Why do we wrap gifts?

Have you ever wondered why we wrap gifts? Good Question.

With the time-honored tradition of gift giving comes gift concealing.

The Mall of America's premier gift wrap location is the Paper Source.

"The gift itself being wrapped up with a really nice bow shows them, through your actions, that I love you and I am willing to take the extra time to be able to make something even more special for you," Isamar Jaquez of the Paper Source said.

"Wrapping Culture," research from Oxford University, reads: "The most obvious and practical reason to wrap items is to protect them, such as dirt, germs and vagaries of the climate."

The research also suggests anticipation as a reason to wrap, saying, "The special effort put into the decoration of the gift is probably expected to transmit a message of goodwill to the recipient."

Wrapping is rooted in Asian tradition. According to Anthropology Magazine Sapiens, in ancient China, some 2,000 years ago, paper was used to protect precious materials and store tea leaves and medicines. 

About a thousand years ago, wrapping became a central tenet of gift giving in Japanese culture.  It is now a nearly universal tradition.

Wrapping paper became popular in 1918 when a Kansas paper company ran out of tissue paper and started selling the paper they used to make envelopes.

Since then, it's turned into a $16 billion industry.