It was my in-law’s anniversary and I had no idea what to get them. My husband desperately wanted to impress his father. Maybe it was because of a big fight between him and his father, there was mixed emotions so my husband was no help. My parents divorced when I was young so I knew little of anniversary traditions. However we had just recently gotten married and I wanted to make a good impression. I also wanted the tension in the air between my husband and his father to dissipate. I wanted to give them something they would genuinely like and appreciate.
I didn’t know a lot about anniversary’s but I did recall hearing something about tin or silver being associated with them at some point in my life. So, I decided to go online and find out about some of the Anniversary Gifts Year by Year. First I discovered that for every year there was a traditional anniversary gift. For example for a one year anniversary it was customary to give the gift of paper. I did see that some sites listed traditional anniversary gifts and modern anniversary gifts. Some of the differences seemed bizarre, some similar.
Tin was the old tradition, in modern day aluminum is the gift to give on someone’s 10th anniversary. For the 20th traditional anniversary gift, it was china, however for the modern anniversary gift it was now platinum. This was all very interesting but his parents were about to have their 40th anniversary!
So, my saga continued as I finally discovered the tradition for the 40th anniversary. It traditionally was ruby and in modern day it was garnet. Now I had an idea of what to look for. I didn’t know my in-law’s very well yet so I decided to play it safe and do one or the other but to definitely stick to that.
I began to look online for a 40th anniversary gift with a ruby or garnet. Many websites offered items such as double photo frames and signature frames but with no rubies or garnets I didn’t think that would make a lasting impression. Then I discovered a 40th Ruby Wedding Anniversary wine box hamper. It was a gorgeous rosewood box holding a bottle of Ruby Shiraz nestled in red satin. It featured a special label, reading ‘Happy 40th Anniversary’.
Needless to say my husband and his father made amends over a glass of wine and his mother was pleased I knew Anniversary Gifts by Year. Everything worked out fine.