What objects make good wedding anniversary gifts? Sort of depends whether it’s a big one or a small one … but then, is there such a thing as a small anniversary nowadays? Time was when a couple would get married in their early twenties and then would wait a good fifty years or so for their “golden wedding” – depending on whether or not they both lived that long.
Today, there seems to be a material for every anniversary on the life-long calendar: silver wedding anniversary gifts, pearl wedding anniversary gifts, wood wedding, paper wedding, bacon wedding – hang on, I may be making them up now. But my point stands: people are celebrating anniversaries more often. Probably because relationships are lasting less long.
Though this seems blindingly obvious, it’s impossible not to notice the underlying cynicism of such a proposition: it’s as though we now go into relationships thinking: Hey, this probably isn’t going to last that long – better squeeze in as many anniversaries as we can!
Still, this is NOT the line with which we approach most of our customers at Charlie’s Cartoons… If I was to point out my ideological and practical doubts about the institution of marriage to every customer who breezed my way I probably wouldn’t be selling that many wedding anniversary gifts now would I!
The fact is, wedding anniversary gifts do bring pleasure. Just as the event itself does – whether there was a gift or not. These are opportunities to stop and look back. Stop looking at now, and at the immediate future, and turn briefly to the past to weigh up the richness of experiences accumulated together.
