Wrapped Gift Emoji
A wrapped box with a ribbon and bow, standing for a present that has not been opened.
Try Wrapped Gift emoji
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Meaning & usage
What does the Wrapped Gift emoji mean?
A wrapped box with a ribbon and bow, standing for a present that has not been opened.
Anticipatory. The box is closed, so the emoji is about the moment before opening, which is why it suits announcements and giveaways.
How to use 🎁 naturally
Birthdays, Christmas, giveaways and anything being offered.
Activity emoji name what is happening rather than how anyone feels about it. They work as compact labels for plans, results and hobbies, which is why invitations and announcements lean on them so heavily.
From standard to slang
The history of 🎁
- 2010
First defined as emoji
According to Unicode’s Emoji Versions data, Wrapped Gift was first defined as emoji in Emoji 0.6, dated 2010. That label is retrospective: Unicode applied it later to the early mobile core it inherited from the Japanese carriers.
- Before the keyboard
Its visual roots
A box with a ribbon crossing both faces and a bow on top. The ribbon is what makes it a gift; the same box without it is 📦.
- Today
How its use evolved
Birthdays, Christmas, giveaways and anything being offered.
Dates follow Unicode’s official Emoji Versions chart. Versions before Emoji 1.0 are labelled retrospectively. See the history of emoji.
In conversation
Examples of 🎁 in messages
These examples show the emoji in complete messages, where the words make its intended tone easier to read.
Something small on its way to you 🎁
Giveaway closes Sunday 🎁
Do not open it before Saturday 🎁
When to use it
Using 🎁 clearly
Birthdays, Christmas, giveaways and anything being offered. It lands as gift emoji or 🎁 meaning when the rest of the message supports that reading, and it is the surrounding words that do the deciding — so in a sensitive, professional or cross-cultural conversation, say the thing outright as well.
Common questions
About the wrapped gift emoji
What does 🎁 mean in a text message?
A wrapped box with a ribbon and bow, standing for a present that has not been opened. Anticipatory. The box is closed, so the emoji is about the moment before opening, which is why it suits announcements and giveaways.
Is 🎁 always positive?
Not always. Its usual readings are gift emoji, 🎁 meaning, present emoji, and irony or the relationship between the people can flip any of them.
Why does 🎁 look different on another device?
U+1F381 identifies the emoji; the picture is a font, drawn separately by Apple, Google, Microsoft and Samsung. Only the artwork changes, never the character.
How do I copy and paste the wrapped gift emoji?
Use the copy button at the top of this page. 🎁 is a character, not an image, so it pastes into messages, captions and filenames as ordinary text.
When was the wrapped gift emoji introduced?
Unicode’s Emoji Versions data first records 🎁 as emoji in Emoji 0.6, dated 2010. Early emoji version numbers can be retrospective, so this date describes its place in the standardised emoji set rather than the first-ever appearance of the underlying symbol.
For developers
🎁 in code
Every value below is generated from the character itself, so it stays correct even where a file encoding cannot hold the emoji directly.
| Format | Value | When to use it | Copy |
|---|---|---|---|
| Unicode | U+1F381 | The standard reference. Use it to search a character map or a spec. | |
| HTML (hex) | 🎁 | For HTML and XML. Safe in files that are not saved as UTF-8. | |
| HTML (decimal) | 🎁 | The same reference in decimal. Both render identically. | |
| CSS | \1F381 | For the content property. Keep the quotes around the whole value. | |
| JavaScript | \u{1F381} | A string-literal escape. Needs the u flag inside a regular expression. | |
| URL-encoded | %F0%9F%8E%81 | Percent-encoded UTF-8, for query strings and API requests. |
Reference card
Emoji details
- Unicode
- U+1F381
- Category
- Activities & Play
- Also known as
- gift emoji🎁 meaningpresent emoji
Put it in a message
When 🎁 is the right choice
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