When my girls were younger and could not yet read I found they wanted to open every gift under the tree. So ... along with the name tag I started assigning a special shape or color tag to each package (i.e. child #1 circles, Dad triangles, ....) The tags could be easily cut from construction paper or printed from a computer. I made them about 4" so they could easily be seen. Using a specific color bow for each person in the family could also be an easy way for a preschooler/toddler to find his/her gifts and to sort gifts into piles for each family member. This simple modification made Christmas morning gift opening go smoothly Just thought I'd share for those with young children.
OMG...that is a great idea. Right now I just wrote their names on the gifts and they really don't know how to read yet...that be kinda hard. My 3 year old already knows all her shapes but we can always teach the 2 year old. It will be fun hunting for gifts with their shapes. Thanks for the great idea Ro
i paper code the gifts always have . my daughter gets hers in something she likes and my son somehting he likes. this year it is tinkerbell and transformers. LOL although now my kids are older not little no more ;(
Once we learned to read, my mother started writing the gift tags in old fashioned shorthand, greg style. So that way, we couldn't read the tags.... AND she would rip the tag off before giving the present so that you couldnt keep the tag for the following year to figure out which gifts belonged to who. She's a smart mommy...
I color coded my presents so the kids would never really know which ones were theirs less chance of them checking out their packages ahead of time.
I have assigned random numbers to all family members... so all the gifts have numbers but no one knows which number is their own. I like the shapes ideas! We have dad hand out gifts on Christmas morning so they each open one taking turns and get to watch what each other get. I hate super crazy commotion and months of work being over in 10 minutes so this stretches it out a bit.
We always have used just the first letter in each of my kids' names. Its easier for the younger ones to remember the first letter of their name. And my older son helped when my Kindergartener was younger. I, or um, Santa just used a big Sharpie. Lauren
We did the anonymous numbers so they didn't know who's was who's before Christmas. It made it fun as they were shaking them ahead of time! Oh Christmas we told them what their numbers were, my youngest kept asking, "any more 7's in there??"
Day late and a dollar short here, but I give each child their own Santa wrapping paper. They can tell their gifts match the wrapped stocking stuffers in their labled (duh!) stocking.
