I come from a long line of Scandinavians. We’ve got Norwegians, Danes and Swedes in the bloodline, so I tend to cherry-pick the traditions, foods and activities my ancestors participated in, and bring only my favorites into everyday life. For example, I do not condone the practice of raping and pillaging villagers/villages like my Viking ancestors did, but DO think that the Viking burial ceremony of sending the body of the deceased out to sea, in a boat stuffed with supplies for the afterworld, while all his friends and neighbors shoot burning arrows at the boat from the shoreline until the boat catches fire and sinks is pretty awesome, and the way I would like to be buried, thank you.
So ANYWAY, now that Jul is upon us, I wanted to kick off December with the traditional woven heart baskets seen throughout the homes of Danish families across the world. Growing up, there would always be a few of these hearts hung on our Christmas tree and filled with candy. The oldest known woven heart was made by the Danish fairy tale author Hans Christian Andersen in 1860, and hangs in the Hans Christian Andersen House today.
Making these woven hearts is a great craft for kids, and a really festive decoration. I like making mine out of felt so I can use them year after year, but I know lots of people make them out of construction paper- so whichever you have handy is great.
Start with two long, flat ovals like the ones below. If you are making your hearts out of felt, you can fit four of these shapes on one piece of craft-store felt.
Fold the oval shape in half, and cut three parallel lines from the fold, up towards the rounded edge; stopping about an inch from the curve. Cut the remaining oval pieces in this same way.
With one folded felt oval in each hand (folds facing each other) take the top arm of the felt in your right hand and weave it over and under the felt fingers of your left-hand felt, so that you see the color change in every other arm of the left-hand felt.
Weave the next arm of the right-hand felt in between the left-hand felt fingers so that the opposite colors are showing (it should start to look like a checkerboard.) Continue until your heart shape is complete!
This woven heart basket can also be used in February to hold all of the Valentine’s Day cards the little ones bring home from school, so no need to pack it away your Danish hearts with the rest of the Christmas decorations!
Happy crafting! Happy Jul! Yay for December!
Hi Megan, I love your blog and these are gorgeous! Just one question…I use google reader to follow you and the text comes out in the same grey you use here, but on a white background, so it’s really hard to read. Any ideas how I can fix this? Cheers!
i do not see how it can hold anything…
You do not weave it over and under, but instead, you weave around and through.
you open it at the top of the heart-on the round bits ?
Hi Kat[e] I’ve adjusted the font and background color on all of the posts. I hope that is easier on your eyes. Thanks for reading- AND letting me know
How sweet! We’re talking about a handmade Christmas this year and these would be perfect!
Thanks Lauren! Yea, our whole family is talking about handmade Christmas too. M is Finnish right? Close enough to Danish
Nice to see you back online!
These are great! My mom is a mix of Scandinavians as well (except Swedish, I think, for some reason) so I love seeing the posts about those traditions. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks Catherine! I’m glad you enjoy! We’ll need to compare Scandinavian notes at the next family function!
These are great, I grew up for a few years in Norway and making these have really taken me back
I’m making little ones from felt for the front of my christmas cards
Wow – this is so cute. Have to try that one! Thxs for sharing.
Fantastic, thanks for the great tutorial!
My family is very Swedish and Christmastime is always full of Scandinavian traditions, like these hearts! I’m already looking forward to the food for Christmas this year…oh, the food. 
Thanks for the comments Kate, Steufel and Kathryn! I love these hearts, and hope you will try them out!
And Kathryn, I’m soooo looking forward to the food at Christmas too! Do you have a favorite Swedish dish?
Our dearest friends are Swedish and we are well-steeped in the traditions of Christmas. Thank you for showing how to make these baskets!
Hi! I just discovered your blog through this tutorial. I’m proposing these days a Handmade Christmas for my blog readers, and I decided to feature your cute hearts in my Christmas Ornaments Roundup. Just wanted you to know it, and also that I’m following you from right now!
