Putting It All Together: The Packaging

When I first decided to put together treat packages for our Christmas gifts this year, the first thing I thought about wasn’t the treat themselves.  It was the packaging.  To me, the treats are usually able to stand alone but it’s the packaging that makes everything so festive and I don’t know…complete.  And by complete, I mean finished, done, ready-to-go, now I can sit down with a glass of vanilla eggnog (perhaps with a shot of something in it).  So, at the request of a few of you, I’m going to show you just a few ideas about how I’m packaging up my treats and also send you over Annie’s way since she wrote a great post about this yesterday as well.

This year, I got crazy organized.  I started out by outlining everything I wanted to make, when I needed to make each treat, and all of the ways I wanted to package everything.  A spreadsheet was the easiest way for me to do this since I can keep track of everything in one place and change things as needed without scribbling out my notes on paper.  Note that I also included the names of the treat receivers in my working sheet in the gray cells that are blank in the first column but I removed them for this screenshot because I don’t want to spoil the surprise if those people are reading this.

I found all of my printable tags via Martha Stewart and saved the files to my desktop so I don’t have to go back to the website every time I need to print more tags; two of those tags are shown in the first photo of the post.  The MS site also has a link to Avery that has customizable holiday templates that you can print on labels or paper (which is where the tags in the photos above and below came from).

My go-to packaging method has been to use cello bags since I haphazardly buy them at least once a year, forgetting that I still have a whole stockpile somewhere in the house.  I also put my granola in mason jars to keep it fresh for a little while longer and well, because I just love mason jars!  I bought a couple rolls of raffia and went with a more rustic look rather than the traditional green and red ribbon that I’ve used every year since I was a teenager.

All of the treats will be packaged up in these adorable and sturdy Christmas- and winter-themed boxes that I found at Michael’s last week with either tissue paper or the brown packaging paper from the Amazon.com boxes we’ve received recently (yay recycling!).

I’ve still got a few more things to make this week but so far, I’m loving how my treat boxes are turning out!

What are you putting in your treat packages this year?