Wrapping My Head Around Christmas Bows
By Veronica MacDonald Ditko
An Accidental Anthropologist
I’ll never forget how quickly it happened. I was staring at the machine at Hallmark’s Visitors Center in Kansas City and before I knew it, in a few swift movements, the machine had created a perfect no-knot bow. I was 11 then and I am still in awe of it now. It was perfect.
I’m lucky if I tie my shoes right. I’ve never made a nice holiday bow. (Okay, I’m lying. I usually get one bow right and the rest wrong, so I have to mess up the nice one to make them all look the same.) Which begs me to ask: who thought of putting bows on packages and why do I feel so insecure about them?
Joyce Clyde Hall, who founded what became Hallmark in 1910 (yes, Hallmark turns 100 this year!), was simply a postcard maker. But a series of events (a fire that forced him to buy a press to make cards, a shortage of traditional wrapping tissue in 1917 that led to wrapping paper), and creative advertising and sponsorship, made the company a behemoth in the gift business today.
Of course you have to understand the market in which Hallmark was operating. More elaborate gift wrapping became the norm during the Victorian era. Around 1900, magazines for women discussed house-wifey topics of the day such as cooking, gift giving, and decorating. A short story written in 1897 allegedly inspired many to start giving red-ribboned gifts for Christmas.
Then in 1920s, Hallmark introduced cellophane tape and a variety of sticky ribbon decorations, and then the self-adhering “Hall Sheen Ribbon” in the 1930s that allowed the creation of far more elaborate bows. In fact, Hallmark offered bow-making guides to take women step-by-step through the bow-making process. This included the no-knot bow.
The next innovation is what makes me insecure. Bow-making machines were introduced in 1951. They created perfectly uniform bows. Today, Hallmark says it offers ribbons and bows made of grosgrain, sheer fabric, velvet, yarn and metallic materials. They are also sold as three-dimensional, hot-stamped, korker, loopy, faux, slit-pom (feathery), and lots of other variations that require a dictionary. Bow types also go in and out of fashion.
Bows are big business for the U.S., India, China, Pakistan, and Hong Kong. Of Hallmark’s $40 billion annual revenue, $2.6 billion of it comes from gift wrap items.
Who knew? How can I possibly compete with the bow-making business? I think this year I’m going to throw in the towel and buy some. I feel insecure enough!
Veronica MacDonald Ditko is originally from the Jersey Shore, but married and settled in northern New Jersey. Her journalism career started a decade ago after studying Psychology and Anthropology in Massachusetts. She has written for several newspapers and magazines including The Daily Hampshire Gazette, The Springfield Union News and Sunday Republican, Happi, Chemical Week, The Hawthorne Press, The Jewish Standard, Suite101.com and more.