How To Wrap A Box With A Lid to Use Again and Again

A tutorial to learn how to wrap a box with a lid to be able to use it over and over – and make your wrapping easier and go faster every year after.

One of my favorite things I stumbled upon developed to help make the holidays simpler is this easy gift wrapping system. I love, love  how I can wrap all our family’s gifts in about 30 minutes – and that I’m saving money and helping the environment a bit, too.

A key part of this system is wrapping sturdy boxes and the lids that come with them each separately so that they can be opened without tearing the paper and then can be reused from year to year.

While the finished box looks complicated – and my kids always thought was special – it’s really fairly simple to do. It did take me a few tries to figure it out the first time I wrapped a box, though, so I thought a tutorial was called for so you can use this technique to make your wrapping easier, too. (Affiliate links are included below for your convenience.)

How to Wrap a Box With a Lid

Materials you’ll need:

• A box that is very sturdy and has a lid. I prefer the boxes where the lids only go halfway down the side of the box, as I’ve found the lids that go all the way to the bottom of the inner box are harder to wrap and they tend to cause the paper to rip when being used. So those cheap shirt boxes are really not the best ones for this- look for thicker boxes that will last for years.
• Thick, beautiful wrapping paper. Choose what you love and/or that coordinates with your holiday. You’ll be seeing if for a long time, so this is the time to splurge on the expensive paper (or find it at the after-Christmas sales). Here are some Christmas-themed options and here are more generic options.
• Scissors
• Invisible gift wrapping tape

Directions

Step 1: Lay the lid on the paper and cut the paper. It should cover the long sides with about an inch extra to fold over the top. Leave the short ends long enough to fold up and over the sides with a slightly longer overhang, about 1-1/2 to 2 inches (in this example it’s about 3-4 inches total).

Note: This example is actually a square box, making all the sides even, but the idea is the same with any size box- two sides are just folded over, the other two that make up the ends need to be longer because they are folded twice.

Step 2: Fold the long sides up and over the lid. Use a piece of tape to attach the paper to the inside edge of the lid as pictured and repeat on the other side (just one piece now to hold in place).

Step 3: Take the end sections and fold just like wrapping a regular box: 1. Bring the edges in and fold as pictured. 2. Make creases and fold the edges that stick up over the box as shown.

Step 4: Tape the first folds to the inside lip of the lid. Where the side and end papers meet in the corners is the only tricky part, but just tuck and fold until flattened and then place a piece of tape to hold. Continue to fold and wrap the end just like a regular box, but take extra time folding and creasing, since you want this to look nice for years to come.

Step 5: When finished folding the end, wrap it over the lid edge and secure it with tape.

Step 6: Repeat with the other end.

Step 7: Go back over the lid and fully tape all un-taped edges. This makes the wrapping job last longer through many years of kids ripping the lids off on Christmas morning.

Step 8: Repeat all the steps with the bottom of the box.

That’s how to wrap a box- pretty simple, huh?

However, if you’re thinking you couldn’t do a “perfect job” of this, here’s my full reveal:

This is the obviously imperfect edge on the inside of the bottom of the box. I’m here to tell you that on Christmas morning, NO ONE cares about this, so I don’t either. I’m just happy to get them covered and cannot be bothered with making all the edges even.

See? It looks great from the outside, and that’s what matters (well, only for boxes- it’s just the opposite with people, isn’t it?)

So go forth and wrap a box…permanently and with confidence!

 

This article is part of the 8 Weeks of Christmas Ideas series where you’ll find resources for cooking, gift ideas, time savers, recipes, traditions & more all November and December through the 24th.

 

 

 

 

 

Disclosure: this post contains affiliate links and by clicking on them you help support AOC at no extra cost to you – thanks so much! Plus you can trust I’ll only share what I love. (You can always read our entire disclosure page here.)