In every advertisement for a holiday car sales event, there are a few critical elements. The smiling family. A snowy winter morning. There is, of course, a brand new car. And sitting atop that car is an item that has become as important to the mystique of giving ? or getting ? a brand new vehicle for the holidays as the car itself: a big red bow.

However, it?s not as if one can just walk into a store and buy a 30-inch bow. Few holiday gifts require an ornamental ribbon of that size. We wanted to find out where the hundreds of car dealerships across the country get these bows from, and who makes them.

The Big Red Bows For Cars are a Holiday Staple

The bows have been a part of the imagery of automakers? holiday sales ads for decades, and those bright red ribbons are now a big part of the holiday sales business. According to Erick Kirks, Marketing Director for Johnson Lexus in Raleigh, NC, ?The red bows are very important to our guest delivery experience,? he says. ?We love them so much ? we always order extras.?  
One of the main places dealerships like Johnson get those bows from is King Size Bows in Costa Mesa, CA, owned and operated by Amber Kingaard-Hughes. She says that as important as the bows are to car dealerships, they can be even more important to the people who buy cars from those dealerships.

?We get calls from dealerships that the bow was part of the negotiation process,? she says. ?We also get calls from clients that didn?t get to keep t...