Updated

Back in the good ol' days, you could slap a stamp on a trash bag filled with Chrismas gifts, hand it over to anyone who vaguely resembled a postal worker, and be pretty dang certain those gifts would arrive at your brother-in-law's house unscathed.

Today, things are quite different. The courier service has become a much larger industry, so to streamline their operations, they require us to package our holiday gifts with actual tape and cardboard boxes, lest any loose cigars or unwrapped fruitcakes fall from our parcels during shipping.

Luckily for us, the package professionals at Collect Plus have shared the following eight tips for safely shipping any holiday gift to your brother-in-law's house, where he can put them in a trash bag if he so chooses.