The 3rd Anniversary Gift Is Leather
The traditional third anniversary gift is leather. It entered with the expanded American list generally credited to jewelers in 1937; Emily Post’s 1922 list had nothing between the first year and the fifth.
What Does the 3rd Anniversary Gift Mean?
Leather is the first material on the list that improves with use. It scuffs, softens and takes the shape of the person who carries it, which is the point: by the third year a marriage has started to wear in. A leather gift is best when it is used daily and allowed to age, rather than kept for best. The 3rd is not in Emily Post’s Etiquette (1922), which listed only eight anniversaries. It comes from the expanded year-by-year list generally credited to American jewelers in 1937 (history).
Checked against Emily Post, Wikipedia and Hallmark on .
What Are Good 3rd Anniversary Gift Ideas?
- A wallet or card holder, initialled. Small, used every day, and it will look better in ten years than it does now.
- A leather-bound journal for the next year. Pair it with the first entry already written.
- A watch strap. If they already own a watch they love, a new leather strap is the gift that does not compete with it.
- A weekend bag. The bag, then the weekend it is for.
- Leather-bound copy of a shared book. The novel you both read on the honeymoon, rebound.
- A dog collar and lead. If the third year is the year you got the dog, this counts.
What We Make for the 3rd
We do not make anything in leather, and we would rather say so than stretch it. What we do make is a portrait of the two of you (or the three of you, or the four, if the family has grown) from one photo, repainted in a real art style and printed as a framed canvas or a puzzle. People pair it with the leather gift: the thing they carry, and the thing on the wall.
3rd Anniversary Questions
What is the traditional 3rd anniversary gift? +
Leather, on the American traditional list. It is the same on Hallmark’s published list.
Is leather on the original anniversary list? +
Not on Emily Post’s 1922 list, which only covered eight anniversaries. It appears on the expanded list generally credited to American jewelers in 1937.
What if my partner does not use leather? +
Follow the idea rather than the material: something that softens and improves with daily use. Waxed canvas, cork and good wool all age the same way.
Other Anniversaries
- 1st: paper
- 2nd: cotton
- 4th: fruit and flowers
- 5th: wood
- 6th: iron
- 7th: wool, copper
- 8th: bronze
- 9th: pottery
- 10th: tin, aluminum
- 11th: steel
- 12th: silk
- 25th: silver
- 50th: gold
Every year from the 1st to the 60th, with the US and UK lists side by side, is on the anniversary gifts by year page.