For the last two years, I’ve been on a mission.
It is now my lifetime goal to be my niece’s favorite aunt.
Make no mistake, this is not an easy task to take on. Her dad has two lovely sisters, so I’m not a shoe-in for the post of Favorite Aunt.
But I do have a few things working in my favor, including:
- I’m the youngest of the bunch, leaving me better positioned overall for hip, cool vibes.
- I’m the only one who doesn’t have kids of my own, which means I have more affection (and disposable income) to bestow upon the World’s Greatest Niece
- I’m crafty (’nuff said)
With such a lofty goal, birthdays are an especially important time to show off demonstrate to my niece how awesome I am and (more importantly) how awesome I think she is.
This year, though it was very tempting to adopt the “go big or go home” strategy, I decided instead to load up World’s Greatest Niece with a bunch of smaller gifts. I picked out some Little Golden Books, ABC flashcards, puzzles, bubbles (her favorite) and a Little People Wonder Woman with Invisible Plane (this was sort of for my sister as well who is a huge Wonder Woman fan).
I could have picked up a big gift bag to throw all my things in (they weren’t all conducive to wrapping — especially the Wonder Woman toy) but I wanted to do something different.
Maybe it’s just my marketing background coming through — but a gift, like a product, is really all about the packaging. Gift bags just create additional waste, getting tossed aside in two seconds and either joining a pile of used bags to be passed off on someone else or just thrown directly in the trash.
Alternatively, a better packaging option is something that the gift receiver can use afterward.
So for WGN’s birthday, I took advantage of some post-back-to-school sales and found a fun Minnie Mouse backpack on Amazon. WGN pretty much thinks Minnie is the greatest thing on Earth, so a sparkly Minnie Backpack seemed like a fun way to “wrap” her gifts while throwing in a bonus gift as well.
I added some purple ribbon and a teal “A” (first letter of her name) I picked up at Hobby Lobby to dress it up and wrapped each item in tissue paper (because the unwrapping is 90% of the fun for a two year-old).
It was a big hit, WGN loved it and I feel I maybe notched up on the Favorite Aunt scale a teeny bit.
Maybe by her tenth birthday I’ll have my spot secured…
Now I just need to start thinking of creative Christmas packaging ideas.
