Gift wrapping is the act of enclosing a gift in some sort of material. Wrapping paper is a kind of paper designed for gift wrapping. An alternative to gift wrapping is using a gift box or bag. A wrapped or boxed gift may be held closed with ribbon and topped with a decorative bow (an ornamental knot made of ribbon).
The use of wrapping paper is first documented in ancient China, where paper was invented in 2nd century BC. [1] In the Southern Song dynasty, monetary gifts were wrapped with paper, forming an envelope known as a chih pao. The wrapped gifts were distributed by the Chinese court to government officials. [2] In the Chinese text Thien Kung Khai Wu, Sung Ying-Hsing states that the coarsest wrapping paper is manufactured with rice straws and bamboo fiber. [3]
Although the Hall brothers Rollie and Joyce Hall, founders of Hallmark Cards, did not invent gift wrapping, their innovations led to the development of modern gift wrapping. They helped to popularize the idea of decorative gift wrapping in the 20th century, and according to Joyce Hall, "the decorative gift-wrapping business was born the day Rollie placed those French envelope linings on top of that showcase." [4]
In Chinese culture, red wrapping denotes luck because it is such a vibrant and strong color. It is seen as a symbol of happiness and good health.
In Japanese culture, wrapping paper and boxes are common. However, the traditional cloth wrapping called furoshiki is increasing in popularity, particularly as an ecologically friendly alternative to wrapping paper. [5]
In Korean culture, bojagi are sometimes used for gift wrapping. A yedanbo is a ceremonial gift bojagi used to wrap wedding gifts from the bride's family to the members of the groom's. [6]
In Vietnamese culture, gift wrapping is an integral part of the gift-giving tradition. [7] [8] Vietnamese people often use elegant and colorful gift boxes to create visual appeal. The colors red and gold are particularly favored, as they symbolize luck and joy. Vietnamese people also pay special attention to the messages and wishes on the gifts, expressing care and affection. [9] Additionally, there is a trend towards using environmentally friendly materials such as recycled paper and sustainable ribbons for gift wrapping. [10]
In Western culture, gifts are often wrapped in wrapping paper and accompanied by a gift note which may note the occasion, the receiver's name and the giver's name.
Prior to the introduction of tissue paper, Upper-class Victorians in the west commonly used decorated and coloured thick paper to cover their gifts. [11] Modern patterned wrapping paper was introduced to the American market by the Hall Brothers in 1917. The Kansas City stationery store had run out of traditional white, red, and green monocolor tissue papers, and started selling colorful envelope liners from France. Proving popular, the company promoted the new designs in the subsequent decades, adding ribbons in the 1930s, and Hallmark remains one of the largest American producers of gift wrap. [12] Hallmark records that gift wrap accounts for $3.2 billion annually in retail sales in the U.S. [13]
In Britain, it is estimated that 226,800 miles of wrapping paper is thrown away annually at Christmas. [14] In Canada, 6 million rolls of tape are used and discarded yearly for gift wrapping at Christmas. [15] Some people attempt to avoid wastage by unwrapping gifts with care to allow the paper to be reused, while others use decorated cloth gift sacks that can be easily reused many times; both of these concepts are part of the green gifting trend that encourages recycling. Many people are moving into the trend of wrapping gifts with newspaper, magazine pages, old maps, calendars and into baskets to save single use wrapping paper from ending up in the garbage. [16]
Disposing of wrapping paper has become increasingly complex as not all papers are made entirely of paper and can be disposed of as regular waste paper. Visually stunning glossy gift papers are often coated with plastic varnishes or films, making them unsuitable for recycling and requiring disposal as residual waste. Only simple, printed gift wrapping paper can be easily recycled with regular paper waste. [17] [18]
If gift papers were fully recyclable and recycled at a 100% rate, it could save 70% of energy compared to linear production. However, especially glittering, laminated, and textured gift papers contain a significant amount of microplastics. Previous generations[ when? ] used to carefully preserve gift wrapping paper for reuse and only used fabric ribbons to avoid damaging the paper, but more recent practice relies on laminated paper with adhesive tape, which is often discarded after a single use. [19]
In Germany, approximately 100 grams of gift wrapping paper per person are used each year, resulting in up to 8,000 tons of wrapping paper waste. However, not all types of paper can be fully recycled. [20]
Estimates from the United Kingdom indicate that the equivalent of 108 million rolls of gift wrapping paper were discarded after Christmas 2018, considering an annual consumption that exceeds 350,000 kilometers. [19]
In Canada, gift packaging and paper shopping bags generate 540,000 tons of packaging waste annually. Due to recycling challenges, most gift wrapping paper made from various materials ends up in landfills. [21]
During the Christmas season in the United States, an additional 5 million tons of waste are generated, with up to 4 million tons consisting of various gift packaging and gift papers. [19]
A study conducted in 1992 at Southern Methodist University in Texas examined whether the act of wrapping a gift has an impact on the recipient's experience. It was found that gift wrapping enhances anticipation and that recipients tend to value wrapped gifts more than unwrapped ones. [22]
Gift wrapping paper serves multiple purposes: it protects the gift during transportation and provides an element of surprise and excitement when it is unwrapped. Therefore, gift wrapping paper is used not only during gift exchanges but also for occasions like children's birthdays. [23] [24]
Gift wrapping papers are designed to suit different occasions where gift-giving is customary, leading to a separation of motifs. The industry distinguishes between year-round collections and seasonal collections, with Christmas gift wrapping paper being the most prominent among seasonal products. Nowadays, specialized gift wrapping paper is available for various occasions such as birthdays, weddings, Mother's Day, and anniversaries.
