Anniversary gifts by year on the traditional and modern lists

Anniversary gifts by year come from a list that's part 1920s etiquette book, part jewelry-trade wish list. Year one is paper. Wood comes at five, and ten is tin (or aluminum, which sounds slightly less like a camping cup). At 25 it's silver, and 50 is gold.

The rest gets odder (iron at six, lace at 13), so the full list to 60 sits in one table with a gift idea on each row.

Anniversary gifts by year, first to sixtieth

Expect two columns on most American lists. Traditional holds the older materials, and modern is the update printed beside them. Where the big lists split on a year, each row here takes the answer most of them share.

Six is the messy one, with iron on some lists and candy on others. That's about the distance between a skillet and a box of fudge.

Year	Traditional	Modern	One idea
1	Paper	Clocks	A framed map of where you met
2	Cotton	China	Cotton picnic blanket that lives in the car
3	Leather	Crystal or glass	Leather weekend bag
4	Fruit or flowers	Appliances	A lemon tree in a pot by the window
5	Wood	Silverware	Wooden box for five years of cards
6	Iron or candy	Wood	Cast-iron skillet, already seasoned
7	Copper or wool	Desk sets	Copper watering can for the porch plants
8	Bronze	Linen or lace	Bronze house numbers for the front door
9	Pottery or willow	Leather	Pottery class for two
10	Tin or aluminum	Diamond jewelry	Shortbread from the honeymoon town, in a tin
11	Steel	Fashion jewelry	A good steel chef's knife
12	Silk or linen	Pearls	Silk pillowcases
13	Lace	Textiles	Thick rug for the cold side of the bed
14	Ivory	Gold jewelry	Ivory-colored linen napkins
15	Crystal	Watches	Crystal glasses to replace the mismatched ones
20	China	Platinum	The wedding china, used on a weeknight
25	Silver	Silver	Silver frame for the wedding photo
30	Pearl	Diamond	Mother-of-pearl box for jewelry they already own
35	Coral	Jade	Snorkeling trip to see living coral
40	Ruby	Ruby	Dinner for the original wedding party
45	Sapphire	Sapphire	Blue enamel pot for Sunday dinners
50	Gold	Gold	Photo book with one photo from each year
55	Emerald	Emerald	Green ceramic planter with a fern in it
60	Diamond	Diamond	Recipe box of family recipes in their handwriting

Lists disagree after year 15. Hallmark's version of anniversary gifts by year gives every year its own theme (17 is furniture, 29 is tools), while Emily Post and The Knot jump straight to 20 and count by fives.

Steel at 11 and lace at 13 look like two guests put at the same table by mistake, one in work boots and one in a veil.

The modern column spends most of its teens at the jewelry counter. If that isn't how you two shop, the traditional list is easier between 10 and 15. Steel and silk turn into kitchen knives and pillowcases.

Year 14 is the awkward row. Nobody should buy ivory now, so read the traditional answer as a color and leave the elephants out of it.

The first anniversary gift, on paper

Paper looks like the cheap year until you count what's made of it. Books, maps, tickets and letters all qualify, and nearly all of them can carry a date or a street name that only two people would recognize. Most paper anniversary gift ideas fail the same way, by being a nice card pretending to be a present. Put something in the envelope that would be hard to replace.

The modern answer for year one is a clock. Sweet or slightly ominous, depending on what you write on the tag, so leave out anything about time running out.

Paper also mails well, which matters if the first anniversary finds you in two time zones. Couples spending it apart can start with these long-distance anniversary ideas. And if your paper turns out to be a letter, a few anniversary wishes can get you past the blank first line.

A first edition of the book from your first date, or the oldest printing you can find. Write the date and the restaurant's name inside the cover, in pencil.
Concert tickets printed on paper, for a band you both know every word of. Print them even if the venue scans phones, because a paper stub can go in a frame afterward.
Hire an illustrator to draw the floor plan of your first apartment, couch and all. Include the radiator that clanked all winter.
Twelve letters in twelve numbered envelopes, one to open on the first of each month in year two.
A jigsaw puzzle printed from a wedding photo. Buy the 1,000-piece version if you'd like it on the dining table until spring.
Your vows, typed out and framed, including the line one of you fumbled.
The newspaper from your wedding day. Sellers of old papers can usually find the real printed issue, and the ads in the back are the best part.
Paper flowers, folded or bought, that will look exactly the same in six months.
One line a day for five years, in a diary with one page per date. Start it on the anniversary.

