You can use replaceChild
[docs]:
// `element` is the element you want to wrap
var parent = element.parentNode;
var wrapper = document.createElement('div');
// set the wrapper as child (instead of the element)
parent.replaceChild(wrapper, element);
// set element as child of wrapper
wrapper.appendChild(element);
As long as you are not using innerHTML
(which destroys and creates elements), references to existing DOM elements are not changed.