Need to disguise your handwriting on gifts from Santa? These simple gift tags help your child with letter identification and keep the secret of Santa!

A friend of mine recently posted that her kids busted her on the Elf on the Shelf note because the “Elf’s” handwriting looked just like hers.  Uh oh.  Just another reason we don’t do Elf on the Shelf… but I digress.

And I know many parents work hard to disguise their writing on Christmas gifts so as to keep the Santa secret as long as possible.

With Miss O turning 5 soon, I knew I’d have to get creative about gift wrapping this year – different paper, different bows, different everything.  But I stink at disguising my writing.  It might be good enough to win over a 4-year-old, but she won’t be 4 forever (sniffle).

My solution is super simple, and it helps Miss O practice her letter recognition!  I cut out letter shapes, and those will be my gift tags.

O for O, M for Mommy, D for Daddy, N for Nana, and F for Ferris Bueller.

It works well for us because our names all start with different letters, but you could also assign letters (or numbers or shapes), or you could use the same letter on different color paper.

This system also means that Miss O can tell what’s for her and won’t accidentally unwrap Mr. O’s gifts.  She can even play Santa!

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For my letters I used the cutout machine doohickey we have at school.  You could also use a cricut or old-school scissors.  On the other hand you could just print out print letters and cut around them.

Need to disguise your handwriting on gifts from Santa? These simple gift tags help your child with letter identification and keep the secret of Santa!