Who Created the First Valentine’s Day Box of Chocolates?

As you shop for your loved one, you’re sure to see bright red heart-shaped boxes filled with chocolates and other goodies on store shelves. It wouldn’t be Valentine’s Day without them, would it? Coming from the cardboard packaging industry, these heart-shaped boxes are undoubtedly the love of our hearts. But how do they actually come about?

Surprise! The heart-shaped box was not invented by a comatose lover. In fact, it was a very clever marketing idea. Our industry knows how much cardboard packaging can help sell a product, as did Richard Cadbury of The Famous Chocolate Company, who created the first Valentine’s Day heart-shaped box.

Back to England in the mid-nineteenth century. At this time, the commercialization of Valentine’s Day was in full swing, and it was common practice for Victorians struck by Cupid to give each other gifts for the romantic holiday.

Red Heart Box of Chocolates

As it happened, Richard Cadbury found himself in a position to capitalize on this cultural phenomenon. The chocolate company had recently improved its process for making drinking chocolate, and as a result, the excess cocoa butter could be made into a wider variety of what was then called “edible chocolate. What better way to market the company’s new Valentine’s Day chocolates than with heart-shaped boxes? So he did, handcrafting the first boxes we know so well today. These original Victorian packaging designs, adorned with images of roses and cupids, are highly sought after by collectors today.

Similar to our view of luxury rigid boxes, Richard Cadbury sold the first Valentine’s Day boxes for two purposes: first as a container and marketing tool for the product, and second as a keepsake after Valentine’s Day. A person might keep a special keepsake of their loved one in the box. A love letter? A lock of hair? After the chocolate is used up, the beautiful box stays around to remind loved ones and loved ones-perhaps to entice consumers to buy more Cadbury chocolates!

Richard Cadbury hit the nail on the head: the cardboard packaging is sturdy and beautiful enough for the most important occasions, and it can be useful in many ways after the fact. It’s easy to see how the art and craft of excellence in packaging design have continued from the Victorian era to today.

Red Heart Shaped Gift Box with Bow Knot

Interesting Valentine’s Day Facts.

Every Valentine’s Day, at least 36 million boxes of heart-shaped chocolates are sold.

About 50 million roses are given out worldwide for Valentine’s Day.

Valentine’s Day is the second most popular card-giving day of the year, after Christmas.

Approximately 1 billion Valentine’s Day cards are exchanged each year in the United States alone.

About 27% of people who buy flowers on Valentine’s Day are women. The other 73% are men.

The phrase “wear your heart on your sleeve” has historical significance. In the Middle Ages, young men would draw their valentine’s name from a bowl. They had to wear that name on their sleeve for a week.

Every year on Valentine’s Day, Verona, Italy, receives about 1,000 letters addressed to Juliet. This is where Romeo and Juliet, the young lovers in Shakespeare’s play, lived.

The first Valentine’s Day candy box was invented by Richard Cadbury in the late 19th century.

On Valentine’s Day 1876, Alexander Graham Bell patented his telephone.

The source is from here.