Christmas 2010 Tree and Gift Wrapping Tips

Before I let the holidays pass me by, I figured I have to post about our tree and my recently discovered way to simplify gifts wrapping and to make Christmas morning go a little more smoothly.

First the tree...

 This year we I decided to go for a silver, gold and red theme for our main tree. I still have grand plans to turn our Christmas cards from years past into mini framed ornaments for the tree this year. We'll see.

This is our gold and brown tree from last year, if you want a comparison.

 
As for gift wrapping, I spent an inordinate amount of time (much to the Kid's chagrin and whining) trying to pick out wrapping paper. However, I had an revelation in the middle of Target about wrapping paper and I figure that you might want to hear about the "Great Wrapping Paper Miracle/Epiphany on Aisle 23", as I am calling it. Here are the realizations that I had.

• Pick the least "holiday-ish" wrapping paper that you can find, which for me was this damask, patterned paper which I got in both black and red for $2 each. That way, when the holidays are over, you can still use it to wrap birthday and shower presents.
• Instead of gift tags for family, assign a bow color to a particular family member. For us, red is the Kid, gold is MrDrama, silver will be me (there is a conspicuous predominance of red and lack of silver and gold so far under our tree).
• Don't bother with premium wrapping paper, unless you really want to spend twice as much on something that will end up shredded on the living room floor. It's the same reason I rarely spring for fancy envelopes.
• The silence of your child can be bought with promises of marshmallows.