4 Creative Ways to Wrap Weirdly Shaped Christmas Gifts

Got a bike, violin, or basketball on your holiday shopping list? Wrapping oddly shaped gifts is easier than you think once you learn a few tricks.

Turn round objects into a festive snowman. Cover a bike in string lights. Craft oversized Christmas crackers for gifts of various shapes and sizes. With these hacks, opening the present becomes half the fun.

Supersize a Christmas Cracker

Classic party treat, but bigger. Works great for larger gifts like stuffed animals or instruments.

Roll a 24-by-36-inch piece of poster board into a cylinder. Secure it with duct tape. Cover with a sheet of wrapping paper, sticking it down with double-stick tape.

On each end, tape crepe paper about 3 inches in. Slip in the gift. Gather the paper at each end and cinch with a ribbon bow.

Now you’ve got a giant Christmas cracker that looks way more impressive than it was to make.

Make a Money Sampler

Want a more personal way to give cash? Arrange the bills like an assortment of sweets in a tissue paper-lined plain white box.

Fold or roll the bills and tie them with twine or ribbon. Nestle them in cupcake liners in various shapes and shades. A great way to use up any leftover liners, by the way.

Sprinkle in a few random trinkets—candy canes, mini tree, reindeer figurine—for even more surprise.

This beats handing someone an envelope. And it's kind of fun to open a box expecting chocolates and finding cash instead.

Just Roll With It

You need something flexible to wrap gifts with curves, like basketballs or a rounded vase. Enter crepe-paper streamers.

Like an elastic bandage, they have the flexibility to conform to any shape. Start anywhere and overlap the layers until your gift is covered. Secure with clear tape.

If you end up with spherical shapes, it's simple to turn them into a snowman. Using hot glue, stick the spheres to one another and add construction-paper accents—eyes, mouth, nose, buttons. Tie on a streamer scarf.

Suddenly that basketball isn't just wrapped. It's a snowman. Kids love this.

Don't have crepe-paper streamers? Set the gift on a large sheet of colorful cling wrap. Glad makes a red holiday edition. Because the wrap is clingy, it'll stick to all the odd edges, corners, and angles.

Not pretty, exactly, but functional. And sometimes functional beats pretty when you're wrapping a soccer ball at 11 p.m. on Christmas Eve.

Light It Up

When your item is just too big to cover with paper—a dollhouse, a rocking chair, a bike—"wrap" it with strings of holiday lights.

Cover the entire exterior. Secure the cords with standard twist ties, ribbon, or fishing line. Don't worry which way the bulbs point. The haphazardness is part of what makes it feel festive.

This works especially well for bikes. Wrap the frame, handlebars, wheels. Plug it in on Christmas morning and suddenly the bike itself is part of the decorations.

Plus it solves the "how do I wrap a bike" problem that stumps parents every year. You don't wrap it. You light it.

The Reality

Oddly shaped gifts are a pain to wrap. Traditional wrapping paper doesn't work. You end up with crumpled corners, awkward bunching, and a gift that looks like you gave up halfway through. Which you probably did.

These methods work because they embrace the weirdness instead of fighting it. Round objects become snowmen. Big objects become light displays. Long cylindrical objects become giant Christmas crackers.

The key is choosing a method that fits your gift's shape instead of trying to force wrapping paper around something that was never meant to be wrapped.

Basketballs and soccer balls? Crepe paper streamers or cling wrap.

Stuffed animals, instruments, anything long and bulky? Christmas cracker.

Cash or gift cards where you want to make it special? Money sampler in cupcake liners.

Bikes, rocking horses, anything massive? String lights.

None of these are traditional wrapping. But they're all more interesting than shoving something in a gift bag with tissue paper and calling it a day. Which, let's be honest, is what most people do with oddly shaped gifts.

Pick whatever fits your gift and your patience level. Because wrapping oddly shaped presents doesn't have to be a nightmare. It just requires thinking outside the box. Literally.

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