from flickr

Picking the right anniversary gift is important. After you get married, you celebrate an anniversary every year that represents the love you two share for one another.

The British and American tradition for the first wedding anniversary was paper, which could mean a poem, or an origami crane built for your loved one.The modern tradition, however, is to gift a clock, perhaps as a symbol of love.

The fifth anniversary used to mean wood, probably in some sort of woodworking ornament, but now it means silverware. Nothing says I love you like dishes.

For the tenth anniversary, the British custom is tin, while the American tradition is tin and aluminum. In modern times, diamonds have taken the role of the tenth wedding anniversary gift.

The quarter-century marker brings silver for the American, British and modern traditions. This is not silver as in silverware, but silver ornaments or jewelry.

The half-century wedding anniversary is another one that’s not changed from the American and British traditions, which both gave gold as the gift for that anniversary.

The 75th wedding anniversary traditional gift is diamond, as is the modern one, which as we saw, had diamonds as the gift of choice for the 10th wedding anniversary.

Other modern anniversary presents include appliances (fourth), desk sets (seventh), watches (15th), porcelain (18th), jade (35th) and star sapphire (65th).

Further traditional gifts include sugar (sixth), lace (13th), tungsten (16th), turquoise (17th), coral (35th) and oak (80th).

Particular traditional gifts have obviously changed over time, due to various reasons including societal acceptability. Ivory, once the hallmark of the 14th wedding anniversary, is no longer accepted in present-society due to the near extinction of elephants because of the ivory trade.