Years two to four, when the list gets useful

Year two is cotton, and the modern list says china. Leather follows at three, or crystal and glass if you go modern. By year four it's fruit or flowers, while the modern list says appliances. It's the one time a stand mixer gets to count as romance.

These are the years of the first shared lease and a closet that's somehow two-thirds full of one person's things. China at two feels early for anyone still eating off plates from a roommate's mom. Gifts that get used every day beat anything precious right now, and cotton and leather both get better with use.

Cotton sheets that are actually good. Percale if they sleep hot, sateen if they're always cold. Either one beats the registry set you both quietly hated.
A quilt sewn from the old T-shirts in the bottom drawer, race shirts and the honeymoon one included. Mail them to the quilter while the drawer's owner is out of town.
Get a cotton hammock for two, and buy the hooks with it, since the hooks are what everyone forgets.
A leather luggage tag with the city of your next trip written on the card. Book the trip first, or the tag is only a hint.
Work gloves in leather for whoever drags the trash cans to the curb in January. Get the lined kind.
For a dog that joined the family in year two, a leather collar with its name stamped in. Add your phone number on the back while you're at it.
Order a monthly fruit box for the year, pears in winter and peaches by July.
Tulip bulbs, if the anniversary falls in October. Plant them together, and they'll come up in April, long after you've both forgotten about them.

Wood for a 5 year anniversary gift

Hard to go wrong here. Wood is the traditional 5 year anniversary gift and silverware is the modern answer. New forks rarely get more than a polite "oh, nice."

Wood that only sits on a shelf turns into a dust collector by spring, so pick something they'll touch every week. Picture Ana and Luis at five years, with a toddler who chews whatever's at knee height. A cutting board survives that. Anything carved and delicate on a low shelf won't last the week.

A cutting board with both initials burned into one corner. Put them in the middle and it turns into wall art too nice to chop onions on.
Plant a tree for the wood year somewhere you walk past often. Take a photo beside it every anniversary after, and in ten years you'll have a flip book of the two of you getting older while the tree shows off.
Two Adirondack chairs, pointed at whatever counts as a view at your place. A parking lot counts if the sunset hits it right.
A weekend in a cabin in Vermont. If you squint at the log walls, it counts. Go in October for the leaves or in late March, when it's mud season and nearly empty.
Sign up for a spoon-carving class together. The spoons will come out lopsided. Use them anyway.
Walnut shelves for the records that have lived on the floor since you moved in. Ask for at least 13 inches of depth, because LP sleeves won't fit a lot of standard bookcases.
Cedar birdhouse, hung where you can see it from the kitchen sink. Put it up before spring, when the birds start house hunting.

The 10 year anniversary gift and its tin problem

At ten, the traditional list says tin or aluminum and the modern list says diamond jewelry. That's quite a spread. A good 10 year anniversary gift can land anywhere between a tin can and a jeweler's counter. Most of the good ones sit nearer the can.

Tin gets laughed at more than it deserves. It covers lanterns, roofs, old photographs and the cookie tin full of sewing supplies that every family seems to keep in a closet. Aluminum is the duller word, but it's the one they put on suitcases and bike frames.

A tin of letters, one for each year, with the year written on the outside of the envelopes. Write them over a few weeks, because ten letters written in one night all sound the same.
Pierced-tin lanterns for the back steps, the kind that throw small dots of light across the bricks.
A tintype portrait, made the old wet-plate way on a metal plate. It's as close as a photograph gets to the tin year.
An aluminum carry-on for the trip you've been putting off since year six. Put the booking confirmation inside.
Re-roofing the shed in tin technically counts. It won't make anyone cry, but the shed stops leaking.
If you're going modern, choose diamond earrings they'll wear on an ordinary Tuesday.
Seal a time capsule in a tin with a letter from each of you, to open at 20. This week's grocery receipt belongs in there too, since by then it'll be the funniest thing inside.
Two aluminum-frame bikes and a standing Saturday ride along the river. Helmets count as part of the gift.

Silk at 12 through china at 20

Silk or linen covers the traditional 12 year anniversary gift, with pearls on the modern list. Fifteen brings crystal, or a watch if you'd rather go modern. Most lists then skip four years and land on china for the 20th anniversary gift (platinum on the modern list).

