Traditional Wedding Anniversary Gifts

What most people don't realize is that the traditional wedding anniversary gifts list didn't exist in it's current form before 1937. In that year the American National Retail Jeweler Association published the list below. That list is generally treated as the "official" list, but there is some disagreement (and the list is a little dated in some places). It's also likely that the traditional anniversary gift list existed in some form before 1937 - the 25th year has been the Silver anniversary and the 50th year has been the gold anniversary since medieval Europe. Regardless, it's fun to get a traditional wedding anniversary gift for your partner, and it's considered to be good etiquette to select a gift in that year's category.

Here's the list:

Year Traditional Modern Gifts
1st Paper Clocks 1st Anniversary Gifts
2nd Cotton China 2nd Anniversary Gifts
3rd Leather Crystal/Glass 3rd Anniversary Gifts
4th Fruit/Flowers Appliances 4th Anniversary Gifts
5th Wood Silverware 5th Anniversary Gifts
6th Candy/Iron Wood 6th Anniversary Gifts
7th Wool/Copper Desk sets 7th Anniversary Gifts
8th Bronze Linens/Lace 8th Anniversary Gifts
9th Pottery Leather 9th Anniversary Gifts
10th Tin/Aluminum Diamond Jewelry 10th Anniversary Gifts
11th Steel Fashion Jewelry 11th Anniversary Gifts
12th Silk/Linen Pearls 12th Anniversary Gifts
13th Lace Textiles/Furs 13th Anniversary Gifts
14th Ivory Gold Jewelry 14th Anniversary Gifts
15th Crystal Watches 15th Anniversary Gifts
20th China Platinum 20th Anniversary Gifts
25th Silver Silver 25th Anniversary Gifts
30th Pearl Diamond 30th Anniversary Gifts
35th Coral/Jade Jade/Agate 35th Anniversary Gifts
40th Ruby Ruby 40th Anniversary Gifts
45th Sapphire Sapphire 45th Anniversary Gifts
50th Gold Gold 50th Anniversary Gifts
55th Emerald Emerald 55th Anniversary Gifts
60th Diamond Diamond 60th Anniversary Gifts

Note that there's no rule that says for your first anniversary you can only buy your partner paper gifts. Go easy on yourself - make it your tradition to trade only one traditional wedding anniversary gift each year. You'll thank yourself in year seven when you have to buy a bunch of wool or copper gifts (not to mention years 13 through 15)!

Keep in mind that you don't need to follow the guide to the letter. If you are celebrating your parent's 14th Anniversary, you don't need to go to the local game preserve and shoot an elephant for ivory tableware! You can do a piano-related gift (tickets to see their favorite pianist), or just get an ivory-colored gift. It's not that hard if you don't take the gift suggestions too literally.

Almost all of our ideas are directly from our users - we couldn't list all these great ideas without you!