If you’ve got a great gift for someone and want to make it even better, try getting creative with your gift wrap. Traditional wrapping paper, ribbons, bows, and gift bags are fine, but it’s also okay to think outside the (gift) box this season.

Try making the wrapping part of the gift. For instance, if you get a friend a CD and a t-shirt of the same band, wrap the CD in the t-shirt and then tie a ribbon around the whole thing. It won’t immediately be obvious what the gift is, and it’ll look cool.

If you want to get personal, you can make your own photo wrapping paper. Just print out some photos of the recipient on plain paper, and use that to wrap the gift. It’s nontraditional and puts a personal touch on the wrapping.

You can also take a pop art approach. Rather than using wrapping paper, buy some cheap, wacky tabloids and use the pages as wrapping. The crazier the stories, the better. Having Bat Boy staring back from a wrapped gift will make the recipient laugh and put a funny spin on the holiday sentiments.

If you’re into silly, challenge your friends and family to find the funniest, wackiest, or goofiest gift bag possible. When you all get together to swap gifts, vote for a champ – kookiest gift bag wins. Make the challenge a tradition, or reuse the goofy gift bags year after year as a joke.

You can also go for kitschy and quirky when it comes to wrapping. Flea markets, thrift shops, or even stores like TJ Maxx, carry cute, vintage-looking hatboxes that are a great way to wrap gifts. Just place the gifts in the hat box with some tissue paper, and you’ve got a lovely and sophisticated-looking gift to give. As a bonus, the recipient can use the hat box for storage or decor.

If you’re crafty and creative, you can wrap gifts in plain white or brown paper and then individualize each gift using stamps in different colored inks – holiday shapes, custom-designed stamps, etc. It puts a handmade, artistic twist on the wrapping and may also be a fun holiday activity for you and your family to enjoy together.

However you choose to wrap your gifts, remember: it’s all about having fun.

* One in four people wrap their holiday gifts one or two days before giving the gift (27 percent). Another 22 percent wrap three to six days before the gift giving occasion.

* When it comes to wrapping this year’s holiday presents, nearly three in four adults (71 percent) are most likely to purchase gift wrap supplies and wrap the presents themselves, while one in five (19 percent) will put items in a gift bag instead of wrapping them. Just three percent said they will have gifts professionally wrapped at a store.

* Nearly a quarter of adults surveyed (24 percent) list not having the right supplies on hand as the most common gift-wrapping mistake, second only to not knowing how best to wrap the gift (32 percent). Twenty percent cite wrapping with too little paper as the culprit, while another twenty percent say using too much paper is the big mistake.

* Just over half of the adults surveyed (53 percent) have saved and re-used gift wrap paper, with women (61 percent) more likely than men (44 percent) to recycle used gift wrap.

– Courtesy of 3M and Scotch 2009 survey.