By 12, most couples own the basics. Go for the better version of something they already reach for, like the sheets or the plates.

Crystal is the tricky one. Bought carelessly, it ends up in a cabinet next to a bowling trophy, so pick crystal that gets used on a Wednesday. Twenty is easier. By then the wedding china has either never left its box or is down to five dinner plates, and both problems come with a gift attached.

A silk scarf in the green they keep buying in every other fabric.
Linen sheets for summer. They wrinkle, more or less on purpose, and soften the more you wash them.
Engrave a watch for 15 with the wedding date on the back and nothing else. A full sentence never fits as well as you hope.
Crystal fruit bowl for the middle of the table, filled with clementines before you hand it over.
Fill the gaps in the wedding china. Replacement services can often track down a pattern that's been discontinued for years.
A china teapot and two cups for the slow end of a weekend morning. Bone china if they're careful, something sturdier if there are still kids in the house.

25th anniversary gifts and every five years after

Twenty-five is where a lot of the shopping passes to the kids. Both lists say silver, so it's the first milestone that's hard to get wrong. From here the years go up in fives, pearl at 30 and ruby at 40, until diamond at 60.

Grown children have one advantage over the couple. They know where the photo boxes are and who still has the cousins' numbers, and the gifts that work at this age are built from exactly that. Whatever you choose should survive being passed down, because it probably will be.

If the gift is from all the siblings, the card can come from all of you too. Send an anniversary card for parents the morning of, and settle who writes the letter the night before.

A vow renewal on the 25th, kept short and held in the backyard. Find the original officiant if anyone can track them down.
Engrave a silver cake knife with both names and the two dates, then use it at the party.
An oyster dinner for the pearl year at 30. It counts if you're optimistic about what's inside.
Jade plants can live for decades with very little care, so they suit a 35th. Real coral is better left on the reef.
Pay someone to digitize the camcorder tapes and the boxes of slides, and hand the files over on a ruby-red flash drive for the 40th. Label the files by year, or nobody will ever open them.
A weekend back in Savannah, or wherever the honeymoon was, for the sapphire year. Ask for a room facing the water. That's as blue as the gift needs to get.
Ask a bakery to copy the cake from their wedding photo for the 50th, down to the plastic couple on top if someone kept it.
For the 50th party, print an invitation with the wedding one's exact wording and the new date, then frame the two side by side.
Record each of them telling how they met, separately, and play both versions at the 60th. Watch the room when they disagree about who asked who out.

Splitting the list into his and hers

None of the materials come labeled his or hers, and the lists never say who gives what to whom. Shopping for anniversary gifts for him works the same way as shopping for her. Start with a habit and look for the year's material inside it.

If Paul grills every Saturday, the cast-iron skillet at six is his. Diane reads in the bath. Her year-one gift is a paperback, since a first edition would drown. Couples who'd rather skip the list can borrow from these unique and digital anniversary gift ideas instead.

When this year's material doesn't fit

Some years won't cooperate, and no list of anniversary gifts by year knows that your partner hates lace. Buy what you'd have bought anyway and write a letter that names the year.

Or send a HeartCraft anniversary card. It opens on their phone with a love meter and a pinky promise, then a cake to blow out, your letter, your promises floating around a bouquet and a gift reveal at the end, which is good timing if the real present is in the hall closet. There's a version for your husband too.

Frequently asked questions

Do you have to follow the traditional list?

No. The Emily Post Institute presents its own list as a place to start. Mix the two columns, or skip any year that makes no sense for you, like lace at 13 in a house with two dogs and no curtains.

What's the gift for a six-month or dating anniversary?

There isn't a set one. The lists begin at the first wedding anniversary, so six months in, or three years of dating, comes with no material attached. Something small and specific works, like a print of the first photo you took together in a drugstore frame.

Why do the US and UK lists differ?

Nobody owns the list, so it drifted. In 1937 an American jewelers' association filled in most of the missing years, and US lists later added the modern column. British lists have a few picks of their own, like sugar instead of iron at six and linen or silk instead of fruit or flowers at four, though the milestones from 15 on match.

What's the gift after 60 years?

The big US lists end at diamond for the 60th. Hallmark's says to start over from there, which makes year 61 paper again. A stack of letters from the grandchildren is about the best paper there is.

