It’s Time to Make May Baskets
After four days of grey skies, the sun finally shone through on Thursday, and today, Friday, April 28, promises to be spectacular — cloudless sunny skies and 60 degrees.
Perfect spring weather, if you ask me.
And not a moment too soon because Monday is May 1, or May Day, and it's time to think about May Baskets, a charming 19th and 20th-century tradition that continues in Washington County, Maine today.
If you’re unfamiliar, May Baskets are usually hand-decorated boxes or paper cones filled with treats and delivered to the doorknobs of your friends, family members — or even a sweetheart — in the predawn hours of May 1. Sometimes you knock on the door and run away, likely while giggling.
Sharon Berry of Machias makes May Baskets in honor of her Grammy Kay because it was her most cherished springtime tradition. “She made hundreds every single year. Our fingers would practically be glued together with the rubber cement,” recalled Berry.
This festive May Basket was made using Grammy Kay’s favorite color combination of yellow and purple crepe paper, according to her granddaughter Sharon Berry, who carries on the May Basket tradition in Machias.
If you’d like to get in on the fun, there’s plenty of time to assemble your baskets this weekend.
In the past, May Baskets were often made using washed milk cartons, sometimes from the local school. I’ve also seen people use berry boxes as the base. During the pandemic, in Calais, Jayna Smith organized a town-wide May Basket event, and they fashioned theirs out of large Solo cups with pipe cleaner handles.
Today, Berry uses any boxes she can find around the house, even mac and cheese or cereal boxes, then wraps them in colorful crepe paper.
“Usually two colors, but you can use as many as you’d like. We filled them with candy and delivered them to the nursing home and throughout our town,” Berry said. “I carried out the tradition with my daycare for 15 years and also with my Girl Scout troop and Cub Scouts. All the families absolutely loved it.”
In Washington County, there aren’t many blooms kicking about on May 1, so Downeast May Baskets are typically filled with candy, homemade goodies, or other treats. Make your own fudge, bake your own cookies, or head to town for bags of penny candy and store-bought snacks.
It doesn’t have to be fancy. The delight of the surprise is the thing.
If you don’t have time to make your own , Berry Vines in Machias has May Baskets in stock, and they’re usually festively decorated with tissue paper in the Downeast style. In years past, I’ve also had a small basket of flowers from Expressions delivered to a dear friend on May Day.
Monday’s forecast looks a bit damp, so be sure to put your May Basket somewhere dry before you knock and run.
I’m off to find my rubber cement.
- Sarah Craighead Dedmon