Oh I’m so glad you liked them Morna! Thank you for the comment
And thank you Lucia! I appreciate being featured on your blog. Thank you for following me
Living in Denmark I know all about these
We make them out of Paper too, we’ve even got special crafting paper specially for these hearts! 
Ooooh I’ll need to look for that special paper
If only I could take a trip to Denmark to buy some ;^)
If you are interested, then I’ll send you some colored paper for the hearts, and you can make all kinds of motives with the hearts… look at this homepage…
http://www.chatbreak.dk/jul/flettehjerter/1.htm
you can send me an e-mail if you want.
vahlun@vahlun.org
Hahahah yeah I guess that’d be nice
It’s just a simple thin paper that folds kind of like silver foil… One side is shiny (for the outer part of the heart, obviously) and the other side is plain for the inner part. It’s quite cool 
When I was younger, the local super market would host a yearly contest where kids all over town were asked to make these “Jule hjerter” (christmas hearts) and then they’d hang them up around their store and every Saturday in December, you could go to the store and see your heart stuffed with candy and gifts. Then you’d get the candy, give your heart back to the salesclerk, and wait anxiously for the next Saturday to come 
Even though I dont celebrate Christmas, I’d ALWAYS take part in that contest 😀
I love candy 😀
Love,
TCM
We used to make these when we were really little in school. We’d make them out of paper, and I think we had a way to neatly weave a little handle in them. And we’d come back to school and have stuff in them~
(We were mostly German, but the teacher was Danish, and noone I know remembers how to make them, so YAY~)<3
^^^awesome 😀 We still make ’em all the time here in DK
WOw…thanks for the tutorial…I want to give it a try too! 😉
I know this was intended for Christmas, but I hope you don’t mind if I feature it in my Valentine’s Day Friday Favorites tomorrow. I remember making these from paper, but I LOVE the felt!
these are great and fantastic and lovely pictures.
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Im so going to make them this year! I love Scandinavia so much <3
I love this. I think I might use it to make an Advent calender with this!
I have seen these before, but had no idea they came from my scandinavian roots!! I am part Danish. My great grandmother came to the US when she was 13, so we don’t have a lot of traditions from her that we share as a family. I love to read about Danish traditions. Thank you so much for sharing. I think I will be making some of these this Christmas! Happy Holidays!
Found this on Pinterest, thanks so much for the tutorial. Now I know (and have made one) how to make thesse darlling heart baskets. Yeah for me and a BIG thank you!
I am going to make these to put my granddaughters little gifts in and hang them from the tree. Thanks so much for the tutorial. I found you on Pinterest.
Wow!! I’m really excited 2 make these for Christmas presents
My boyfriend lives in Denmark while I live in Kansas… I am going to make some of these and tuck little love notes inside for a Valentine’s Day package. Thanks for the idea! <3
This is so fantastic! Love the video, thank you so much for that, I really wasn’t sure how to do the weaving until I watched it. I’m not only making these for our family for Valentine’s Day but I’m also highlighting this post on my blog. http://ahappystitch.com
lol i tried to make it but it didnt turn out right…the back of it was ugly and it didnt really resemble a heart…does it take a few tries to get this right or am i just that bad
I just sat down and went right to it. In true Girl Scout fashion, I started out with wonderfoam and got all the way through to the last row. I gave up with this stuff and went on to construction paper – once I figured out to do all the top row at once and move on down, I was able to go back and ‘fix’ my wonderfoam heart (with a little trimming)….. Thank you for the wonderful (and easy-ish!) craft!
well i am back lol…i made 3 of them in one day so i could get better at it and the 3rd one actually looked something like a heart
If you are having trouble, its a lot easier to start with each side just having one slit, so when its weaved, its like 4 sections.
Felicia! I’m so glad you are back! I taught these hearts at a craft show recently and noticed that a few people did what you did- so rest assured it’s normal when you are just starting out! All you need to do is make sure you are weaving the fronts and the backs at the same time- BUT it sounds like you figured that out already! Good job making three in one day!