The rest gets odder (iron at six, lace at 13), so the full list to 60 sits in one table with a gift idea on each row.

Anniversary gifts by year, first to sixtieth

Six is the messy one, with iron on some lists and candy on others. That's about the distance between a skillet and a box of fudge.

Year	Traditional	Modern	One idea
1	Paper	Clocks	A framed map of where you met
2	Cotton	China	Cotton picnic blanket that lives in the car
3	Leather	Crystal or glass	Leather weekend bag
4	Fruit or flowers	Appliances	A lemon tree in a pot by the window
5	Wood	Silverware	Wooden box for five years of cards
6	Iron or candy	Wood	Cast-iron skillet, already seasoned
7	Copper or wool	Desk sets	Copper watering can for the porch plants
8	Bronze	Linen or lace	Bronze house numbers for the front door
9	Pottery or willow	Leather	Pottery class for two
10	Tin or aluminum	Diamond jewelry	Shortbread from the honeymoon town, in a tin
11	Steel	Fashion jewelry	A good steel chef's knife
12	Silk or linen	Pearls	Silk pillowcases
13	Lace	Textiles	Thick rug for the cold side of the bed
14	Ivory	Gold jewelry	Ivory-colored linen napkins
15	Crystal	Watches	Crystal glasses to replace the mismatched ones
20	China	Platinum	The wedding china, used on a weeknight
25	Silver	Silver	Silver frame for the wedding photo
30	Pearl	Diamond	Mother-of-pearl box for jewelry they already own
35	Coral	Jade	Snorkeling trip to see living coral
40	Ruby	Ruby	Dinner for the original wedding party
45	Sapphire	Sapphire	Blue enamel pot for Sunday dinners
50	Gold	Gold	Photo book with one photo from each year
55	Emerald	Emerald	Green ceramic planter with a fern in it
60	Diamond	Diamond	Recipe box of family recipes in their handwriting

Steel at 11 and lace at 13 look like two guests put at the same table by mistake, one in work boots and one in a veil.

Year 14 is the awkward row. Nobody should buy ivory now, so read the traditional answer as a color and leave the elephants out of it.

The first anniversary gift, on paper

The modern answer for year one is a clock. Sweet or slightly ominous, depending on what you write on the tag, so leave out anything about time running out.

A first edition of the book from your first date, or the oldest printing you can find. Write the date and the restaurant's name inside the cover, in pencil.
Concert tickets printed on paper, for a band you both know every word of. Print them even if the venue scans phones, because a paper stub can go in a frame afterward.
Hire an illustrator to draw the floor plan of your first apartment, couch and all. Include the radiator that clanked all winter.
Twelve letters in twelve numbered envelopes, one to open on the first of each month in year two.
A jigsaw puzzle printed from a wedding photo. Buy the 1,000-piece version if you'd like it on the dining table until spring.
Your vows, typed out and framed, including the line one of you fumbled.
The newspaper from your wedding day. Sellers of old papers can usually find the real printed issue, and the ads in the back are the best part.
Paper flowers, folded or bought, that will look exactly the same in six months.
One line a day for five years, in a diary with one page per date. Start it on the anniversary.

Years two to four, when the list gets useful

Cotton sheets that are actually good. Percale if they sleep hot, sateen if they're always cold. Either one beats the registry set you both quietly hated.
A quilt sewn from the old T-shirts in the bottom drawer, race shirts and the honeymoon one included. Mail them to the quilter while the drawer's owner is out of town.
Get a cotton hammock for two, and buy the hooks with it, since the hooks are what everyone forgets.
A leather luggage tag with the city of your next trip written on the card. Book the trip first, or the tag is only a hint.
Work gloves in leather for whoever drags the trash cans to the curb in January. Get the lined kind.
For a dog that joined the family in year two, a leather collar with its name stamped in. Add your phone number on the back while you're at it.
Order a monthly fruit box for the year, pears in winter and peaches by July.
Tulip bulbs, if the anniversary falls in October. Plant them together, and they'll come up in April, long after you've both forgotten about them.

Wood for a 5 year anniversary gift

Hard to go wrong here. Wood is the traditional 5 year anniversary gift and silverware is the modern answer. New forks rarely get more than a polite "oh, nice."

