Earlier today I toured Minneapolis' American Swedish Institute's A Nordic Christmas exhibit with my boyfriend. We are gearing up to decorating our homes for the holidays, and we wanted to get some inspiration. The exhibit was great: different rooms decorated based on a Nordic country's traditional Christmas ornamentation.
Although I was inspired by many of the rooms, the one thing that I knew I would be able to DIY was Denmark's paper heart ornaments. Traditionally, these paper heart ornaments form a paper basket that you can hang from your Christmas tree. It is a great project to do with your kids (if you are a parent) or with your friends (if you do not). In Denmark, children learn how to make these ornaments in kindergarten, which explains their ubiquity in Danish homes during Christmastime. These ornaments are traditionally made of white and red paper (Red and White being the colors of the Danish flag).
I ran a search for how to instructions to make these ornaments, but being a visual person, the how-to map included in this post from http://www.folksy.com/items/82982-Woven-Paper-Christmas-Hearts-Decorations">Haabet made the most sense to me. I tried making them with scratch paper, and sure enough, very simple to make.
Hope you have fun making these ornaments!
Images: 1. Haabet, 2. Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark, 3. Folksy
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After taking the same tour several years ago, I suddenly started spotting julbocks everywhere! Another fun decoration with DIY potential for someone more crafty than me.
oh yeah. I made lots of those when I was a kid (I'm danish...) Of course the most traditonal is red and white, but I made them with all kinds of colors... Great post, makes me wanna do it again!! Go x-mas!!!
When I was in college, we had a Valentine's Day movie night in the dorms and made a buttload of these, filled them with candy, and hung them on peoples' doors.
I just love this idea!! I'm going to attempt to make some for our annual Thanksgiving craft with my cousins. To those who have made them before -- any tips a newbie like me should know?
Cute idea! I like the collage of them xxx
http://reallyliteral.blogspot.com/
I lived in Denmark a year back and was lucky enough to spend Christmas in a Danish home with two young kids. We made these hearts and hung them on the tree. On Christmas eve the baskets were filled with little chocolates for the children to find and eat. =]
Tip: make them from glossy paper, it's much easier! Here's a link for more patterns...
http://www.haabet.dk/users/julehjerter/english.html
And another tip: Make the slits longer than the width of the opposite part, you'll need the extra length when you weave the heart together. Have fun!!!
I grew up with Norwegian parents and in our house these were always called Norwegian paper hearts. Same goes for Sweden. And those little red Swedish horses? Yep, made in Norway, too, and BOTH countries claim to have invented and popularized them. Sheesh, those Scandinavians.
My daughter made a gazillion of these when she was a kid and sold them for Christmas money at a local craft sale.
They always evoke warm feelings, seeing them at Christmastime.
We made these for May baskets -- a custom which seems completely gone. Make small paper baskets (like these or cones). Put flowers in them (bluebells were usually in bloom in early May) and perhaps a hard candy or two, put on someone's front door knob, ring bell and run.
Upper midwest, 1950s.
I was lucky enough to be in Denmark several years ago right before Christmas and staying with friends of a friend who were Danish and we made some of these - not sure what happened to those but I did buy one at Tivoli Gardens and the friends said you can put greens in it and hang it up. So that's what we do with it every year since then.
If you make a larger one to greens in you should reinforce it with card board or thick paper so it doesn't brake. We used to have a big one with hearts braided inside the heart hanging in our entryway that my dad made. It didn't feel like Christmas until it was up.
As Frank Kruse suggests use glossy paper if you're a beginner. It will save you a lot of anguish. If you've got the technique down you can try using different kinds of paper. I made some last year from embossed wallpaper. I sprayed half of the wallpaper with red spray paint and they look super cool. Here's a link to some photos: http://ploefff.wordpress.com/2010/11/26/fra-shanekasse-til-juleboks/
The origins of the hearts is a little unclear but the oldest one still in exsistence is one made by H.C. Andersen as a gift to Mathilde Ørsted.
You might have them in Norway as well but as with all things Scandinavian we tend to adapt traditions from each other. With the wars in the late 19th and early 20th century an increased feeling of patriotism swept Denmark and red and white was used extentionly in decorations like our flag garlands on the Chritsmas tree and I'm just saying the hearts ain't red, BLUE and white are they now? ;)