Saturday, May 1, 2010

It's May 1 and There's No Snow!

All the snow has melted, it's May 1, it's sunny, and I think it's safe to say that spring is here! ( Utahns may curse me tomorrow if I have prematurely announced the arrival of spring. )

Growing up in the heartland of Iowa, we celebrated May 1 with May baskets. Arriving home from school, we would find tiny paper cups on our doorstep, filled with popcorn and small candies. Peeking out of the top might be a dandelion, a violet or a lily-of-the-valley.

The May Day tradition is that you must drop your "basket" at your friend's door, knock, then quickly run off lest they catch you and kiss you!

When I moved to Utah, many people had never heard of such a goofy practice. I gradually stopped commemorating the first of May.

Today, because of the need for some sort of giddiness at the [finally!] lack of snow, I handed out May baskets. I put them together, and Computer Geek and Weston made the clandestine deliveries. Males love doing things without getting caught. It's the closest they get to James Bond.

I am all for simple, so if you would like a simple, cheap, way to make someone's day today, here you go.

Supplies:
Styrofoam cups  (Easy to write on with colored markers)
Pipe cleaners  (Oops, I'm showing my age. These are now called "Fuzzy Sticks." )
Stickers
Markers
Ribbon, if desired  (I had mine all ready to tie around the handles and then forgot!)
Popped popcorn
Small candies
Real or silk flowers

I used Hershey's Nuggets with Almonds, M&M's, fruity licorice (more spring-like than  black and red,) Tootsie Rolls, and Tootsie Pops.  In the picture, I don't have them filled all the way, so you can see what's in there. After the photo, I jammed it full with more popcorn.



The one that looks very bland is for a baby who is teething, and who won't know the difference anyway.



As you can see, girls got pretty flowers poking out at the top.

A truly wise person will make sure the popcorn is cooled off before assembling the basket, lest the M&M's melt. Not that I have ever done that. A truly rich person would have added some small toys. A person who is not in the middle of moving would have decorated the rims of the baskets with colored markers.

Go ahead. Make someone's May Day.

4 comments:

  1. What a very sweet and creative way to celebrate May!! Great idea Randi :)

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  2. septembermom: If you were closer you would have gotten one! :)

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  3. Beautiful, Randi. In my day, we used a paper napkin (cheap). We put the popcorn, peanuts, candy in the center, then brought the ends together and tied it with a ribbon.

    I'm glad this tradition has died, except for us relatively few, because it would become too commercial if Hallmark ever got its mitts on it. Expensive cards, baskets, the whole works.

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  4. Love the May baskets! I may steal that next year.
    In the big city here, pipe cleaners are called "chenille stems". Ladeedah.

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