danish paper hearts

My maternal grandfather came from Denmark (my great-great grandfather was a guard at the Danish royal palace). There are a few traditions that held on when they came to Canada, like the big christmas dinner being on Christmas Eve and the fact that my grandpa never makes a sandwich with two slices of bread (always open-faced!). When I was young my mom taught us how to make these heart baskets for the Christams tree. They had to be made with shiny, foil paper, and in any two colours. I wonder if that was more of a 50's/remembering the past king of thing than a danish thing though :).
Mine are gold and red right now, but I think I prefer red and white. These are made with wrapping paper, but it doesn't hold up very well. That said, very light paper is easiest to weave (make sure it's not too heavy). They can be quite a project, so you may want to take that into consideration.
And until I got married, I never knew it was strange to use hearts as a christmas ornament. I have tons of heart christmas ornaments, and maybe it's a danish thing, but I love them and don't think it's weird at all.
When I was in college, we had to do a presentation that taught people something. This was my project. I only got an A- on it, but I guess that's ok. Public speaking is not my thing. At all.





















If you would like to make the baskets, this is a GREAT video that shows you to weave them together really well, you'll just have to watch an ad first - sorry! Best instructions I've seen yet. And here's a link to make baskets here.