Received a HNY greeting and a question from Chris a few days ago:
“Here’s a question 4 u. How did wrapping gifts come to be?”
Well, I turned to the resident expert for help with this one. Claire is one good gift wrapper – the creases and folds are always sharp and fit like they were accomplished with a calculator and T-square. The tape always seems to be invisible – and – they have ribbons and bows, that she usually makes.
On every occasion when I need to wrap gifts, I look at it as a fresh new challenge. I always think I’ll remember the mistakes I made the last time. Over the years I’ve learned a lot of what not to do – not so much as to what to do… In years past, I usually got all the materials together and had a glass or cup or more of eggnog. The end results never seemed to get any better, so I figured it must be the eggnog. After a few years, I switched to wine, but the end results were still disappointing – after I finish, I step back to look at the finished product and **** ####!! What the heck happened? It usually looks like a three year old wrapped it. I’ve kind of solved the problem by using those “gift bags,” but somehow that seems like cheating. However, I’ve recently learned that if you buy your gift from Amazon, it comes already wrapped and ready to give!!! I’m thinking Amazon is going to be getting a lot of my business….
But it seems like I’ve gotten a bit off track here, the question was, “how wrapping gifts came to be?” I guess people have always given gifts – tribal leaders always expected, and received, gifts from their tribesmen as a token of loyalty and love. Over the years, people have given gifts to procure favor(s) – obviously that still happens today. Gifts are given for many reasons: cultural or religious occasions, birthdays, holidays, farewells, good luck, to show love, thank you, welcome and sometimes “just because.”
Anyhow, back to the question – Claire said gifts used to be wrapped in plain tissue paper, but the tissue paper was flimsy and sometimes the paper would fall off or tear before the gift was “opened.” Apparently, history credits Joyce C. Hall, the founder of the Hallmark Company with inventing not only the greeting card, but the wrapping paper used today. The wrapping paper turned out to be a fall-out from the greeting card, so it occurred as an accident, not a real invention.
My own opinion is that like most things in our house, wrapping paper started in China – if my memory serves me correctly, the Chinese invented paper, so that’s were it all started. I think the first wrapping paper that was similar to what we see today, evolved from England, where, in the 1500s, they used wallpaper to wrap gifts.
Whatever – Claire’s gifts will continue to look spectacular and professional, mine will continue to look pathetic. But I’ve always heard it said that, “it’s what’s on the inside that counts.” I think that’s true – not what’s in the box – what’s in the heart of the giver…
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