Cool Christmas decorations & wrapping ideas

Christmas this year is down-sizing for most of us. But if the presents on your shopping list are getting smaller, all the more reason to spruce them extra special packaging. 

Everything I've found, below, is on the right side of a tenner (often a fiver), and all are ripe for re-use next year, once the festivities are over (even the cards – snip those carefully under each number and you have sleek gift tags, Christmas tree ties or even quirky bunting.)

Paper Nativity Decorations, £9.50, V&A Shop
Make your very own nativity scene with the V&A Paper Nativity Set which includes 10 individual pop-out figures. Treat them lovingly and they'll be ready to get out again for Christmas 2012.

Red Pompoms Ribbon, £4.50, Cox & CoxLove this multi-purpose pom pom roll – tie it around presents or plant pots, hang it from the mantlepiece... and then you can re-use it by sewing it around a suitably-coloured cushion. Eminently good value.


Teal glitter reindeer with pink glitter antlers, £4.50, Paperchase

This sparkly chap measures 19cm high, and I love that he's not trad silver, gold or red. He'd look good adorning dark-painted wooden stairs, or shelves.

French Geometric Ribbon, £4.75, Present & Correct

Made in France in the 70s this black ribbon is laced with a smart geometric pattern and comes in two-metre lengths, colourway of your choice. Fabric is the sort of ribbon to keep and re-gift year after year (or turn into stylish hair decor for a little girl's pigtails).

12 Days' 10-Christmas card pack, £5, Present & CorrectDesigner, Dave Burdon, was one of the winners of a competition organised by the V&A and London Design Festival. These cards are so striking and would be wasted with just one use.

Pretty packaging

I'm mildly obsessed with well-packaged products. Regardless of what's on the inside, I often find myself buying things that look good on the outside for no other reason than that they are aesthetically joyful. 

It's what's on the outside that matters (above) some well packaged products, clockwise from bottom left:

• Titus sardines, 97p from Africa One Stop Shop
• Original 1950s and 60s paperclip and drawing pin collection, around £6 each, from Present & Correct
• Penguin Great Food collection includes slim volumes of gastronomic wisdom inside beautiful covers. Here, A Taste of the Sun, Elizabeth David, Notes from Madras, Colonel Wyvern Wyvern and Recipes and Lessons from a Delicious Cooking Revolution, Alice Waters, £6.99 each. Or buy the whole set, £140 (but a fraction of that price at The Book People)
• Lavender Water, first made in Portugal in 1887, £20 from Labour & Wait
• Old Czech matchbox labels, £6 (to create your own pristine packaging), from Present & Correct
• 1930s  Portuguese toothpaste, £2.50, from Labour & Wait (not original 1930s...).

The inspiration to post about packaging came after my friend Abi returned from Lisbon with the gift of a little book, all about the joys of some of Portugal's most iconically packaged products (below; the title translates as Genuine and touching products of original Portuguese creation). It's nice isn't it? 

And here are some gratuitous shots of packaging I've magpied away over the years.

This week I've loved...

1. Cushions covered in vintage kimonos

Aren't these colourful cushions stunning? I found them while researching fabrics (which I'll be writing about in my next Insider column in the Independent on Sunday). The cushion covers are made, mostly, from vintage kimono fabric or other second-hand finds. The woman behind these beautiful creations is upholster, Heather Linnet, who runs the website Eclectic Chair. These gorgeous things start at £25.



2. Discovering Vivian Maier's photography

© 2011 Maloof Collection, Ltd

I went to the launch of the London Street Photography Festival, where I was mesmerised by the exhibition of images taken by Vivian Maier, above. I've bought three of her postcards to decorate my new office with.



3. Eyeing up office accessories

My new office is slowly coming together. Very slowly. And while I should probably focus on the big things (finessing my desk, which is currently fashioned from a piece of chip-board balanced on some shelves, and sorting out the boxes of stuff I moved from my not-at-home office instead of letting them gather dust in the garage), it's been much more fun window-shopping for the little touches. Like these goodies from Present & Correct: (clockwise from left) good graphic print-covered planning books, £5; a dinky German designed desk calendar, £45 and this prettily patterned masking tape, £8.50 for the set, with which I shall stick up my Vivian Maier postcards.