Under Wraps

Brown paper packages tied up with strings
These are a few of my favorite things…

The extra-hard crossword puzzle contest this week courtesy of the WSJ is “Under Wraps,” so while I was pondering its solution, I started thinking about wrapping paper. I discovered, as I poked around sites which did addressed this topic (sponsored by Hallmark etc), that many had bits and pieces but none seemed to thread them together. You need the Victorians, you need the Flexography press, the toilet paper, the papyrus reeds, the red symbology of China, and the Roman army. Nobody mentioned them all. So let me rectify that gap.

I set out to answer two specific questions. First, when did we–Americans if you want to be specific–start decorating holiday gifts with colored wrapping paper and ribbons? And, secondly, how did cultures over time convey their gifts? Who started wrapping, when and how?

Baskets and Bundles

The ancient cultures bestowed gifts on others for a number of purposes. They notable gave gifts to the gods, to their leaders, and to the dead–that’s certainly what we see in the illustrations they left behind. Between religious ceremonies, tribute, funerals, and other holiday celebrations, they were no strangers to giving. Typically, gifts were unwrapped, though they might be conveyed in baskets, and the Egyptians might use papyrus as a covering, since they had the technology. They also used linen cloth, with the more expensive being of finer weave, patterned weave, or perhaps with gold thread among the weave.

Mesoamerican cultures sometimes bundled the gifts given to the gods. The bundling and wrapping itself was done with ceremony, each layer of wrapping carrying a meaning, and special words or songs sung during the bundling. The Aztecs called these tlaquimilolli, the sacred bundle.

The Chinese invented paper in the 2nd century BCE and used the paper for wrapping as much as writing, particularly emphasizing the lucky and powerful color red in their gift-giving. However, they also used cloth, especially expensive cloth, anything from linen to silk. If you’re giving a gift to a higher power, what better way to emphasize its value than to have the wrapping itself be of value? (Chinggis Khan famously wrapped the carts full of goods and tribute that he took from China with yards of expensive silk that he also “extracted.” When you’re wrapping carts full of plunder, use nothing but the best!)

The Chinese would further decorate the wrapping paper or cloth with important symbols, either drawing characters for “double happiness” or floral designs on the covering and tying it with intricate knots. Japanese and Korean cultures also both developed complex ways of wrapping and tying gifts, with the wrapping process itself becoming part of the giving.

Roman Like to Tie Things, Too.

The Romans also conveyed gifts wrapped in expensive cloth. With access to trade and natural resources, imperial Romans had multiple types of cloth to choose from, Egyptian linen, silk brought along the Silk Road–where else?–North African and Indian cotton, and even wool. The fancier the gift, the more elaborate the wrapping.

Reminds me of a scene from the miniseries Rome (2005), where Julius Caesar’s niece Atia is preparing a gift for her friend, Servilia, Brutus’ mother, to apologize for a social snub. The gift is a handsome, muscular slave with a huge … amount of pubic hair, which she festoons with flowers. Kind of like giving someone a poinsettia! Decorate it, whatever the gift is!

However, along with flowers, the Romans would also decorate gifts with different types of ties and ribbons. The use of ribbons as adornment on clothing was a larger part of Roman culture, especially in the army. They used ribbons–strips of cloth–both in a practical way, such as to tie on armor, but also to convey rank, prestige, or military honors. Thus, a carved statue of Emperor Hadrian (reign of 117-138 CE), indicates his status with a sash tied across his chest.

Since ribbons were relatively small bits of cloth, decorating them with intricate designs or expensive thread was a way to increase their value while keeping the workmanship effort small. Decorating the hem of a garment is easier than the whole garment. Thus, a whole sub-culture could spring up regarding the ribbons on Christian sacred readings–altar missals (a book for a church service). Just like military honors, such ribbons could be color-coded to indicate the service.

Presents were exchanged in December, first during Saturnalia in the Roman era, then during the Christmas “holiday” season–plus on many of the saint’s days. But present wrapping once the empire fell was with cloth, and then plain paper, once paper technology was brought to Europe after the Renaissance.