A cutting board with both initials burned into one corner. Put them in the middle and it turns into wall art too nice to chop onions on.
Plant a tree for the wood year somewhere you walk past often. Take a photo beside it every anniversary after, and in ten years you'll have a flip book of the two of you getting older while the tree shows off.
Two Adirondack chairs, pointed at whatever counts as a view at your place. A parking lot counts if the sunset hits it right.
A weekend in a cabin in Vermont. If you squint at the log walls, it counts. Go in October for the leaves or in late March, when it's mud season and nearly empty.
Sign up for a spoon-carving class together. The spoons will come out lopsided. Use them anyway.
Walnut shelves for the records that have lived on the floor since you moved in. Ask for at least 13 inches of depth, because LP sleeves won't fit a lot of standard bookcases.
Cedar birdhouse, hung where you can see it from the kitchen sink. Put it up before spring, when the birds start house hunting.

The 10 year anniversary gift and its tin problem

A tin of letters, one for each year, with the year written on the outside of the envelopes. Write them over a few weeks, because ten letters written in one night all sound the same.
Pierced-tin lanterns for the back steps, the kind that throw small dots of light across the bricks.
A tintype portrait, made the old wet-plate way on a metal plate. It's as close as a photograph gets to the tin year.
An aluminum carry-on for the trip you've been putting off since year six. Put the booking confirmation inside.
Re-roofing the shed in tin technically counts. It won't make anyone cry, but the shed stops leaking.
If you're going modern, choose diamond earrings they'll wear on an ordinary Tuesday.
Seal a time capsule in a tin with a letter from each of you, to open at 20. This week's grocery receipt belongs in there too, since by then it'll be the funniest thing inside.
Two aluminum-frame bikes and a standing Saturday ride along the river. Helmets count as part of the gift.

Silk at 12 through china at 20

By 12, most couples own the basics. Go for the better version of something they already reach for, like the sheets or the plates.

A silk scarf in the green they keep buying in every other fabric.
Linen sheets for summer. They wrinkle, more or less on purpose, and soften the more you wash them.
Engrave a watch for 15 with the wedding date on the back and nothing else. A full sentence never fits as well as you hope.
Crystal fruit bowl for the middle of the table, filled with clementines before you hand it over.
Fill the gaps in the wedding china. Replacement services can often track down a pattern that's been discontinued for years.
A china teapot and two cups for the slow end of a weekend morning. Bone china if they're careful, something sturdier if there are still kids in the house.

25th anniversary gifts and every five years after

If the gift is from all the siblings, the card can come from all of you too. Send an anniversary card for parents the morning of, and settle who writes the letter the night before.

A vow renewal on the 25th, kept short and held in the backyard. Find the original officiant if anyone can track them down.
Engrave a silver cake knife with both names and the two dates, then use it at the party.
An oyster dinner for the pearl year at 30. It counts if you're optimistic about what's inside.
Jade plants can live for decades with very little care, so they suit a 35th. Real coral is better left on the reef.
Pay someone to digitize the camcorder tapes and the boxes of slides, and hand the files over on a ruby-red flash drive for the 40th. Label the files by year, or nobody will ever open them.
A weekend back in Savannah, or wherever the honeymoon was, for the sapphire year. Ask for a room facing the water. That's as blue as the gift needs to get.
Ask a bakery to copy the cake from their wedding photo for the 50th, down to the plastic couple on top if someone kept it.
For the 50th party, print an invitation with the wedding one's exact wording and the new date, then frame the two side by side.
Record each of them telling how they met, separately, and play both versions at the 60th. Watch the room when they disagree about who asked who out.

Splitting the list into his and hers

When this year's material doesn't fit

Some years won't cooperate, and no list of anniversary gifts by year knows that your partner hates lace. Buy what you'd have bought anyway and write a letter that names the year.

Frequently asked questions

Do you have to follow the traditional list?

No. The Emily Post Institute presents its own list as a place to start. Mix the two columns, or skip any year that makes no sense for you, like lace at 13 in a house with two dogs and no curtains.

What's the gift for a six-month or dating anniversary?

Why do the US and UK lists differ?

What's the gift after 60 years?

The big US lists end at diamond for the 60th. Hallmark's says to start over from there, which makes year 61 paper again. A stack of letters from the grandchildren is about the best paper there is.