May Day Baskets are such a fun, if mostly bygone, tradition. For the uninitiated, throughout the better part of the 19th and 20th centuries May 1st was widely celebrated in the U.S. as “May Basket Day.” People would fill small (typically homemade paper) baskets with flowers or goodies and leave them on the doorknobs of friends and neighbors as a quaint celebration of Spring (for a deeper look at the tradition, check out this article). These DIY Popcorn Box May Day Baskets are an easy and fun way to bring the tradition back.
Although the tradition has mostly faded away, I can remember making May Day Baskets with my mother as a child and found it to be great fun. When the folks from The Inspired Home asked me to write an article about spring celebrations with kids, May Basket Day immediately came to mind.
The kids were so excited to help craft these little baskets, which we filled with homemade Vanilla Mint Drop Chip Cookies (check out my article at TheInspiredHome.com for the recipe).
The baskets themselves are traditionally homemade from inexpensive materials. Pinterest is full of adorable ideas for creating baskets from all sorts of things. For our baskets, we chose small cardboard popcorn boxes from Dress My Cupcake. We punched holes on each side and added a handle made of twine.
Next we added a cute gift tag. We started with a classic brown paper gift tag (also from Dress My Cupcake), and I designed a cute little message stating “May your Day be sweet! Happy May Day! I’ve made the tag into a printable file for anyone who would like to use it to create their own May Day Baskets.
If you don’t happen to have popcorn boxes on hand, the internet is filled with other fun basket ideas. I’ve rounded up a few of my favorites below…
1. I absolutely LOVE Fowl Single File‘s adorable basket made from a paper plate and a candy cane! What an adorable way to use everyday things!
Photo by Fowl Single File
2. Would you believe these cute baskets from Stephanie at How Does She are made from little more than yogurt cups and cupcake liners? Amazing what a little burlap can do!
3. If you’re not the crafty type, Mari from Smallful has your back with this completely adorable printable paper cone. Fill it with your favorite goodies.
Photo by Smallful
4. These soup can baskets from The Princess and the Frog couldn’t be simpler or more beautiful. The flowers really make these come to life.
Photo by The Princess and The Frog
5. Lia Griffith transformed pretty gift wrap into a gift basket bouquet and offers a lovely little printable gift tag to boot.
Photo by Lia Griffith
We can’t WAIT to sneak our baskets onto our neighbors’ doorknobs on Sunday. Traditionally, the hanger is supposed to knock on the door and run away before someone answers. When I explained this tidbit to Lillian she thought it was great fun. I can already imagine her peering out from around a tree to watch her friends find their baskets.
Happy May Day!
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