By now all the Christmas wrapping paper may be in shreds in a pile of boxes and ribbons.
But I've found an interesting history of wrapping paper - which of course, goes back centuries.
Still, 100 years ago, the American custom was to wrap gifts in colored tissue paper simply to conceal what's inside - and to avoid the old-fashioned use of what one 1911 magazine called "freak wrapping papers."
Then, in 1917, a couple of brothers in a Kansas City stationery store sold out of tissue before Christmas. Out of desperation, they started selling heavier decorated paper meant to line envelopes. It was a hit!
They were the Hall brothers. And, yes, their store was called Hallmark.
Here's a link to the story in The Atlantic.
