The 5th Anniversary Gift Is Wood
The traditional fifth anniversary gift is wood. It is one of the original eight: Emily Post listed the wooden anniversary in 1922, with paper before it and tin after.
What Does the 5th Anniversary Gift Mean?
Wood is the first material on the list that is meant to last a lifetime, which is why it sits at five: the point where a marriage stops being new. It also roots, which is the reading most people reach for. Post herself was less sentimental. She grouped paper, wooden and tin presents together as "seldom anything but jokes"; the serious gifts, in her view, started at crystal. The 5th is one of the eight anniversaries in Emily Post’s Etiquette (1922), the oldest widely read American list.
Checked against Emily Post, Wikipedia and Hallmark on .
What Are Good 5th Anniversary Gift Ideas?
- A tree. Planted on the day, so the fifth anniversary has a height you can measure at the tenth.
- A carved or engraved board. Names and the date burned into a chopping board that gets used, not hung.
- A wooden box for the letters. Every card from the first five years, in one place.
- Furniture you will keep. The one good chair, the table you will still have when the children leave.
- A picture on a wooden frame. Canvas stretched over wood, or a framed print, of the five years so far.
- A wooden jigsaw or game. Something to play on the anniversary itself.
What We Make for the 5th
Our gallery-wrapped canvas is stretched over a 1.25 inch wooden frame, so it is a wood gift with a picture on the front. Upload one photo of the two of you, or of everyone the five years have added, and pick a style. You see a watermarked proof before you pay, and nothing prints until you approve it.
5th Anniversary Questions
What is the traditional 5th anniversary gift? +
Wood. It is one of the eight anniversaries in Emily Post’s 1922 Etiquette, and it has stayed fifth on every list since.
Is a canvas print a wood gift? +
A gallery-wrapped canvas is canvas stretched tight over a wooden frame, so it is wood and canvas together. The wood is on the inside, under the wrapped edges.
What did Emily Post say about the 5th anniversary? +
Very little. She listed it, and said paper, wooden and tin presents were usually jokes, and that crystal (the 15th) was the earliest anniversary guests took seriously.
Other Anniversaries
- 1st: paper
- 2nd: cotton
- 3rd: leather
- 4th: fruit and flowers
- 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.