Christmas Shopping Last-Minute Gift Ideas

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 66, 10 December 1938, Page 6 (Supplement)

Christmas Shopping Last-Minute Gift Ideas

Paper, Ribbon, And Seal Novelties For Wrapping The Parcels

FINISHED your Christmas shopping? If you haven’t, and most people can still be placed in the list of the regretful “haven’ts,” please don’t forget, among the crush and worry, that your parcels must reflect the spirit of the season in the way they are wrapped and the way the appropriate greetings are conveyed.

TjON’T leave this most important part of gift-giving until the very last. It is a very small item of expense op the Christmas shopping list, but it makes all the difference in the world to any gift, adding glamour and gaiety to the humblest. There is variety enough, iu the shops! —they are filled to overflowing with fascinating novelties in paper, ribbon and seals and it only takes a little ingenuity to ■ make these decidedly original as well.. ■ Why not, for instance, experiment with wide bands of different coloured paper—perhaps a blue going around crossways, a pink lengthwise. Cover the intersections with greeting cards that carry out the colour scheme. Use ribbons of crepe paper. Very lovely bows they make —not by tying in the usual way, i but by making ■loops as a milliner does and then fasten with a piece knotted around the centre. Ruffle the edges and leave long end's. Many a bow of many a kind lias been ruined for life by having its ends chopped off unceremoniously, making a stubby, unattractive thing out of what should have been a fascinating decoration.

Place several shades of tissue, one inside the other —the palest one first, the deepst one on the outside. A small touch—a large result I

Wrap tins of cakes by placing them in the centre of several squares of tissue, drawing the paper up into a top frill, and tying with a generous bow. By far the easiest way to wrap any round package, and wonderfully fetching! Put two contrasting shades of paper on the two ends of the same package, dividing it either diagonally or straight across, and let a banding cover the seam. Not so difficult as it sounds and most original! Wrap each of “the little gifts” that go into the children’s stockings separately, making them just as original and pretty as though they were really grown-up gifts. Not a bad way, perhaps, to instill a love of the niceties. From flowered organdie make wide ribbons, leaving the edges just as cut. Its dainty crispness makes delectable bows. Arrange bandings of different coloured papers, tissue or otherwise, in graduated widths, ane on top of the other, the narrowest on top, of course. Fasten all with a single large star cut from whichever colour you wish to emphasize. Christmas Cards. There are so many lovely cards this year there is do excuse for giving ordinary ones. They can be as simple as you please. Some shops rather specialize 'in cards with a religious theme, and the modernistic versions are enough to enchant even those who give no thought tb the real meaning of the season. Some very lovely silhouettes can be obtained, depicting bird, farm,, rural, garden or sea scenes. Child scenes and elfin scenes are rather popular just now, but have you seen the’ children’s own cards ’ which

is one maker's specialty? Simple in design, employing only a few clear colours and as few words as possible, these would enchant little givers as much as received.

By the way—a last-minute idea in gifts is a small fruitcake (made at the same time as your big oue), sweets, or small cakes, wrapped in the manner described here. Any housewife would love the addition to her own dishes*