By the early 19th century, gifts were exchanged wrapped in brown paper, thick paper for the wealthy, thinner for those less so. Dickens’s “A Christmas Carol,” which gives some of the best-known descriptions of holiday mechanics, the gifts given were notably food and drink, occasionally money or a small item. Christmas is not about gift-giving as much as conveying togetherness through feasts with family friends, and rooms decorated with light and greenery. Ah, the greenery, though, was a little new even for Charles Dickens. The greenery–the holly, the ivy, the mistletoe–had entered British rooms by the 1840s from Germany.

The German Influence

In 1847, an illustration of Kris Kringle depositing presents on a Christmas tree in Philadelphia, i.e. America, clearly shows them unwrapped. So we can surmise that by the mid-19th century, European and European-influenced cultures were comfortable with the idea of Santa coming down a chimney, or at least into a house, to provide toys for children. Here, Kris/Santa is hanging them on the tree. Gifts are unwrapped, but there is a tree, a Santa, and toys for children.

A few years later, in Godey’s Lady’s book from 1850, the Christmas tree is tall and filled with lights. Presents are distributed under the tree and “sweet meats” hang from little boats under the branches. In this famous drawing, the family is Queen Victoria and Prince Albert’s. Albert has brought his family’s tradition of s German Christmas tree across the Channel. After that, the idea of a decorated Christmas tree became popular and eventually standard in western homes by the end of the century.

Historians say–although it’s not in this picture–that the Victorian royals also wrapped gifts, thereby also setting that tradition as well. But in order for the masses to wrap gifts, they needed access to better types of supplies than simple cloth: tissue paper, decorated paper, and ribbons. They needed technology for mass distribution.

Patents for Flexography and Toilets

Decorated paper distributed en masse was begging for patterns and colors. Bibby, Baron, and Sons invention of the Flexography press (1890) was one of many advances made to printing that broadened the printing of newspapers, magazines, and advertising. Advances in printing meant that replications of a complex, decorated images could be handled on a larger scale. Artisan hand-decorated paper might still be used for those who could afford it, but by the early 1900s, the public had access to paper with designs.

But one problem in design was the use of sheets. Would folds in the sheets mar the design? How could printers work around that limitation? Toilet paper to the rescue! In the 1870s, the Wheeler company patented the idea of perforated and rolled toilet paper. Prior to that “medicated” paper was sold, but not widely because the sheets were cumbersome to use and store. Rolling the toilet paper (with perforations) made it far more convenient. The idea of rolling paper for other uses also made sense, and wrapping paper rolls also started to gain in popularity.

At the same time, tissue paper was another widely used option. Less expensive than the thick paper used by Queen Victoria or wealthy industrialists (*coff* robber barons), layers of white tissue paper might still convey more class than simple brown paper, as with the photo at the top of the posts. Stores began to sell and use red, green, or white tissue paper during the holidays. So gifts might be wrapped in plain brown paper, tissue paper, or–on an increasing basis–on decorated wrapping paper. Wrapping in cloth as a notion was put out to pasture.

The Hall Brothers

The Hall Brothers of Kansas City, who had begun a little postcard business, had expanded to other items such as tissue paper for wrapping by the early 1900s. Legend has it that they ran out of tissue paper one holiday season and started selling French postcard liners from their stockroom, which happened to be decorated. Thick, decorated paper caught on. The printing presses had been invented to mass color and replicate it; the toilet paper roll allowed to take on a logical form; the Hall Brothers popularized thicker colored paper as a style for wrapping.

By the time of the Roaring Twenties, mass produced wrapping paper and ribbon became popular for gift giving. Stores even introduced the new department: the Gift Wrapping Bureau. Holiday movie scenes from even the least affluent homes showed the Christmas tree with gifts wrapped in colored paper and tied with simple-colored ribbons, as in 1940’s Remember the Night.

Present giving has never been the same since. Or, maybe we should just now refer to it as sacred bundling, as the Aztecs did.

By the way, I think the answer to the puzzle contest, which is a word that you experience while opening presents is : DESIRE.