Donald Heinz writes,
The wrapping paper industry was born in 1917, when it was called “gift dressing,” and Christmas is now unimaginable without it. Like every great invented tradition, it is now impossible to conceive a time when society went without it, even though through much of the 19th century wrapping Christmas presents was unknown and gifts were placed in stockings, hung on the tree if small, placed in very simple boxes, wrapped in very simple paper and string, or left open and undisguised. A new fashion returns to those days, as presents, with simple elegance taught by Martha Stewart, are wrapped in brown paper now stippled with metallic paint from homemade patterns (Christmas: Festival of Incarnation, 144)
How do you imagine gift giving would change if there were no wrappings?
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