Hallmark Pulls Swastika-Patterned Gift Wrap

Tis the season? California resident Cheryl Shapiro was at her local Walgreens with her grandson, shopping for wrapping paper in the store’s Hanukkah section, when she spied an unusual pattern on one of the blue and silver rolls: a swastika.

NBC4 Los Angeles reports that the Northridge store removed the item after Shapiro complained to a manager.

“I told them I wanted this taken off the shelves immediately – not just your store, but national,” Shapiro said. “I was really putting my foot down because I was appalled by this.”



At least one other store in Chatsworth carried the same wrapping paper, NBC4 has learned.

Walgreens is reportedly “looking into” the incident.

Update, Dec. 10: Hallmark, which licensed the wrapping paper, contacted retailers to remove the item from their shelves, the Kansas City Star reports. “It was an oversight on our part to not notice the intersecting lines that could be seen as a swastika pattern.” a representative said. The pattern, which the representative explained wasn’t for Hanukkah, was a design in the company’s archive inspired by “an old Chinese vase.”