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Romantic Anniversary Ideas and Gifts

What anniversary are you celebrating?
We've compiled romantic anniversary ideas and gift ideas for each anniversary year. We even include ideas specific to your anniversary year such as flowers, gemstones, and ideas from the equivalent British anniversary gift list. You'll also plenty of romantic ideas for spending that special day together.

1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th | 6th | 7th | 8th | 9th | 10th | 11th | 12th | 13th | 14th | 15th | 20th | 25th | 30th | 35th | 40th | 45th | 50th | 55th | 60th

Anniversary Celebrations

While we humans have been known to celebrate almost anything, one of our earliest known celebrations is the anniversary celebration. Anniversary celebrations began when weddings began, but the practice of anniversary gift-giving came later as the rules of social etiquette changed.

In 1922, Emily Post, the queen of proper etiquette, wrote that only eight anniversaries required traditional gifts. However, records from the mid-1800s show the anniversary gift list with the first fifteen years and every five years after that from the 20th to the 60th, and the 75th. Today, the most commonly followed gift list is the traditional anniversary gift list, approved by Mrs. Emily Post.

The contemporary or modern anniversary gift list was created to reflect a more affluent and changing society. The original list focused on items that could help a couple put their house together as they started out in life. Today, people start out with more, thus the emergence of the new list. The average age of marriage is in the late 20's and with changing households (divorce, re-marriage, etc), the need for general house items has decreased. The modern list reflects these changes and includes more luxury items, such as the diamond appearing earlier on the list and three different times throughout the list.

In addition to the traditional and modern anniversary lists, there are several other lists in circulation. One such list starts with more frequent, but less expensive gifts in the early years of marriage and higher valued gifts in the later years of marriage. In addition to the varied gift lists, many retailers, who saw profit in encouraging anniversary gift-giving, created their own gift lists. The most popular would be the list of anniversary gemstones, endorsed by Jewelers of America. There is even a list of flowers to give for each specific anniversary!

Anniversary Gift Giving

While anniversary gift-giving has become a somewhat mandatory practice, it doesn't mean that you have to follow the gift lists. While these lists are helpful for sparking ideas, it's more important to give a gift that expresses your love for your partner and comes from the heart.

For those that decide against using the traditional or modern anniversary gift lists, you may want to check out our romantic anniversary gifts for women and romantic anniversary gifts for men lists.

If you're crafty, you could try creating your own homemade anniversary gifts that's personal, unique, and from the heart.

Whatever you do, remember that anniversaries are a reason to celebrate and rekindle those feelings that made your decide to get married in the first place.

If you forget your anniversary, don't sweat it. While the hustle and bustle of every day life may have caused you to forget a gift, it doesn't mean that you've forgotten why you got married. Instead, give the gift of three little words that mean the most in a marriage, "I Love You". Make sure to mark it on your calendar for next year though!

More Anniversary Ideas

Romantic Anniversary Ideas - Say goodbye to the pressure of romantic anniversary ideas. We've done the work for you!
Anniversary Trivia - Unusual and fun facts about anniversaries from around the world.