How to make second hand toys look a little more wow

[GettingOldWithoutStyle]

Just because without the jazzy packaging I'm left with a wrapped cardboard box, I'd like to make them look abit more wow. I've bought my kids a few second hand bits, it's much cheaper, better for the environment and means I feel less guilty buying things which might be a passing fad (they're 5, 3 and 11m!)

Any suggestions for a mum of 3 on a budget?

Wrap in nice tissue paper and put a sticker on, like it’s from a fancy independent shop? Then into a box/gift bag, maybe

Buy some of the Xmas boxes from places like home bargains or put them in a Xmas bag with tissue paper?

Buy some gift boxes like the shoe nox style. Somewhere like card factory etc. And re use each year. We have a few we've re used.
Tissue paper or shredded tissue ( shredded could be reused too)

Give us an idea of what the bits are and the ages of the children. I've done lots of novelty wrapping over the years and might be able to help.

Wrapping paper on a cardboard box, any boxes left over from online ordering. Bows/ribbons depending on ages. Keep packaging fillers from anything delivered in a box. For example, I did an online order with Boots. Small box with brown paper crumpled up. That kind of thing.

Sorry, posted too soon - just read the ages

I set up gifts from me as an invitation to play, maybe with a bow or ribbon on for a mini 'ta-da' effect. Something else I've considered is creating a snowman gift box - where you decorate 3 lidded boxes and pile them on top of each other to form a snowman, so that's the decorative part not the individual packaging.

Cellophane and a bow makes everything look special....I know it's naff, but we all love a raffle prize in a shiny shell with a big bow on it, they just make everything look a bit more bling. Kids don't care if it's not tasteful.

Something like this

I've often given my kids (5 and 3) second hand toys for Christmas/birthday. I just wrap them up, don't even bother putting them in a box. At that age they just love unwrapping things! They're not bothered about fancy wrapping. They honestly don't notice and have never asked why things aren't in a box, including bigger items like 'new to us' scooters.

Please don't worry about it, I'm sure they'll love it whatever

We buy boxes of various sizes (Christmas themed obviously) from home bargains, put colourful tissue paper or tinsel threads in (we obviously reuse including the actual boxes) we then usually wrap the boxes anyway as my DC just love unwrapping wrapping paper more than just opening a pretty box, and I usually shove on a big bow for good measure 😂
Its a bit of an initial cost but we do reuse it each year (currently on year 3 of the same boxes, filling and bows) and we buy the majority of DC gifts second hand so its worth it for us.

For example his birthday was last week and he specifically said he would love a playmobil castle with knights, brand new it would be well over £100 and that would be a tiny section of a castle with no extras- compared to the huge magnificent playmobil castle I picked up from fb marketplace for £25 including knights, kings, dragons, cannons etc. The castle assembled is literally the size of our dining room table though! lol

At those ages they won't even notice and saves you the stress of getting a new toy out of a box which has been secured to within an inch of its life

I’ve set them up and covered them with a large piece of fabric before. Last Christmas my eldest 5 did realise it was mainly second hand but it was a very large playmobil castle complete with knights. Requires two large plastic storage boxes so he realised he wouldn’t have got it new.
For the little one I just wrap them up.

Thanks! I was thinking about nice boxes but did wonder if that was wasteful/difficult to store but if I can find some that can be stored within one another that might work! We always have scrappy bits of paper/tissue paper so maybe I can start putting bits aside to make some stuffing. I've already purchased ds2 a big bundle of fire station Playmobil second hand which I will need to build/present so maybe I can do a sheet/bow for that. Luckily we only so one big present and the stockings from father Christmas (and he doesn't have the same packaging as the shops surely 😉) so I think I can pull this off. I am a bit crafty so don't mind putting in some work too. The rest of the presents are from us/family and they know that second hand are just as good as new. Every year I encourage them to give some of their less loved toys to charity to make way for any new ones.

Presents range in size tbh. I have some bits like hexbugs and weebles (for my baby) to Spidey cars put away. I scour vinted/charity shops which saves me a fortune. Honestly, if you discard the packaging most of it would be identical to new. I appreciate as they get older they may focus on "new" a bit more but whilst they are young I am very happy to buy second hand

Some of them would look fun wrapped like this.

I think what you are doing is admirable. It really takes a huge mindset shift to break away from our cultural conditioning. It’s odd really how impacted we are by the glitzy packaging despite the fact that we all, at some point, have unboxed something and had a “that’s it?” moment.
It’s not even fun trying to break through the plastic and dig a scissors under all the tiny zip ties.

If your dc are comfortable about parting with their old toys, I’ve heard of people leaving toys out for Santa. Maybe you could incorporate that in your traditions? It blends well with them getting second hand toys too.

Since you already have the toys, you could store them until Christmas with a scented oil (cinnamon, or peppermint?) so that they smell like Christmas! If you have wooden toys, sprinkle a little saw dust or wood shavings from his workshop.

I know it’s not everyone’s cup of tea, but we always left the living room looking like a slightly inebriated, overweight man had passed through in a hurry - a few baubles brushed off the tree, a picture frame knocked over, sooty finger prints either side of the fireplace. Spotting those details was almost as big a thrill as opening gifts.

If you get gift boxes, don’t get Christmas themed ones. ideally you want ones that can then be used as the toy storage after Christmas. Ie if you have little paw patrol toy figures then they can all stay in the gift box after so they can be found. And larger parts just wrapped up or ribbon.

For things that are large and need construction it’s far better to get secondhand anyway as then someone else has built for you. Just add a nice ribbon

Ribbon I tend to reuse for years and years as just fold it back up after people have unwrapped.

Thanks so much there are some great ideas on here 🤗

I don't think I even thought about it until I had kids tbh, and then I read on MN that father Christmas surely wouldn't use commercial packaging or the same wrapping paper as Sainsbury's or whatever and I was 🤯 because obviously everything comes from the workshop at the north pole! So father Christmas presents like stockings are wrapped in brown craft paper. That said I'd love to add some magic! The ones under the tree are much more tricky but I'm definitely going to look at some of these suggestions. Thanks very much 🎁

In our house, santa does not wrap anything. There are presents to unwrap from family and friends. Santa stuff is mostly staged, ready ready to play with. That started because I bought things loke play Mobil second hand. Each child also has a sack with their name on it. Whatever I do not stage just goes in there.

This. They only want the toy - don’t waste your energy on the wrapping.

From personal experience, if you put some shredded paper into the box, you won't actually need to get the youngest a present at all😂.

Last year, when I was doing stocking shopping for my children, I noticed lots of very cheap tinsel in charity shops. So you could get a couple of bits of that maybe and use it to jazz up shredded paper inside a box?

My youngest is getting my boys bits from when they were toddlers from us. We kept a load of fisher price little people bits so that's her done 👍, literally couldn't see the point in giving it all to charity and then rebuying it new. we're only looking for a father Christmas gift for her. Something glittery and scrunchy I think!

Not cellophane if the OP is concerned about the planet - as we all are.

I did this last year and bought a
Multipack of coloured tissue paper to add layers and a fancy bows. Dirt cheap but gave it more a sense of unwrapping