Pop! Pop! Pop! A Great Day to Pop Some Bubble Wrap

It’s Jan. 30 and you know what that means? It’s national Bubble Wrap Appreciation Day!

Bubble Wrap Appreciation Day
Bubble Wrap | Facebook
Bubble Wrap Appreciation Day

Jimmy, hand me some of that bubble wrap. We’ve got some celebrating to do!

Actually, the story of Bubble Wrap is a great lesson for this flailing economy: If at first you don’t succeed — try and try again.

Bubble Wrap was invented in 1957 by two guys in Hawthorne, N.J. — Marc Chavannes and Al Fielding, both engineers. They were trying to make a plastic wallpaper with a paper backing. That idea never took off, but the two didn’t just leave it to the seagulls at the garbage dump to have all the bubble-popping fun. They realized their invention could be used as packing material, and at that time there wasn’t a suitable material for packing heavy items.

The guys raised $9,000 and in 1960 incorporated the Sealed Air Corp.. Today, that company, which is publicly traded under the ticker symbol "SEE," has annual revenues of more than $7 billion. It makes a variety of products — everything from food packaging to protective packaging, shrink-wrap packaging, and medical-product packaging.

Today, Bubble Wrap has not only served to protect your precious vases and stemware during a move, but let’s be honest, it has probably also reduced the crime rate and saved a few marriages in the process as popping the bubbles is one of the best stress relievers around.

Bubble Wrap Appreciation Day was the brainchild of the “Spirit 95” FM radio station in Bloomington, Ind. The first one was held in 2001, and included a Bubble Wrap popping relay, a sculpture contest, and a fashion-design contest.

Here are seven ways you can celebrate the day:

1) Make a dress out of bubble wrap. You can go clear or, like this bold woman, go with purple bubble wrap. Just warn the other guests before you sit down — pop! pop! pop! Hey, that was the dress — not me.

2) Make bubble animals. Take a lesson from Ms. Ertz, a teacher in Saratoga Springs, who makes colorful animals such as elephants and frogs with her students. Snap! Crackle! Ribbit! Also, maybe instead of bringing your teacher an apple today, try bringing him or her a stress-relieving sheet of Bubble Wrap.

3) Get a jump-start on your Halloween costume. Crafty Martha Stewart offers this elegant Bubble Wrap jellyfish costume. That’s right, I said elegant and Bubble Wrap in the same sentence.

4) Play Bubble Wrap Twister. If you’re snowed in and bored, try laying a piece of bubble wrap across a Twister board for added fun, the company suggests on the Bubble Wrap Facebook page. Or, make a bubble wrap volleyball and spike that thing!

5) Play Bubble Wrap football. Make a helmet, some shoulder pads, and a football and boom! It's on. (See photos.)

6) Upload a Bubble Wrap video to YouTube. Sure, you can work on a Bubble Wrap rap — oh, snap! — or some clever sculpture out of Bubble Wrap that took you three months to build. Or, you can just lay a few sheets down and let the cats go nuts like this guy. Cats + Bubble Wrap=guaranteed fun!

7) Enter the Bubble Wrap Competition for Young Inventors. Start working on your big Bubble Wrap ideaand you could win. Past winners have included a Bubble Wrap bed and a “Floating Garden of Bubble-On.”

8) Just Squeeze It. If all of those feel like they’re trying just a little too hard, just grab a sheet and squeeze it until the popping stops.

For more ideas, or to share your plans for honoring BWAD (Bubble Wrap Appreciation Day) visit www.bubblewrapfun.comor the official Bubble Wrap Facebook page.

Ready … set … POP! POP! POP! POP! POP! POP! POP! POP! POP! POP! POP! POP! POP! POP! POP! POP! POP! POP! POP! POP! POP! POP! POP! POP! POP! POP! POP! POP! POP! POP! POP! POP! POP! POP! POP! POP! POP! POP! POP! POP! POP! POP! POP! POP! POP! POP! POP! POP! POP! POP! POP! POP! POP! POP! POP! POP!