Hans Christian Andersen described, in his story “The Fir Tree”, written in 1845, the decorating of the tree. “…on one branch there were finely made nets, cut from coloured paper, each net filled with sweets …”
My Grandparents’ tree was always decorated with, as we called them, “Danish baskets”. My Grandfather made the baskets by cutting and weaving them from red and white paper, or from Christmas cards. My Grandmother made garlands of the tiniest red felt cloth Danish flags , and had sewed white crosses on the felt to make each piece a replica of the Danish flag.
The Danish baskets that hung on my Grandparents tree never held any treats. They were strictly for decoration. The treats were in candy dishes, and on plates everywhere in the house.
I found instructions for making the baskets, and made some to fill. I hung them from the tree, filled with cookies and dates. They were too heavy, filled, and fell off the tree. I decided to just eat the goodies, and admire the baskets while they adorned the tree. I have to guess that that is what my Grandparents decided to do, too.
Here are the instructions for making your own Danish Paper Heart Baskets. They call for ‘glazed’ paper. I imagine origami paper might be good for this. I used a thinner paper with a shiny surface. Heavy construction paper is not conducive to the weaving part.
#1. You require two pieces of glazed paper, each a different color. The folding and cutting instructions are the same for both pieces. Fold each piece in half, colored side out. From the fold and upwards, mark off a square ( to the broken line ).
#2. Taking the top of the square as the diameter, draw a semi-circle above the square with a compass or by means of something circular ( a glass or cup ). Cut off the shaded portion.
#3. In the two folded pieces of paper, cut from the exact middle of the fold up to the top edge of the square.
#4. and #5. Slide the flap marked “x” through between the doubled paper at “o”.
#6. Pull flap “x” through and gently hook it over the unused flap on the left-hand half of the heart.
#7. Fit the heart with a paper handle.
A more complicated heart can be made by cutting twice in from the fold, an equal distance apart. First you weave one flap: hook over, in between, hook over. Then the second: in between, hook over, in between. The third flap is woven in the same way as the first flap. You can vary the appearance by making 4 or 6 flaps, or with a wide central flap and two narrow outer flaps, or vice versa.
This takes a little practice, and if you rip any of the woven parts, just tape them up, fill them with goodies, and go ahead and hang them on the tree!
Leslie
In a bid to entice the children I work with away from screen entertainment I have introduced a number of old fashioned games and pastimes. I am a huge fan of paperish things (we have made the heart baskets) and this site has been a real source of inspiration….
http://www.thetoymaker.com/
Comment by Minx — December 4, 2007 @ 1:20 pm
What a great site, Minx! There is even a little Chocolate truck! Thanks for this link.
What age group do you work with?
I like papery scissory gluey projects.
I was introduced to ‘big people’ scissors and pinking shears at an early age, with the admonitions of “Be Careful”. When I arrived in Kindergarten and had to use rounded scissors, I refused
How could a five year old be expected to make anything of any craft with “baby scissors”?!?
When I volunteered for after school programs, I would get the local newspaper office to save “roll ends” of the newsprint paper for me. The kids and I would roll out this gigantic tube of unprinted newsprint paper, and everyone would get down on the floor on our bellies and color on the paper like crazy people! Great fun!
Comment by leslie — December 4, 2007 @ 1:54 pm
Oooo. How fun! Thanks, Lesie.
Comment by JoCastillo — December 4, 2007 @ 9:41 pm
I work with children aged 3 – 11 and strongly believe that kids should be taught to use real tools properly (we use adult sized woodwork equipment, even drills!).
The templates from the Toymaker site sparked a huge amount of interest with the children progressing on to make their own from scratch. Being able to step out from the confines of the education curriculum has meant that after 24 years I can at last implement all my theories on the value of letting kids experiment with their world creatively. Whoo hoo!
Comment by Minx — December 5, 2007 @ 5:27 am
As kids, for the school, my mom paper mached my borther and I’s face. After our ‘faces dried
we blew up a balloons and paper mached the face to the balloon to make a head, after the paper mached
balloon head was dry we poped the balloon, painted the faces to look like clowns and pulled yarn thru the mache to make
the hair. Later our science teacher made a project for the kids to paper mache an animal, and write a report about the animal.
I made a moma giraffe and her baby.
It was great fun, as a kid any thing as messy as paper mache
is fun. We used liquid starch, and newspaper.
Comment by PSE27SRC — December 5, 2007 @ 9:39 am
Jo,
This would be an interesting decoration for the Festival trees! It was fun to do, once I messed up the first few and then got over it
Comment by leslie — December 5, 2007 @ 11:27 am
Minx,
I am so glad to hear of the children using real tools. I think we do them a permanent disservice by giving them “play” tools to use. My poor little sensibilites were always insulted by being thought less capable than I was.
I bet your theories are all correct, and I want to come play in your class!
Comment by leslie — December 5, 2007 @ 11:32 am
S,
Are pinatas made with paper mache?
I confess that I have never made paper mache! Am I too old to start playing with it?
I have seen it done, and it looks all messy and fun. Maybe that is why my mother kept me steered away from it
I did have a huge store of plastecine clay that would entertain me for hours!
Comment by leslie — December 5, 2007 @ 11:39 am
I love wikipedia…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pi%C3%B1ata
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plasticine
Comment by leslie — December 5, 2007 @ 11:42 am
I have looked for these hearts ready made, but have not found them. So I am planning to make 350 of them in the next month.
My family made them for our tree many years ago, but have not made them lately. We are having a dinner for 350 and I want to put a Danish heart in front of each plate.
Thanks for your help. Elsie Thomsen – California
Comment by Elsie Thomsen — June 16, 2008 @ 6:22 pm
Hello Elsie,
350 baskets!
What a tremendously ambitious project, and a labor of love!
I would be recruiting every willing volunteer I could.
I am glad to have saved the instructions.
I bet the baskets will add a festive touch to your dinner! Take pictures!
Comment by leslie — June 16, 2008 @ 8:00 pm
Very nice site. My wife and I often go to elementary schools and yes even to high school classes to talk of Denmark and we like to have this little craft thing to leave for them. It is so Danish especially using these to decorate the Christmas tree and generally leave a little cookie or piece of candy in each basket for our kids and now our grandkids.
Comment by Dean Larsen — January 30, 2010 @ 1:38 pm
Hello Dean! What a wonderful craft to do at schools! I have very fond memories of seeing these baskets at my grandparents house, and the red and white of the Danish flag just fits perfectly with the colors of Christmas
Thanks for leaving a comment. My apologies for not seeing it sooner to post it and reply!
Mange tak!
Comment by Leslie — February 5, 2010 @ 8:44 am