Oh, wrapping station Christmas activity… you were more than I dreamed of.

What began as a whim of an activity turned into me sitting teary eyed on our sofa watching my kids unwrap LEGOs, old pens, and other random treasures from our house.

Our wrapping station Christmas activity was not only a hit… it was a bonafide classic almost immediately.

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How a Christmas wrapping station activity turned into Mom crying on the couch.

As I began wrapping presents this season, I kept saving the remnants. The scraps. The “kind of too small, but maybe they’ll work” pieces of wrapping paper.

It dawned on me that maybe the kids would want to create or play with these – kind of like when they were tabies and loved their ripping paper bins.

But now, as big kids, they can do so much more.

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I gave them some ideas, but then let them decide the activity…

I set down the wrapping paper along with tape, glue, scissors and stickers. I gave the kids some suggestions for using the paper (a cutting station, a creation station, a wrapping station).

A wrapping station?!

You’d think I had just suggested a trip to Disneyland.

Apparently, a wrapping station is exactly what they wanted

The three kids (4, 5, and 7) were unanimous. A wrapping station bin.

“Can we wrap up things to give each other?”

What parent says no to that?

The kids had taken over and created their own project: a wrapping station Christmas activity.

The house was a buzz the next 45 minutes but also strangely quiet as our three little elves went to work gathering old toys, stuffies, LEGO creations, random art supplies, etc and working swiftly to wrap each gift.

Were these real gifts?

No.

Did that matter or make it any less special?

Nope.

Each gift was full of a little treasure.

My kids worked so hard to wrap up their gifts for each other – using scissors, tape, and folding paper is NOT easy.

For my 4 year old, I left him tape pieces along the side of the kitchen table… just like my mom did for me when I was a kid.

A few of the gifts were opened immediately… but not all…

We saved many of the kids’ treasured gifts and put them under the tree. We sat together as a family later that night to a special “practice Christmas.”

The kids declared themselves Pretend Santas and oh, friends: the pride on their faces as their erases, stuffed animals, and LEGOs were opened.

It was the most joyful little event in our little house.

My 7 year old made me a LEGO mini fig and the initials of my website (BT).

I never imagined this wrapping station would be as big as it was…

And yet, it’s one of the sweetest moments so far in our Christmas season.

I can only sit here from my computer to encourage you to give this one a go.

While the gifts have been put away now (back in LEGO bins or onto beds or into pencil drawers), the magic of thankfulness and simple joy hasn’t faded.

The kids felt so proud.

So proud from what they gifted each other – and wrapped using scraps of paper that should have gone to the recycle bin without any fanfare.

Instead, those pieces of nothing paper became the kind of magical Christmas moment we parents live for.