After the Easter Baskets have been tipped upside down, and all the {good} candy eaten; after my vacuum has struggled through finding gobs and gobs of that plastic Easter grass hidden in the depths of my carpet fibers; after the Ham has been whittled down to the bone and the last packed away between two slices of bread in this morning’s brown bag school lunches…another holiday waits patiently, sitting tight for their quiet and usually unnoticed debut: May Day.
Have you forgotten about May Day? May Day stands like that quiet girl in the dark corner of a Jr. High dance. Never really noticed, but still present. Craving a bit of the spotlight, but too timid to speak up about it. I love celebrating May Day. Grab that girl out of the corner and give her a spin on the dance floor. May Day has some awesome moves to show off, but you won’t even know until you invite her!
My favorite May Day tradition is the May Basket. Of course, I guess this stems back to the fact that I love a good ding-dong-ditch. Every year, I find the most colorful paper to construct my baskets, and then gather things like pom poms, lace, paper flowers, and printed wax paper to decorate them with.
And then comes the business of what treasures to put inside! Sugar dusted gum drops, novelty candy, sweet taffy, and bubble gum fill my baskets to the brim.
Get ready for the best part! Scope out your hiding spots! Get ready to run! Surprise your neighbors with a happy May Day basket this year! Spread a little May Day cheer!
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I had completely forgotten about May Day….We used to cut the liliacs and make a bouquet and ding dong dash on all our neighbors with them….
Love this idea, and getting to do something a both sweet and silly with the girls. And I love the photos with your post – absolutely gorgeous!
This is such a great idea! I always forget about May Day. The kids and I will have to dig out the craft supplies.
Cute! Hope everyone had a great weekend!
The pictures are so inviting and lovely! Great idea y’all.
Very nice baskets. Keep up the good work.
This is perfect for all those neighbors that you never get to see as much as you would wish. Love this idea!!
I LOVE May Day! We made baskets every year when I was a kid! I’m doing May baskets at my son’s preschool this year because none of the other mom’s had ever heard of them. So fun!
What a great idea! It reminds me of “Ghosting” at Halloween—one of my daughter’s favorite activities. I’ll have to share this with her.
What a cute idea!!
Aren’t those just the CUTEST?
Those are so cute!
Cute and fun! I might do this with my kids…
Very cute — I had heard of May Day before, but never thought about celebrating it. I’ll have to do some more digging for this thing! Thanks for sharing!
Lindsey @ GrowingKidsMinistry.com
great idea! My sister was looking for an idea for chairs for an outdoor small wedding this summer. This might be a great idea. Thanks!
Those little baskets are adorable.
We are talking advice at my place. What do you do when your loved ones are discouraged by your success?
This brings back soo many memories of doing May Baskets as a kid. We used to make home made baskets and pick flowers from our mother’s garden. Then we would do the ding dong ditch and leave them at our neighbors (one being grandma). We also took them into school for the teachers’ aides. I might just have to do something this year.
Grrrrrrrrreat idea for teachers!! Thanks!
I did this as a kid! It was so so much fun!
I also celebrated May Day as a kid………those are wonderul…..
Love this!!! I love May Day and in Hawaii they do “May Day is Lei Day!”
Lei Day! I love it!!
What a perfect blog to feature today!
May Day used to be a big thing in the UK when I was young but I’m not sure if anyone celebrates it anymore!! Cute idea for the baskets though!
I am always looking for a reason to celebrate! May Day sounds like fun to me…
I love May Day! Not sure why we didn’t celebrate it as kids, I guess the idea of it always appealed to me. Can’t wait to get more details on this blog, the pics are fantastical! 🙂
You can check my blog at http://www.littlemommaandcompany.blogspot.com! I’m the new contributing editor for SITS!
I never heard of May baskets growing up, but one of my neighbors always did May baskets. Instead of candy she used flowers. Sadly, she moved away last year. Maybe this year I’ll take over and do candy May baskets.
You should!! What a fun way to carry the tradition!
What a cute idea! I love those baskets – so festive and cheerful!
What a fun idea.
I celebrate May Day for sure… because it’s my birthday!! 🙂
Happy Birthday!
Adorable!! Love this!
Those candies look so sweet and yummy!!!
love these!
OOOOH, those gumdrops look delicious!
What a unique and fun idea!
The pictures and candies look amazing! I had never really heard about May Day… thank you!
Your welcome!! Are you going to spread some May Day cheer?!
I love those baskets. Too cute!
What a great idea!
Love it! I also love those baskets you made…so cute!!
Hope you’re enjoying the Easter Holiday!
B x
I have not done May Day baskets in years. These are adorable.
May Day is actually quite big around here (maybe due to large amounts of German heritage?). We go to the May Day festival, complete with May Poles. I love it.
What a fun idea – love it! And love the little baskets you made, so cute! Thanks for sharing your May Day idea with us!
Your welcome! Hope you can spread the fun this year!!
I adore May Day!!! Just enough time to get things ready, too!! :o)
What a super cute idea! I’ll bet you are the Queen of your neighborhood, aren’t you? LOVE IT!
I wouldn’t say a queen, but promoting a happy neighborhood is never done in vain! It’s fun!!
Very cute idea! Now I know what to do with all of this Easter candy! I posted about my classes tie dying. It was a fun and colorful way to celebrate Easter and spring at school!!
Oh, I love this idea. So much fun. I think that celebrating May Day would be a really fun thing to do with my (almost) 6 year old. He loves crafts, and candy, so the two will go nicely together 🙂
Oh yes!! And a sweet ding-dong-ditch to a little boy is a gigglefest waiting to happen. My boys love it!!
Cute idea. Maybe I’ll do something like that.
Very cute, never heard of this part of the May Day tradition!
Bernice
Is it time to sharpen your saw?
Soooo sweet. I love this idea and I’ll bet your neighbors love it too. Hugs!
Isn’t it a great way to befriend your neighbors?! Who wouldn’t love a happy surprise hung from their doorknob? 🙂
Oh, what fun! I love an excuse to have more candy.
I’m featuring one of my favorite bloggers today: http://thingsicantsay-shell.blogspot.com/2011/04/give-me-best-of-you.html
My grandmother always loved May Day, and I never appreciated it. Your photos look amazing, and I think maybe I should do something to honor May Day this year.
I think it was my grandmother who first introduced me to May Day!! You should celebrate this year… It’s a great tradition to begin!
what a good reason to pass candy during SPRING… cute idea and first time heard of May Day…
Cute idea. I