my no boil lasagna, both of which can be prepped in advance and then just popped in the oven right before the party starts. (Or you can plan to let it bake while the party starts and then take a dinner break in the middle of wrapping gifts.)

Gift Wrapping Party Cocktails and Drinks

For beverages, I serve a festive Christmas drink like my easy cranberry cocktail. If you are providing a fun and festive drink, make something that can be made ahead in a large batch or a simple mix drink so guests can serve themselves. Once you get busy wrapping, you won’t have to worry about making drinks with a large pitcher of this cranberry vodka cocktail. If gin cocktails or whiskey drinks are more your speed, check out my round up of 25 gin winter cocktails and Christmas cocktails with whiskey.

It all goes over well, no matter what is served. But it is always simple. Truly, keeping the food offerings simple and keep yourself out of the kitchen during the party. The food is nice to have but your friends are coming over to visit and wrap presents. The focus is not the food. Besides, you have wrapping to do, too!

Provide Wrapping Supplies at Your Christmas Gift Wrapping Party

You will need to be prepared with extra wrapping supplies in case your party guests forget some of their supplies at home. I like to set out my supplies in cute baskets and containers so they work as both the decor and the supplies. You have to have the supplies available anyway. It is better to work them into the decor than to have them to the side as clutter.

The extra supplies include:

• fun and modern gift wrapping paper: I love reversible gift wrapping paper! There are so many complimentary reversible packs. You can get black and gold reversible gift wrapping, Santa and snowman gift wrapping in reversible patterns, red and green reversible gift wrap in classic patters AND kid friendly patterns, navy and rose gold reversible gift wrap paper, and so much more! I just ordered this reversible leopard print gift wrap, and I’m super excited to get it! I find that Hallmark and the American Greetings company both have high-quality wrapping papers. Be sure to check the sizes and overall square feet of paper before you order. Some packs have a lot more square feet than others. No doubt, I also like to shop the after-Christmas sales for discount gift wrapping paper and supplies at Target, Walmart, or Hobby Lobby. For kids’ wrapping paper, I sometimes buy Disney Christmas wrapping paper at Walgreens.
• party gift bags of varying sizes and colors
• gift tissue paper
• tape: Tape matters, folks. Go cheap and kick yourself later when that tape won’t stick or worse – starts sticking all over itself. It look me many years of hosting wrapping parties before it dawned on me how handy it is to have the tape dispenser with the tape refills. This allows you to grab the tape one-handed while you keep your other hand on the gift.
• pens or Sharpies: I find it quite difficult sometimes to find good pens for writing on the slick gift tags. A lot of times, the ink simply won’t stick. The best luck I have is with Sharpies, preferably fine-point Sharpies since the writing space is often small.
• scissors: Have you ever regretted having extra scissors around?!
• gift wrap ribbon: I prefer tulle ribbon in a fun color and also white (which can be used year round for gifts) because it is the easiest ribbon to work with and will usually last through several seasons. I also like to keep a few spools of wire ribbon, and some raffia ribbon.
• gift tags
• gift boxes
• Two or more hand-held gift wrap cutter tools. This razor paper cutter is also popular with many. I just ordered this table-top paper cutter tool, and I’m super excited about it!

Most guests bring their own supplies, but it is handy to keep extra wrapping supplies on hand just in case. Since transporting all of their gifts and supplies can be challenging, it is likely someone will forget something. Also, it is fun to share and trade papers, ribbons, and tags.

Optionally, you can provide fun little favor bags with unique tags and fun shimmer Sharpies.

Organizing a Gift Wrapping Station (or Multiple)

Some gift wrap parties have more attendees than others, but you want to be sure to only invite a handful of people as the wrapping takes a lot of space. One nice thing about a gift wrapping party is that it doesn’t really matter how few people you have. You could have as much fun with two people as with seven and it will still be fun and your wrapping goal can still be accomplished.

One thing that the hostess of a gift wrapping party must understand is that there will be a huge mess occupying the party area throughout the duration of the gathering. There really isn’t a way around this given that you have multiple people hauling their gifts and paper supplies over so they (and you) can sit on your floor and wrap presents for several hours.

Now, you can designate a certain area of your home to be the gift wrapping station or area. Again, this really depends on how many guests you invite. If you are only inviting 2-3 friends, this is manageable. If you have many more coming, you will need more space for everyone to spread out. In this case, you might not actually have a gift wrapping station because your entire floor space will be used.

Some guests prefer to wrap gifts at a table while others prefer the floor. Either way, prepare yourself for a big mess until the party is over!

Gift Wrapping Styles

It’s fun to learn about the guests’ wrapping styles. Some guests use only one paper for all gifts. Others use a different paper for each person. Then, there are the friends who use a different paper for each person, but all the papers coordinate with each other. Others stick to a color scheme that matches their holiday decor.

It’s so fun to see how everyone tackles their gift wrapping! Also, it is interesting to see the gifts your friends have chosen for their loved ones. Some friends have gift themes each year. For example, each of their family and friends may receive a handmade gift this year or a cozy gift this year, etc.

I’ve noticed lots of ladies tackle their gift wrapping in different ways. My friend Cally likes to organize her things before she comes over. This prep includes removing price tags, placing easy-to-wrap items inside gift boxes (if necessary), and labeling the name of the recipient on the bottom of the box. She leaves her larger and odd-shaped gifts at home to deal with there. She and several others also bring a special carrier for wrapping supplies so they ensure they have everything they want to have at easy access. There are many different styles of gift wrap organizers. I have a gift wrap carrier similar to this one and love it! This particular set also comes with a second gift wrap holder. Some of my friends bring some gift wrap organizers similar to this one.

Some friends spend the whole time wrapping the gifts but leave the ribbons and bows for later. Others bring presents already wrapped and spend the time making elaborate bows. Others complete the whole process, one gift at a time. Some friends don’t have their own gifts but help others with theirs. There is so much flexibility with a Christmas gift wrapping party!

Additional Tips for Hosting a Christmas Gift Wrapping Party

• Plan your Christmas gift wrapping party well in advance as you know people’s December calendars fill up quickly. You have to be careful though. If you plan it too early, many people may not have purchased many gifts yet and will have nothing to wrap. If you plan it too late, people are busy and can’t come or they may have already wrapped their gifts so that their tree won’t look bare.
• Do not invite more than a handful of guests for each party. Some years, I have had two separate wrapping parties so as not to exclude any friends. It was better to host two separate gatherings than overcrowd my guests. For my house, it would be difficult for more than five people to spread out in the same room.
• Make sure to let friends know they are welcome to come and hang out even if they don’t have have any presents to wrap. Some people don’t shop until the last minute and others may ship gifts to family with no physical gifts to wrap. Let them know they are still welcome to come and they can even help other guests wrap presents.
• If your party is at night time, consider inviting everyone to wear their pajamas. If it is a day time party, let guests know they may want to wear lounge clothes. Guests won’t feel comfortable on the floor wrapping presents in tight or dressy clothing.
• Do make sure you have cleared furniture so you have ample space for visitors to spread out and wrap.
• If you are running tight on space in your main gathering room, free up another room so each guest can have a drop-off spot for her gifts and supplies.
• If you want to take your party to the next level, add in some gift wrap games like gift wrap relay or this fun this gift wrapping drinking game: