It has been one hell of a year and for most, 2020 feels like it has been the longest year of their lives. Thankfully, the festive season is here, just around the time your family needs an activity to wind down or take their eyes away from screens for a second. That said, buying gifts this year can be stressful. Besides, your kids may be looking for something special to gift to their friends this Christmas to express their love and gratitude. Come personalized friendship bracelets!
These are great gifts that offer a delightful way to customize gifts for special friends and people. In a simple but special way, friendship bracelets are gifts people appreciate for years. More so, because the bracelets serve as a lovely reminder and witness to the bond friends share. Thus, although the friendship-bracelet-making fad has waned over time, the trend should certainly be brought back.
Where Did Friendship Bracelets As Gifts All Begin?
Friendship bracelets have been around for years that it is hard to find their origin. That said, many people point to Native Central and South America as the origin of this beautiful ritual.
When you consider the art and beauty of these colorful bracelets, it is easy to spot their Latin or South American flair. The brilliance of the designs, patterns, and color arrangements are traditional in South and Central America.
The popularity of donning friendship bracelets reached the US shores in the early 70s, and it did not take long for these colorful ornaments to become a hip fashion. While the trend picked-up during a post-war period when Americans moved toward everything peace and love to revive their American dream, the bracelets have remained groovy among the younger crowds.
Granted, there does not need to be a reason to gift a special friend a friendship bracelet, hence there should be no pressure to wait for a special event. Still, the bracelets may make for a textbook surprise gift this Christmas.
Popular Flairs Of Friendship Bracelets Throughout the Decades
The Native American flair is the inspiration behind some of the most popular friendship bracelet designs. Most of the patterns used include the totem pole chevron, diamond, and broken ladder, and these patterns and styles are derived from the flairs of Navajo weaving.
This type of weaving goes back as far as the 16th Century when the Navajos would weave blankets and other cloths on looms. Their diamond design is especially common for friendship bracelets because of how beautiful the pattern looks with many different colors.
These days, people can create friendship bracelets with any design or pattern of their choice. For instance, your kids can find inspiration for designs from their favorite TV shows, music and movies, and many more. Moreover, your kids can choose to go the Native American way and choose colors that characterize the friend they will give the bracelet to. In Native America, black embodies strength, red stands for honesty and blue is for loyalty.
These are just a few ideas of the type of bracelets your kids can make for their friends.
More Ideas On Friendship Bracelets For Gifts
Many other designs do not need weaving or tying knots. Young kids may enjoy creating bracelets from strips of fabrics, only requiring them to cut the cloth into lengthy, thin strips and then braid the strips together. T-shirt fabric is perfect for creating this type of bracelet.
Additionally, duct tape and washi tape are great materials to use to style friendship bracelets. The tapes come in numerous colors and patterns, which are ideal for making fun crafts. Kids will only need to make a bracelet long enough to go around their wrist out of duct tape. Then, they can beautify the duct tape with ripped-off strands of washi tape in various colors.
Also, beautifully-colored straws are another idea. Your kids can easily cut straws into beads which they can string onto an embroidery floss or yarn.
Share The Love With Friendship Bracelets
Friendship bracelets are fun to make and share!
The good thing is that the bracelets are unisex, and they will be a great way for your kids to show their friends how much they mean to them.
‘Life is better with best friends’, ‘friends for life,’ ‘love till infinity’, are just some of the popular friendship quotes to engrave. Also, engraving names is always a great idea, and if your kids would like to go the extra mile to adorn the bracelets, pictures make for wonderful expressions, too.
Help your kids make special friendship bracelets this Christmas, that their friends will love and wear for years to come.
Sources: parenting.firstcry.com, diynetwork.com, youtube.com, study.com, makinghistory.web.unc.edu, theguardian.com