Bows and ribbons to dress up your holiday gift-wrapping this season

Among the most enjoyable traditions of the holiday season is receiving a thoughtful and well-wrapped gift. It's ironic, then, that one of the most stressful traditions of the holiday season is trying to think of and wrap up the perfect gift.

The gift selection process has countless avenues all aiming to help you find the right one, but wrapping them is often left up to you. If you're no good at the delicate task, consider hiding your mistakes or spicing up your presentation with bows or ribbons.

In this article: Hallmark Gift Bow Assortment, Celebrate A Holiday Christmas Curling Ribbons and Liuyaxi Satin Ribbons.

Bows vs. ribbons

Bows and ribbons may seem similar on the surface, but each adornment has its differences as well as pros and cons.

• Bows are typically premade decorations in that you don't have to tie them or otherwise form their design. You just attach the bow to your gift as you please, using an adhesive that's attached to the base of the bow. The main benefit of using one is the ease of use, but the downside is that they're easy to knock off before it's opening time.
• Ribbons are handcrafted decorations, meaning that you need to wrap your ribbon around your gift and tie it in a bow without any help. That's also a ribbon's major drawback: they're just as hard to get right as basic wrapping, if not more so. But with the increased difficulty comes a more attractive gift, and one that takes more time to open. 

A smaller benefit of both bows and ribbons is you can use them instead of wrapping paper for gifts that are exceptionally difficult or potentially impossible to wrap with paper.

Design

Bows and ribbons come in a variety of designs, though both share the ability to be any color.

• Bows come in one of three designs. The most common is a sort of little dome that can have either a pointy or a smooth top. A variation of this type has tails, meaning small strips of material that extend away from the dome. The final design uses several tightly wound spirals of material that all extend and bounce around from a central point.
• Ribbons have a much wider range of options. The material can be sheer, solid, metallic or anything else. They can be a solid color or a mix, or have designs such as flowers or Christmas trees. They can even have words printed on them. You can also order custom ribbons that say whatever you like.

Size

Bows and ribbons have different methods for determining size.

• Bows: Size for bows is determined by their width, length and height. Most bows are 2 to 5 inches wide and long, unless they have tails, which results in different width and length measurements. Height is usually 1 to 2 inches.
• Ribbons: Size for ribbons is determined solely by their width. They can be as small as one-fifth of an inch or as large as 1.5 inches.

Quantity included

Bows and ribbons use different measuring methods to determine how many gifts you can wrap with a set.

• Bows are tallied simply. One set may have 10, while another may have 15. Most sets are no smaller than six. Set sizes of 12 to 24 are the most common. Few sets contain more than 50, though some can include as many as 100 or more.
• Ribbons are slightly more complex. You have to consider how many spools are included and the length of ribbon included on each spool. For number of spools included, most sets have three or fewer, with few having more than 20. For length on each spool, more spools tends to mean shorter lengths on each one. Single spools sets can have 25-100 yards or longer, while multi-spool sets usually have 10-50 yards. How many gifts you can wrap is determined by the size of your gifts, with larger ones usually needing more ribbon.

Cost

Bows cost $10-$30, and ribbons cost $5-$20.

Best bows

Extrapins Bows

This collection includes 75 total bows with 15 each in gold, silver, red, green and blue. Every bow is 3.25 by 3.25 inches.

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Hallmark Gift Bow Assortment

This collection includes 30 total bows. Five are red and white and measure 4.5 by 4.5 inches, while the other 25 are assorted colors and measure 3.5 by 3.5 inches.

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Joyin Christmas Pull Bows

This collection includes 48 total bows: two each of 24 designs. They ship flat and all you need to do is pull one end to form the bow.

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Lulu Home Bows

This collection includes 48 total bows. There are six colors and each one has six big bows measuring 3.15 by 3.15 inches, and two small bows measuring 1.97 by 1.97 inches.

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XmasSolutions Pull Bows

These bows can be bought in collection sizes of 12, 24 or 36. They can be half red and half green, or all red or green. They measure 5 by 5 inches.

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Best ribbons

ATRibbons Satin Ribbon

This ribbon is extra-wide at 1.5 inches and comes in 19 colors, all of which are opaque and glossy. The spool has 25 yards of fabric.

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Celebrate A Holiday Christmas Curling Ribbons

This collection includes three spools that each have 100 yards of fabric. One is red and white striped, one is green and says "Merry Christmas" and the last is metallic silver with Christmas trees.

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Liuyaxi Satin Ribbons

This collection includes 20 spools, 18 of which are silk and two of which are metallic. All are different colors and two-fifths of an inch wide.

Sold by Amazon

Olyphan Curling Christmas Ribbons

This collection has three spools, all of which are metallic and have 100 yards of material. Each is also a different color.

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SN Incorp. Curling Ribbons

This collection has 12 spools of shiny ribbon, each of which is three-sixteenths of an inch wide and 20 yards long. Each spool is also a different color.

Sold by Amazon

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Jordan C. Woika writes for BestReviews. BestReviews has helped millions of consumers simplify their purchasing decisions, saving them time and money.

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