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Volvo: Safety Beyond the Star RatingsThe Christmas Car Bow
Get a new car in December, and you get an oversized bow on top of it! Discover the surprising origins of the now famous big red Christmas car bow.
Have You Seen One Before?
Once upon a time, on a cold December night, someone received a car with a bow, and everything was merry and bright. That’s one Christmas story you’re probably not used to hearing, but it’s one that’s based on actual events.
You’ve all seen it at some point by now. Well, maybe not in real life, but certainly in car commercials, usually around this time of the year. Someone is gifted a new car (maybe a 2023 BMW X5 or a 2023 Lexus IS 300) and on top of it is a massive, red bow. The bow is sometimes literally the size of the entire car roof!
There’s an interesting origin behind the entire concept, but does that really happen? Is that just something from the movies and TV or do people really end up getting new cars for Christmas with a bow as big as a bean bag chair?
Yes, It Does Really Happen
King Size Bows, a company based in California, was founded in 2000 by Lynda King after she had a difficult time finding a bow big enough to put on the vehicle that she was gifting. Since she couldn’t find one, King figured there may be a demand for the oversized bows. She started a company that made them. King sold the company in 2015, and the company still does a lot of business all year long. People aren’t just buying them for Christmas, they’re buying them for a variety of special occasions and putting them on everything from cars to bicycles to jet skis to motorcycles.
These days all it takes is a quick keyword search of “bow” and “new car” to find legitimate images pop up on social media. In fact, car companies have the bows on top of the new cars that are on display in showrooms! What better way to catch someone’s attention than with a bow that is as big as you are? The marketing seems to work because the owners of King Size Bows said people expect to actually drive away in their new vehicles with the bow on top.
Now that we know this kind of thing does really happen and companies are selling thousands of bows each holiday season, another question comes up: where did that tradition start?
The Beginnings of the Bow
While people want and sometimes expect these car-sized bows with a new vehicle purchase, it wasn’t always that way. It wasn’t something the general car-buying public demanded either. It was the marketing that came first. Then, after that, the tradition of adorning new cars with a giant bow then became reality.
It was Lexus that first introduced this idea with the “December to Remember” advertising campaign in 1999. In the commercials, various people were shown giving their loved ones a brand-new Lexus. On top of the featured 1999 Lexus GS 400 and 1999 Lexus SC 400 were a pair of gold and blue bows. The recipients of these new vehicles in the commercials were, of course, surprised and elated by the gesture. Imagine being able to provide that much joy for someone you love by giving them a car. That’s what Lexus wanted you to think about. This winter campaign was so successful that Lexus continued it every holiday season since then.
Meanwhile, the public got so used to seeing it happen on television in commercials that they expected it to happen in real life.
A Continuing Tradition
The Christmas car bow isn’t just for someone on TV anymore. It happens in real life. Sometimes it’s the car dealership that supplies the bow, and other times the generous gifter finds a company like King Size Bows to supply it. This is one marketing campaign that manifested itself into a full-blown reality!
This custom isn’t quite as old as Santa Claus, but it’s become the norm after 20+ years of Lexus marketing. It’s not just Lexus that uses this imagery, though. Even though they get the credit for the big Christmas car bow, they aren’t necessarily automatically associated with it. Maybe that’s because, now, this is a strategy almost every automaker utilizes. Ford, Volkswagen, Honda, Chevrolet, you name it. They all use the big (usually red) bow. If you can’t beat them, join them, right? After all, you must give the customers what they want.
The trend is universal, too. It doesn’t end with the United States. Dealerships large and small in countries around the globe decorate their showrooms with bows to communicate the idea that a new vehicle is a perfect gift to give, and a heck of a gift to receive!
The origins of the bow may have come from a conference room full of executives trying to figure out the best way to market an end-of-the-year Lexus sales event, but, like many other practices, it’s brought a lot of happiness to consumers. So, we’ll overlook the commercialism behind the bow and appreciate the bit of fun it adds to what should be a fun experience: buying a new car.
If you need a bit more holiday reading, be sure to click on our look at the classic red Christmas Truck that you see on ornaments and decorations. We have an interesting overview that explains how multiple models were used in various versions of the familiar image!
