You have so many people to buy for that by the time you finish shopping, you’re bushed and it shows in your wrapping. You hand out gift after gift shoved into a gift bag with a crinkled piece of tissue paper, revealing little about the time and effort you put into buying the gifts. Time to change your ways and make the presentation count just as much as the gift inside.

To avoid the last-minute crunch, wrap your gifts as you buy them. Yes, yes, you won’t be able to see what you’ve bought, but you can keep track of them on paper and color-coding the gifts you wrap, if need be. Go ahead and wrap that doll for your niece, but place a red dot on it in an inconspicuous corner in case you need to find it later.

Set up a gift-wrapping station in your home. Clear off the desk in your study, stack your gift wrap in a bucket next to it and hang a pair of sharp scissors and some tape above it. Don’t forget the gift bags and boxes, tissue paper, ribbon, bows and gift tags. You will be more likely to wrap gifts as you buy them if you have everything you need at hand. Just make sure you have some place to put the gifts once wrapped.

Keep in mind you do not have to use the standard wrapping paper and bows. You can make your gifts stand out by using alternatives, like comics or wallpaper. Brown paper bags, fabric scraps, foil, old maps and magazine pages will also do the trick. Empty coffee cans and tins will work wonders for small or unusually shaped gifts.

While ribbons and bows are nice, you can use alternatives in this area as well. Embellish your gifts with the natural-pinecones or a sprig of holly from your yard. Switch out the ribbon for a colorful string of beads, scarf, belt or leash for the pet owner. Tie on small toys to kids’ gifts and wooden spoons to cooks’ gifts. Rather not? How about a small Christmas ornament instead?

The same principle applies to gift tags. You can buy some or make your own from old Christmas cards. Just cut the card into a holiday shape and mark the “to” and “from” in silver or gold.

Keep your gift-wrapping station well stocked, and when possible, buy supplies that will work for other holidays as well. Blue-foiled paper, for example, will work for Hanukkah and birthday gifts, while white tissue paper will work for any gift. You don’t want to buy so much Christmas stuff that you end up having to find a place to stash it all until next year.

Gift wrapping doesn’t have to be a hassle. The key is to set up a place to do it and to do it all along. You will have more time to devote to the actual wrapping, and it will show. People will love receiving your beautifully wrapped gifts just as much as they do opening them and seeing what’s inside. They will appreciate the effort you went through from start to finish.

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