Because I grew up making and delivering May Day Baskets, I just assumed everyone knew what May Day was all about. Seems from many of your comments on my Gratituesday post that May Day is new to many of you! Here, let me share the fun with you…
The way we’ve always celebrated the first day of May is to create some sort of basket, fill it with flowers or goodies, then deliver the basket to someone’s porch. Tradition holds that you are to “sneak” the basket up to the house, set it down, ring the doorbell, and run away without the recipient catching you! It’s a fun way to celebrate spring and a great way to bless others. We’ve never been very good at the “sneaking” part, but it sure is fun to try!
I can’t believe how excited our three younger boys were this year as they were working on this project. (Our oldest may have been excited also, if he wasn’t so busy trying to finish his freshman year of high school. That kid has been working SO hard this year on Biology and Algebra!)
I pulled each boy into the kitchen with me separately to make a treat for the baskets. This made for some great one-on-one time, plus made life less hectic in the kitchen. Justus decided to make Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies. (He usually wears glasses, but his are broken right now – par for the course when you have an active 12 year old boy. If you look at his right eye there, you can see that not only did his glasses get broken, he has a nice injury to brag about too.)
He did a beautiful job on the cookies…
Malachi helped me make some mini Banana Muffins…while listening to DC Talk. ;)
One recipe made 36 mini muffins, baked at 400° for about 15 minutes (in case you were wondering how to adapt the Banana Muffin recipe).
Elias helped me make a big batch of Trail Mix, then all the boys set to work making cards to include in the baskets.
In the meantime, I packaged up all the treats.
The “baskets” we used were actually just recycled ice cream buckets my dad had given me. This worked perfectly!
And now, we are heading out to deliver the goodies. I believe I am just about to witness my sons launching themselves off of our friends’ porches – which I’m sure they will do in absolute silence so as to keep our May Day delivery a big surprise. ;)
I didt’ know anything about May Day. What a fun tradition!! Thank you for sharing. We will be starting a similar tradition next year!
Where did you find the “natural” mini baking cups?
Got a whole case of them from Amazon and LOVE them! https://www.heavenlyhomemakers.com/unbleached-baking-cups
Oops, looks like the link I shared was talking about regular sized cups, but I remember getting the mini cups from Amazon also: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003XUL1V6?ie=UTF8&tag=wwwheavenlyho-20&linkCode=xm2&camp=1789&creativeASIN=B003XUL1V6
That’s o.k. I just found them at iherb! What a great site!
Love the ice cream buckets. I use one to pack my lunch in for work. :)
I LOVE this idea!! I guess Tennessee would be too far to deliver a basket, huh?!? Love your blog! Thanks for all you do!
My Grandma always celebrated May Day with the preschool she worked at. They had May Pole dances and festivities. She taught my Dad to deliver May Day baskets of flowers. I never thought of adding treats. That would be easier for me here, since our spring flowers are never in full bloom by May 1. What a fun tradition to have with your boys!
DC Talk!!! I grew up listening to them and still love to listen to their music for a little walk down memory lane :)
My thoughts exactly!! So neat that her boy(s) listen to DC Talk!!
I never would have thought of using May Day as way to bless others! Great idea! Today was also my sons first birthday, and we have officially started the tradition of passing out baskets on his May Day birthday! Next year we will definitely have to think more of using the baskets to be a blessing, rather than just passing out unhealthy candies!
This looks like so much fun!! I always love a good reason to bake and make treats for others!
I have never celebrated May Day, but I can assure you we will do this next year. My kids will love it. Great job guys!
we did the “May Day” for the first time this year. It was funny because my daughter brought it up all by herself. However, she did not say anything until about 7 p.m. So we went to the store, grab a bag of fruit and delivered. (and did not get caught). It will be a tradition from here on out.
We had such fun on May day when we were kids too! We never got fancy, though. We usually made the baskets out of paper, funnel shaped with a glued or taped on handle. Then we filled it with dandelions and violets. :) Of course the most fun was delivering them to all the neighbors on our street, without getting caught.
I love your idea of using home baked goodies. We’ll have to do that next year.
Looks great! The ladies and I from our sunday school class got together and made May Day baskets. I brought my baby with and I hardly started mine. I brought home what I made – but it was pretty sad looking.
Instead in honor of May Day we are hosted a giveaway on our site. We have you listed in our favorite blgs.
Come check out our giveaway.
http://sistersplayinghouse.blogspot.com/2012/05/happy-may-day-giveaway.html