Woven Hearts

The settings in our stories have the charm and attraction of bringing foreign countries to life for our readers. Writing international fiction can involve days, weeks, or even months, of research, but sometimes story-enriching treasures come our way unexpectedly.

In my days as a preschool teacher, one of the crafts I enjoyed teaching was making woven heart baskets. When one of my granddaughters stayed with me for an overnight visit recently, I thought it would be fun for the two of us to make baskets to fill with chocolates on Valentine's Day. I embarked on a Google search for a suitable template. Within seconds, and much to my surprise, my monitor displayed not just the basic design as seen here, but a large variety of paper hearts. Many had beautiful geometric patterns and others depicted themes such as angels, stars and complex nativity scenes. If you are on Pinterest, this link will show you many examples. Several of the hearts incorporated a heart motif well suited to Valentines' Day gifts, and my granddaughter made several baskets for her family using one of these designs. Traditionally the two sides are interwoven, but she made them separately and stapled them together. She was very happy with her handiwork.

Two of my granddaughter's heart baskets

I visited several of the websites suggested by Google and learned that making woven paper hearts is a Scandinavian tradition. They are often used as Christmas tree ornaments and can be filled with nuts and sweets. The Danish fairy tale author, Hans Christian Anderson, made the oldest known woven heart in 1860, and today it hangs in the Hans Christian Anderson Museum in Odense.


I have a friend, Amy, whose mother is Danish. Thinking that Amy might know about the baskets, I contacted her and found that she followed the Scandinavian tradition and made them for her Christmas tree.

Amy's Christmas Tree

My biggest surprise was yet to come—these ornaments feature in my own family story. Last night I learnt that one of my mother's treasures is a paper heart basket, probably about hundred years old, which her father made. My grandfather was a Norwegian who emigrated to England, and he bought a fir tree in a pot to decorate for Christmas. The tree grew and eventually he planted it in the garden, where it flourished for decades. Every Christmas he would cut off a branch and bring it into the house to decorate for the festive season. Of course, the ornaments included his paper heart baskets

I look forward to seeing Grandad's little basket when I next visit my mother, but, in the meantime, I'm weaving paper hearts into a Christmas story plot.

Do you have any special Christmas or Valentine's Day ornaments? Please tell me about them in the comments section below.