Many stores now offer on-site gift wrapping services, either for free or for a fee, depending on the store. Some drugstores even provide complimentary gift wrapping paper for items purchased in-store.
Additionally, an increasing number of online retailers offer gift wrapping as an additional service. Some even offer the option to send the wrapped gifts directly to the recipient along with a personalized greeting card.
Industrially manufactured gift wrapping paper is widely accessible to consumers in retail stores, usually in the form of small rolls protected by plastic packaging. Certain specialty stationery stores offer gift wrapping paper in sheet format, featuring embossed patterns or special treatments like glitter elements.
It is now possible for individuals to create custom-designed gift wrapping paper at home and have the design printed by a printing shop or photo lab.
In the past, gift wrapping has been shown to positively influence the recipients who are more likely to rate their gifts positively if they had traditional gift wrapping. [25] More recently, researchers have found that gift recipients will have higher expectations of the gift inside based on the neatness of the gift-wrapping. [26]
In many countries the colour of wrapping paper has associations with symbolic meanings pertaining to funerals and mourning. These certain colours should be avoided when wrapping gifts in these countries. [27]
A gift or a present is an item given to someone, without the expectation of payment or anything in return. An item is not a gift if that item is already owned by the one to whom it is given. Although gift-giving might involve an expectation of reciprocity, a gift is meant to be free. In many countries, the act of mutually exchanging money, goods, etc. may sustain social relationship and contribute to social cohesion. Economists have elaborated the economics of gift-giving into the notion of a gift economy. By extension, the term gift can refer to any item or act of service that makes the other happier or less sad, especially as a favour, including forgiveness and kindness. Gifts are also first and foremost presented on occasions such as birthdays and holidays.
Tết, short for Tết Nguyên Đán, is the most important celebration in Vietnamese culture. Tết celebrates the arrival of spring based on the Vietnamese calendar, which is mostly based on the lunisolar Chinese calendar and usually has the date in January or February in the Gregorian calendar.
Take-out or takeout is a prepared meal or other food items, purchased at a restaurant or fast food outlet with the intent to eat elsewhere. A concept found in many ancient cultures, take-out food is common worldwide, with a number of different cuisines and dishes on offer.
Wrap, WRAP or Wrapped may refer to:
Packaging is the science, art and technology of enclosing or protecting products for distribution, storage, sale, and use. Packaging also refers to the process of designing, evaluating, and producing packages. Packaging can be described as a coordinated system of preparing goods for transport, warehousing, logistics, sale, and end use. Packaging contains, protects, preserves, transports, informs, and sells. In many countries it is fully integrated into government, business, institutional, industrial, and for personal use.
A greeting card is a piece of card stock, usually with an illustration or photo, made of high quality paper featuring an expression of friendship or other sentiment. Although greeting cards are usually given on special occasions such as birthdays, Christmas or other holidays, such as Halloween, they are also sent to convey thanks or express other feelings.
Family Day is a public holiday in the countries of Angola, Israel, Namibia, South Africa, Uruguay, Vanuatu, and Vietnam; in the Australian Capital Territory; in the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columbia, Ontario, Saskatchewan and soon New Brunswick and Nova Scotia; in the American states of Arizona and Nevada; and as the second day of Songkran in Thailand.
