Christmas Gift Wrapping

Wrapping Christmas gifts in holiday colors and themes is one of the most endearing traditions of the season. But how did it start? It can be dated back at least to the 1600’s with Japan’s reusable wrapping cloth for gifts, which is still around today. In the West, the mid-1800’s saw people begin sending paper Christmas cards across Europe and America and manufacturers begin printing patterned tissue paper to match the designs printed on the cards. By the early 1900’s it had become widely popular in the West and also used to wrap gifts.

But the invention of holiday paper gift wrap that we use today can be credited to Joyce and Rollie Hall, brothers who in 1917 were running a stationery store in Kansas City, printing cards and tissue paper for the upcoming holiday season. When they ran out of the tissue paper people were using to wrap gifts, they found among their supplies a stack of “fancy French paper” – paper meant not for display, but for lining envelopes. They put the paper in a showcase and it sold out. During the holiday season of 1918, the brothers offered the same thing and again it was a sell-out hit. By 1919, they began producing and selling their own printed paper – decorative and designed for the sole purpose of wrapping gifts. The brother’s “Hallmark” store is still with us today and in addition to gift wrap is also the largest and oldest manufacturer of greeting cards in America.

Today people in America use over 3 billion square feet of wrapping paper each year, spending over 12 billion dollars. Wrapping paper came about by accident and inspiration when the traditional tissue paper supply had run out and continues to delight us when we see Christmas packages under the tree today.