Hope you are enjoying them!
xoxo
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Hello,
I just found this post on Pinterest and I love it! I posted a link back here and the tutorial you uploaded, I hope that is okay.
Have a happy Valentine’s day,
Eric Baldwin
DuckDuckGift
Lovely! I spotted one of these in your student gallery section and hoped you had made a “how to make” post. Many thanks Caroline x
So if you’re doing it in felt how do you cut the felt? None of my scissors are cutting it
ooh! Please can I link to this on my blog and use a picture from here?
Awesome! I used to make these out of paper when I was a kid, but 40 years later couldn’t remember exactly how to do them. Now I can make them again. Thanks!
Hi , My great grand mother came to the US from Copenhagen. We are taking my 82 yr old mother there this year.How would you attach the handles?
Kate
When I made them, I made them out of paper and taped or glued the handles on. For these you could probably hot glue, or sew them on.
Love this project! I’ve had this pinned for quite some time…and am including it in my Friday Five tomorrow (today), which includes inspiration from around blogland. This week’s theme is Scandinavian Christmas, so this fits perfectly! I’d love for you to stop by and check it out once it goes live at 8 a.m. eastern over at http://www.thinkingcloset.com. Cheers!
hello! I’m Evelyn, I lived in Denmark for two years (when I was 7). I remember making these out of paper, I didn’t realize you could make them out of felt- so cool! Thanks for the craft idea!
These hearts are wonderful, thank you for sharing them to others. Being a Dane, I have had the woven hearts in my whole life. I am now teaching my young grandchildren how to make them but little hands tear paper easily so I used broadcloth and ironed on a white interfaching on one side. Now the hearts are strong, non-tear and any crumples or wrinkles can easily be ironed out with a bit of steam.
I bake the traditional tiny ginger cookies to fill the hearts while they hang on the tree.
Thanks for sharing your ideas
My basket looks good but is flat and won’t open as front and back are woven together. Is there something I’m missing? Help please.
Just wondered the approximate size of these. Want to make some up for my inlaws! Thanks,
Hi. I love this tutorial and am planning to do this for a cute pouch. But one thing, to make the basket, so the arms go inside the fold? Like, you folded the oval in half, and there was a couple layers to the arm. Does the other color go in between the layers?
Great work! This is the type of info that are meant to be shared around the net.
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I am so making these this year, thanks so much for sharing.
I want to make these with my kindergarten class as part of my Christmas around the world unit. Do you have any idea if there is a story about the meaning of the woven hearts? I would like to be able to share that too. Thanks Denise
I want to make these with my kindergarten class as part of my Christmas around the world unit. Do you have any idea if there is a story about the meaning of the woven hearts? I would like to be able to share that too. Thanks Denise
COOL NICE
I was thrilled to see your tutorial. I used to make these for my girls when we they were young to take to school etc. I used construction paper, added a handle, decorated with a couple of stickers, and added a bit of tissue with candy. They were such fun to make. I made bunches of these over those years, but fast forward several years and I could not for the life of me remember how I made them. I love how you did it with felt. Much more durable and substantial looking. Can not wait to try these in felt for my grandchildren. Thanks so much for sharing. Sweet Nostalgia
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I am missing something! How are these a “basket”? I weave them like you say and they cannot open. I wish there were just ONE more photo on your tutorial (maybe two) so I could see how you are weaving them. Like, what’s the point of folding them over? I am sure it’s so they can open but the weaving instructions are not detailed enough for me. I was saddened that no one else seemed to be struggling with this: I don’t feel very smart right about now. Thank you for any assistance.
Jen, you will take the top “finger” on the right and thread it through the top finger on the left, then thread the second finger on the left through the top finger on the right. You have to split the loops apart as you weave, if that makes sense, so you can open it up.
I finally get it! You take one “finger” and open it to put the other “finger” through the middle. Then you close that “finger” and go through the middle of the next one. Back and forth.