Furoshiki are traditional Japanese wrapping cloths traditionally used to wrap and/or to transport goods. Consideration is placed on the aesthetics of furoshiki, which may feature hemmed edges, thicker and more expensive materials, and hand-painted designs; however, furoshiki are much less formal than fukusa, and are not generally used to present formal gifts.
A disposable is a product designed for a single use after which it is recycled or is disposed as solid waste. The term is also sometimes used for products that may last several months to distinguish from similar products that last indefinitely. The word "disposables" is not to be confused with the word "consumables", which is widely used in the mechanical world. For example, welders consider welding rods, tips, nozzles, gas, etc. to be "consumables", as they last only a certain amount of time before needing to be replaced. Consumables are needed for a process to take place, such as inks for printing and welding rods for welding, while disposable products are items that can be discarded after they become damaged or are no longer useful.
Kraft paper or kraft is paper or paperboard (cardboard) produced from chemical pulp produced in the kraft process.
Bánh chưng is a traditional Vietnamese food which is made from glutinous rice, mung beans, pork and other ingredients. Its origin is told by the legend of Lang Liêu, a prince of the last king of the Sixth Hùng Dynasty, who became the successor thanks to his creation of bánh chưng and bánh giầy, which symbolized, respectively, the earth and the sky. Considered an essential element of the family altar on the occasion of Tết, the making and eating of bánh chưng during this time is a well-preserved tradition of Vietnamese people. Besides the Tết holiday, bánh chưng is also eaten all year round as Vietnamese cuisine.
A bojagi is a traditional Korean wrapping cloth. Bojagi are typically square and can be made from a variety of materials, though silk or ramie are common. Embroidered bojagi are known as subo, while patchwork or scrap bojagi are known as jogak bo.
Paper is a thin sheet material produced by mechanically or chemically processing cellulose fibres derived from wood, rags, grasses, or other vegetable sources in water, draining the water through a fine mesh leaving the fibre evenly distributed on the surface, followed by pressing and drying. Although paper was originally made in single sheets by hand, almost all is now made on large machines—some making reels 10 metres wide, running at 2,000 metres per minute and up to 600,000 tonnes a year. It is a versatile material with many uses, including printing, painting, graphics, signage, design, packaging, decorating, writing, and cleaning. It may also be used as filter paper, wallpaper, book endpaper, conservation paper, laminated worktops, toilet tissue, currency, and security paper, or in a number of industrial and construction processes.
Hallmark Cards, Inc. is a privately held, family-owned American company based in Kansas City, Missouri. Founded in 1910 by Joyce Hall, Hallmark is the oldest and largest manufacturer of greeting cards in the United States. In 1985, the company was awarded the National Medal of Arts.
Bubble wrap is a pliable transparent plastic material used for packing fragile items. Regularly spaced, protruding air-filled hemispheres (bubbles) provide cushioning for fragile items.
Green gifting is an emerging trend that results in a lower environmental impact as well as a lower impact on personal budgets from the gift giving process. It began with the idea of recycling the packaging around a gift and has expanded into the mindset that presents themselves can be chosen or created for the purpose of recycling or lowering their environmental and budgetary impact.
Plastic-coated paper is a coated or laminated composite material made of paper or paperboard with a plastic layer or treatment on a surface. This type of coated paper is most used in the food and drink packaging industry.
Plastic containers are containers made exclusively or partially of plastic. Plastic containers are ubiquitous either as single-use or reuseable/durable plastic cups, plastic bottles, plastic bags, foam food containers, Tupperware, plastic tubes, clamshells, cosmetic containers, up to intermediate bulk containers and various types of containers made of corrugated plastic. The entire packaging industry heavily depends on plastic containers or containers with some plastic content, besides paperboard and other materials. Food storage nowadays relies mainly on plastic food storage containers.
Packaging waste, the part of the waste that consists of packaging and packaging material, is a major part of the total global waste, and the major part of the packaging waste consists of single-use plastic food packaging, a hallmark of throwaway culture. Notable examples for which the need for regulation was recognized early, are "containers of liquids for human consumption", i.e. plastic bottles and the like. In Europe, the Germans top the list of packaging waste producers with more than 220 kilos of packaging per capita.
Overpackaging is the use of excess packaging. The Institute of Packaging Professionals defines overpackaging as “a condition where the methods and materials used to package an item exceed the requirements for adequate containment, protection, transport, and sale”
Media related to Gift-wrapping at Wikimedia Commons
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