Wrapping Your Candy Gifts

With the holidays just around the corner, you’ve likely started to think about what you’ll be getting your loved ones (if you haven’t already started to buy stuff). Sometimes, however, the one thing you got doesn’t seem like it’s enough. Or you’re at a total loss as to what you want to get for your distant family members.

Well, candy boxes are a staple for these situations. There’s not many people out there who won’t eat gifted candies, whether they’re chocolates, truffles, or other unique sweets.

The problem is, though, that sometimes it can seem like a cop out to get someone “just” candies. Whether it’s seen as cheap or uninspired, the thought may cross some recipients’ minds. Luckily, you can alleviate this possibility by throwing in a little bit of work to up the presentation of the gift. At the very least, spicing up the packaging will show that you put forth effort in making it look nice, and your recipient will appreciate the effort.

Here are a few ways to show you tried a bit more than simply purchasing a box of chocolates.

Ribbons and bows.

This is rather minimal in that you’re taking two strands of ribbon to wrap around the box each way to make a crossing pattern, though you can shirk the wrapping paper here. Slapping a nice bow on top of the crossed ribbons is perfect and shows it’s a gift ready to be given. This method is great when the gift is a little extra to the main gift you’re giving.

Traditional.

Wrapping your candy boxes in wrapping paper like any other gift is just as viable, especially if you plan to only give a box of candy and no other gifts to your recipient. At the very least they’ll realize it as a prepared gift and be thankful for the gesture, even if it’s not exactly tailored to them.

Stacking.

Though this is rather uncommon, you can always stack a box of candy on top of another item, whether this is in a bag or you’ve wrapped two items together in a box. Packing multiple things together creates a sense of “value” in one gift, so the candies are an extra special little find within the package.

No matter which method you choose to go with for your gift candies this year, don’t hand a box of candies to your family member with no sense of wrapping or gift presentation.

 

3 Ways to Maximize Your Decorations Storage During the Winter Holidays

Christmas makes me think of my mom pulling out the decorations from under the staircase just before Thanksgiving would come around. Her storage typically consisted of big, long cardboard boxes containing her 7-or-so synthetic Christmas trees.

Of course, there were other containers and boxes of ornaments, decorations, and wreaths—but Christmas, to me, felt like a house with long brown boxes strewn about. I even recall it being hard to walk around the house simply because everything was so crowded and out in the walkways. Nothing embodied the Christmas spirit better than getting ready for the season with decorations and the house undergoing a lot of change.

Here are a few tips on getting the most out of the boxes you may have to store away winter holiday decorations.

Ornaments.
While the delicate orb ornaments a lot of people think of when it comes to Christmas are better off left in the boxes they came in (usually partitioned cardboard boxes), your random assortment of baby’s 1st and Hallmark ornaments can be piled into whatever size boxes you have available.

Tip: try layering your ornaments with a piece of fabric/felt. This will make sure they don’t get tangled and don’t chip off just from being picked up and moved around.

Trees.
As already mentioned, almost everyone seems to have a fake tree in a big box, whether it’s the one that the tree came in or otherwise. If you’ve misplaced your original tree box or time has simply gotten to it (or mice), try repurposing leftover boxes from house appliances. They’re usually big enough to do the job.

Lights.
Stringed lights define Christmas time pretty much better than anything. But when it comes to putting them away for the year, they can be a hassle. The first thing you should probably do is wrap them in a coil so that they’re easy to store and easy to untangle for the years to come. Again, boxes do wonders here, allowing you to stack different coils of lights in each without worry of them tangling with one another.

So, if you’ve got a few spare boxes lying around the house, put them to use! Don’t even think about discarding them or burning them—you know there’s always a section of your house or season of the year that could use some organizing. Think seasonally! Any holiday can surely spark your imagination to consider putting things away neatly. What most people regard as fodder for fire or simply trash, you can use for tidiness.

Some Fun Ideas for Crafting with Cardboard

Sometimes we have an excess of commonplace materials lying around the house just begging to be thrown away. Too often we do throw those items away because of the clutter they cause and how useless they’ve become.

However, sometimes it’s better to repurpose some old, mundane items. People create some pretty extraordinary things out of ordinary items, so why couldn’t you, too?

Well, cardboard boxes are one of those everyday materials that we find just sitting in a corner of the house fairly often. Rather than relegate them to the same old storage use as always, why not try getting a little crafty as a bonding experience with your kids? We’ve come up with a few interesting ways to use cardboard for artsy projects. Give them a try!

The classic cardboard house.

This one never gets old. Of course, you’ll need some furniture boxes or home appliance boxes for these to be big enough for your kids to inhabit for the day. But it’ll help create the same experience for your kid that you once felt when you were their age.

Get fun with these! Don’t just draw on windows with marker from the outside. Cut out square holes, create a “door” by reusing the door cutout (and even giving it a “hinge”). Even painting the entire outside could make it seem far more imaginative and fun for your kids. Plain brown cardboard houses are boring. Spice it up with some color.

As a bonus, throw a small rug of some sort inside to make it seem like carpet for your kids.

Diorama.

I remember doing this as a school project in elementary school. And while it seemed specific to school, it was one of the neatest projects I remember doing.

A lot of the time, old shoeboxes work for smaller dioramas. But slightly bigger cardboard boxes could increase the possibilities of such a project. The thing about dioramas, though, is that you have to get creative with other household items. Cotton balls worked well as clouds or fog, sticks from outside made fantastic trees. While going to your local arts and crafts store would likely yield much more useful items, try to get your creative juices going and round up a bevvy of weird, useless things around your house.

Just remember . . .

Be creative! These two ideas aren’t much, but you can do so much with cardboard. While boxes are one commonplace item, you want to extend on that idea and gather as much as you can in other everyday resources to really make the most out of your cheap (or free!) project.

Why Monthly Subscription Boxes of Candy are Successful

Candy is typically associated with children and holidays. If you’re under the age of 13 or it’s Halloween or Easter, candy is prevalent in your life.

What about candy year-round, though? Can you imagine paying for candy every month of the year? Seems to be a bit much, especially with what dentists tell you: don’t eat too much or your teeth will rot.

Just another cog in the fad of subscription boxes.

Well, just like all subscription-based services, candy has found its way into homes on a monthly basis thanks to the subscription box craze. It makes sense, though. Why would other products work on a month-to-month schedule and not candy? Especially when it’s unique, foreign, or seasonal candy that is deemed “exclusive” and “limited edition.”

Thanks to candy boxes, candy is more than just the sweet treat itself. It’s the presentation of that treat, the colors that accompany the sugary snack. Specific art on the boxes can trigger emotions and desires to buy the product because of its look, its statement, or its ability to stand out among other candies. It’s how marketing applies to all sorts of products.

Why these services instead of buying candy at your local grocery?
Why would they be successful in the first place? Why do people desire a lot of candy each month?

It’s not that any one of these services ships out that much candy, really. Spread out over a month, there may be a different treat to have every three days or so. That’s not a whole lot.

What makes it tick, though, seems to be the specialness of it. The feeling of gifting yourself something new and exciting every month is a powerful one, especially to break up the monotony of life. People crave the feeling of opening something familiar but unknown to them.

Another factor is how easy it is to simply sign up for a product and have it delivered to you. No going out of your way to find different candies. No driving to the store. It’s packaged nice and neat for you and sent to you. Sure takes the work off your end, doesn’t it?

When it comes down to it, subscription candy boxes are just another box checked off on the list of “Things to Make into Subscription Companies”. But, just like all the items on that list, it’s a profitable service.Why? Because people want it.