Secret Santa

I have a group of about 14 friends that get together every month or two to have drinks at a fun bar or pub somewhere. My friend Megan is great at cutting through the scheduling bull and getting us all together. This month she had a great idea--a holiday dinner at The Mermaid Inn in the East Village. On Wednesdays they have a fish fry special, complete with $2 cans of PBR! Yee Haw! She also asked that we all draw names for a Secret Santa exchange. Because of the financial crisis (finally I started a global trend!) she suggested that we each give a card that tells what we like about that person, or maybe what we wish for them in the New Year.
So, things being kind of quiet at my last gig, I was able to poke around for ideas and came upon the Jule-hjertet, or Yule Heart, a lovely Danish tradition of weaving paper baskets to fill with sweets for presents. I decided that I would make one for my Secret Santa gift. I had some red and green construction paper--you can also use metallic papaers, or I bet even red and brown craft paper would be nice.

After a few tries creating a pattern that worked (there are many that you can download off the internet, too*) I wove a heart that was presentable. I added in a little Christmas tree for fun. I then cut out many little snowflakes and on each one I wrote something I liked about my friend, or something that I wished her for the New Year. And on one I wrote my name so that she would figure out who her card was from. Finally I made her a whole string of friends to remind her how loved she is by us all. This was a very simple idea, but I think that she liked it very much.

* http://haabet.dk/users/julehjerter/english.html
* http://permo.homepage.dk/hjfig-01.htm