The History of Wishlists: How We Got from Letters to Santa to Online Services

Today, a wishlist usually looks like a neat set of cards with links, prices, and short notes. You can send it in one message, and your friends can simply pick something without worrying that the gift will miss the mark. That’s why wishlists often feel like a product of the marketplace era - something that appeared alongside “Add to favorites” buttons and online shopping carts. But the idea itself is much older. A wishlist is less about “a list” and more about an agreement: what I like, what I need, what would genuinely make me happy - and how to save other people from guessing.

As long as choice was limited, wishlists were unnecessary. Gift-giving worked through tradition: people gave what was appropriate, practical, and expected. Mistakes were rare because there weren’t many options. But as soon as variety expanded and gifts became more personal, an old problem became obvious: a present can be sincere and still miss the person. At that point, the goal shifts from “How do I surprise?” to “How do I delight?”

The earliest wishlist was a request, not a list

The first prototype of a wishlist wasn’t a formatted checklist. It was a spoken request in everyday life: “I’d love a new book,” “I’ve been dreaming about a warm scarf,” “If you ever have the chance, something for my hobby.” This form still exists today - we just don’t always call it a wishlist.

Then a meaningful cultural shift happens: desires start being written down. Once a wish is recorded, it becomes clearer and more precise. It’s easier to pass along. And it’s easier to fulfill without guessing. This is the point where a wish stops being something people must infer from hints and becomes a direct, gentle signal.

Letters to Santa made wishes a shared ritual

Letters to Santa (and their local equivalents) are one of the most recognizable ancestors of modern wishlists. They matter not only as a charming children’s tradition, but as a cultural mechanism: a child learns to articulate wishes, choose among many options, and prioritize. Adults, in turn, get a helpful hint - but wrapped in a story that keeps the magic intact.

There’s a small historical detail that shows how early this practice entered popular culture. In the late 19th century, the idea of “Santa’s mail” appeared in mass media. For example, illustrator Thomas Nast created an 1879 image titled “The Christmas Post,” showing a child mailing a letter to Santa Claus - an early, widely recognized depiction of wishes traveling through the postal system.

Later, letters to Santa became even more social: by the end of the 19th century, newspapers began publishing “Dear Santa” letters, turning private wishes into a public holiday genre.

For adults, wishlists were long "lists for life"

Alongside the fairy-tale tradition, there has always been a practical one. For centuries, people made lists of what a household needed - for a new home, for a new season, for everyday life. These lists were not about dreams, but they taught an important idea: lists are normal, useful tools that make life easier and help people coordinate.

When gift-giving became more varied, adult wishlists naturally grew out of these practical inventories. Even today, many adult wishlists sit right at the intersection of “I want” and “I truly need.”

The 20th century: wedding registries made wishlists socially acceptable

The biggest turning point in wishlist history is tied to weddings. Wedding gifts often created a predictable problem: many guests, similar ideas, and a high chance of duplicates. That’s how registries emerged - a couple could signal what would actually be useful, and guests could choose from that set.

One often-cited milestone is 1924, when the Chicago department store Marshall Field’s introduced a bridal registry. In essence, it was a structured “wishlist for a specific occasion,” designed to help people give meaningful, practical gifts and avoid duplicates.

What matters here is not just the store or the year, but the cultural message: it became acceptable to guide gift-giving without sounding demanding. A registry didn’t remove care - it removed chaos. That logic is still at the core of wishlists today.

The 1990s: wishlists became systems, not paper processes

As long as registries were managed on paper or through staff, they remained tied to a place and a manual workflow. But when technology entered retail, wishlists started turning into systems: people managed them directly, statuses updated automatically, and guests could navigate options more easily.

A notable milestone often mentioned in registry histories is 1993, when Target is credited as an early pioneer of electronic self-service gift registries. This wasn’t yet the universal, link-based wishlist we know today, but it introduced product logic: fewer manual steps, more transparency, and a smoother experience for everyone involved.

The internet and marketplaces turned wishes into links

Once shopping moved online, wishlists changed dramatically. Before, you had to describe what you wanted in detail. Then you could point to a catalog photo. Now you could send a link where everything was visible: the exact model, size, color, price, and availability. Wishes became precise, and gift-giving became far less risky.

At the same time, wishlists stopped being tied to one holiday. They became personal collections of preferences: what you like, what you want to try, what you’re saving for, what would actually be useful. Many people started keeping wishlists not because “a celebration is coming,” but because it’s simply a better way to live: ideas don’t get lost, and loved ones always know what would make you happy.

Messaging apps accelerated the next evolution

Then it became clear that wishes are often born not in a shopping moment, but in conversation. We discuss gifts in chats. We agree on budgets in messages. We share links in group threads. So many “homegrown” wishlists started to look like phone notes, pinned messages, or even dedicated chat threads full of links.

That format works until multiple people want to buy gifts at the same time. Links get buried. Duplicates happen. Someone buys the same item twice. And sometimes the wishlist owner accidentally sees too much, and the surprise disappears.

This is where services become essential: people need something that lives close to conversation, but is structured like a product.

Why apps and online wishlist services were the natural destination

If the earliest wishlist was a letter, then it became a registry, then a feature inside a single online store - and now it is increasingly a standalone service. A modern wishlist service isn’t tied to one retailer, supports any links, and solves the problems that chats and notes can’t solve by themselves.

This evolution is driven by very practical needs. People want to add wishes quickly, with minimal manual effort, and keep everything looking clean and organized. They want to share one link instead of rewriting the same explanations. They need protection against duplicates - which is why reservation features appear. Many also want to preserve the element of surprise, so privacy settings and “surprise-friendly” flows become important. And finally, all of it needs to be where people already live: on their phone, inside a messenger, or in a lightweight mini-app.

That’s why the history of wishlists feels so natural. We moved from spoken requests to letters, from letters to organized registries, from registries to digital systems, and then to universal services that make gifting calmer and easier. A wishlist app isn’t “another tool for the sake of it” - it’s a logical answer to an old human need: letting people delight you accurately, without stress, and without guessing.