A surgical cable packaging system and method are provided including, in one aspect, a cable holder having an upper portion and a lower portion. The upper and lower portions may have cooperating structures configured to be coupled together to form an interior space in which the cable is coiled. The cable holder may have an opening through which the cable extends to allow the cable to be removed from the interior space. In another aspect, a method of inserting a surgical cable into a cable holder comprising wrapping the cable around a body portion of a fixture and sliding the cable into an interior space of the cable holder in a coiled configuration.