Danish woven Christmas hearts
flettede julehjerterCraftOldest surviving heart from the 1850s or…
The woven Christmas heart is the two-lobed paper heart Danish families weave from two colours of glossy paper and hang on the tree, and it suits anyone with scissors and the patience for a few failed first tries. The story that Hans Christian Andersen made the oldest one rests on a heart kept in Odense, and the sources give different dates for it.
Every account starts with a paper heart in yellow and green that Hans Christian Andersen is said to have cut, and H.C. Andersens Hus in Odense keeps it. The Danish Wikipedia, citing Odense City Museums, dates it to the 1850s, while shop and FAQ pages give 1860 or 1861. It has no hanging loop and was never on a tree. The red and white hearts most Danes weave now came later.
The oldest known printed instructions for weaving a heart from two strips appeared in Nordisk Husflidstidende in 1871, and the oldest heart in the National Museum of Denmark's collection is from 1873. Woven paper baskets and paper cones hung on Danish trees before the heart came along. Jyllands-Posten reported in 2002 that the hearts took close to 40 years to become common, and kindergartens spread them in the early 20th century as part of Friedrich Fröbel's paper-weaving exercises, though the Danish Wikipedia gives no source for that link.
A heart is two pieces of paper, each folded in half and cut into strips from the fold, then woven through each other so the strips lock without glue. Two strips each is the simplest form, and patterned hearts with many strips and cut-outs are a test of patience. The plain two-lobed heart is a household form that anyone may make or draw.
Worth knowing
- Use glossy paper in two colours that contrast, cut both pieces to the same size and round the ends before you slit the strips. A heart with three strips per side is a good first try.
- Glue a paper handle across the top if you want to hang the heart on the tree. The heart in Odense has no handle, and the sources say it never hung on a tree.
Quick answers about Danish woven Christmas hearts
Did Hans Christian Andersen invent the Danish woven heart?
Nobody can say he invented it. The oldest surviving woven heart is attributed to Andersen and kept at H.C. Andersens Hus in Odense, and the sources date it to the 1850s or to about 1860.
How old is the Danish Christmas heart?
The oldest surviving heart dates from the 1850s or about 1860, and the first printed instructions for weaving one appeared in Nordisk Husflidstidende in 1871. The hearts became common in Danish homes over the following decades.