Christmas Wrapping

Let’s unwrap the beginnings of where wrapping paper came from and where we are now.

Wrapping gifts has been around for centuries. Japan and Korea have similarities with their wrapping and the style is picking up in popularity in the West. Japan’s tradition of using furoshiki, the reusable wrapping cloth, is similar to what has been around since the Edo period. In Korea, it is called bojagi , and dates back to the Three Kingdoms Period, potentially as early as the first century A.D.

Meanwhile, the West has been using paper as covering for gifts for a fair few years. Back we go to the Victorian era, (those Victorians were key for lights, trees and also wrapping paper), where the upper-class regularly used decorated paper— with ribbons and lace—to wrap their gifts.

By the early 20th century, the thick paper made way for green, red and white tissue.

And now we come to the really juicy story. In 1917, in the United States, there were two brothers who were having a smashing year selling tissue paper in their stationary shop. They wanted a replacement for the paper and so rummaged in their back room and found some French paper that was used to line envelopes. They figured they would give it a shot and popped them out on display at $0.10 each.

They sold out pretty quickly. So they tried this same tactic in 1918 to see if it was a fluke. It was not. They sold out again. By 1919 they were so convinced with this wrapping paper, they started devolping and selling their own decorated paper.

The two brothers? Joyce and Rollie Hall, and their shop…Hallmark!

Let’s get wrapped up now - welcome to my 12 Days of Christmas, #ecoedition, continuing with Day 4!

Check out the quiz question at the bottom of the page and stay tuned for the answer tomorrow!

QUIZ ANSWER FROM DAY 3: What tops the list of the most unwanted gift? Clothing and accessories (US 43%, UK 25.03%).

Wrapper facts

Let’s unwrap some truths about wrapping paper:

• The average household uses 4 x rolls of wrapping paper each year, 1.5 rolls of sticky tape and 3.5 bags of packaging is thrown out

• In the US, as much as half of the 85 million tons of paper products used each year, apparently, goes toward packaging, wrapping, and decorating. Wrapping paper and shopping bags alone is about 4 million tons of the rubbish generated annually in the U.S

• 226,800 miles of wrapping paper is thrown out at Christmas in the UK alone – that would stretch 9 x round the world

• An estimated 30 million trees cut down to make wrapping paper

• Gift wrap in the United States is now a nearly $3 billion industry

• Each year (in the UK) it costs around £168 million ( USD$216 million) of taxpayer dollars to dispose of Christmas wapping waste into landfills

• Most wrapping paper isn’t recyclable: the material fibres are low quality, or it still has sticky tape attached, or it has foil or glitter or plastic included within it.

ECO options

There are some really simple swaps we can make to reduce our wrapping waste:

• Reuse gift bags and ribbons each year from gifts received

• Fabric, shipping boxes, newspaper, brown paper with our own stamps, foliage, dried fruit, bags saved from other presents

• Use paper tape, ribbon, or twine instead of sellotape

• Unwrap gifts carefully and remove sticky tape from wrapping paper before recycling or reuse the paper

• Buy recycled wrapping paper e.g Wrappily or from Boobalou

• If you do buy new, check it is good quality paper (doesn’t look like it is too thin or will rip) and is FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) approved paper

• Scrunch the paper to test it doesn’t have plastic included. If it stays in a ball, it is paper and can be added to anywhere accepting paper. If not, it cannot be recycled.

• Be inventive!

If you receive any presents wrapped in paper with glitter, foil, laminate or plastic, or it is very thin / weak paper, please dispose of it in the bin. It is not recyclable.

FUN QUIZ QUESTION - find out the answer tomorrow!

How many times would the wrapping paper thrown out in the UK go round the world?

Good luck and I hope your Christmas gets wrapped up!

Please note, I am not affiliated with any company mentioned in this post.