Hope Chests

[Swamptribe]

Late to this thread, sorry.  I have an old cedar chest.   They were my mothers originally.  It holds some old Hudson Bay blankets, a vintage wool army blanket, and some wool sweaters (we live in freakin Florida, what do I need with wool blankets).  Actually checked it for a hidden drawer. No such luck.  Someday this stuff will go to my daughter.

[adidas]

On 31 January 2016 at 5:46 PM, Karma said:

Any other Australians know them as glory boxes? That's what my mum called hers. Not as fancy as your cedar ones, I think it's just pine.  She collected household things in hers before she married in the early 60s at 20 years old.  I didn't have a glory box, but I did collect things for my moving out/marriage (when I was 25) under my bed and on top of my wardrobe.  Money I was given for my 21st (in the mid 1980s) paid for a canteen of silver cutlery. I bought a Royal Albert set of china when I was about that age, then relatives would add to it for birthday/Christmas presents.  An every day dinner set on a super special.  I knew when we bought a house that there wouldn't be money for luxuries.  I still enjoy using these things, but my 19 yo daughter thinks I was mad.

My parents downsized a year ago and the glory box was set to go to the tip (we have no room for it) but my youngest brother took it, and now it's in the covered back of his ute with tools, life jackets, beach toys etc in it.  Mum was half horrified and half happy that it had found a new home.

I have a cedar glory box! I also have my Great Grandmother's but it is pine. Her brother made it for her out of old tea chests during WWI because they couldn't afford to buy one. It travelled all the way from France to England, then to Australia and it is still in amazing condition.

Mine has all of our board games and jigsaw puzzles in it. Nanna's has all of my scrapbook img stuff. I plan (one day) to turn them into blanket chests since our house is really old and has zero storage.

[FundiesInParis]

I have one, albeit it's a very small one. It has some family heirlooms in it, my family is fairly dysfunctional so what I do have means a lot.

I'm 22, and I could see myself helping a future daughter set one up. I like the concept of them, when you strip away the whole fundie aspect.

[elliha]

Both me and my sister got one. It is not uncommon in Sweden and it is often jokingly given with the suggestion that you start hemming your sheets and making monograms on your towels but of course this is not what most people do. Some people do put stuff they have bought for their future adult life in them but I guess random storage is more common. It is however common in particular for girls to start getting things for your future home at birthdays and Christmas from about 15 as everyone knows you will move out eventually. I cried the day I broke the very lovely green bowl I got at about 15-16, I still miss that bowl and as it was about 10 years later that I broke it is not likely I will ever get another one like that. 

I like the tradition of giving things for your home but I would rather do without my chest, it has been quite damaged and looks terrible so I am thinking of getting rid of it. 

[sawasdee]

Don't know the tradition of an actual chest, but when i was growing up in the UK in the 1960s, we were encouraged to save for our 'bottom drawer' - basically the same thing.

[clueliss]

I got one of the free small Lane chests from a local furniture store when I graduated in 1982.  No hope or cedar chest.  I could have hauled my mother's cedar chest home with me when I sold her stuff last summer but decided not to because I don't really have the space 

heck - this could be the chest (because it is my mom's twin)  Thing weighs a flipping ton.  Mom got this after she got married (the color matched her bedroom suite and sewing machine).   She mainly used it to hold out of season clothes.  Although when prepping for the estate sale folks I did find her wedding dress (my sister and I did not get married and my mother was a toothpick).  Our baby blankets and other treasures.  (most of which went - I've gained a whole unsentimental streak)

 

[AlysonRR]

I had one that was given to my mother, but I also had one of the little Lane boxes from the local furniture store (they gave them to all the graduating girls in the several high schools surrounding their store).

The one I got from my mom had things in it already - aprons my mom made, linen towels embroidered by one grandmother, embroidered pillowcases and table mats/runners/cloths from the other grandmother. In high school I crocheted an afghan and matching pillow - those went in. A few unfinished cross stitch pieces I started in high school or college. A few cut glass pieces and Chinese carvings my great-grandmother bought when she went with a diplomat husband to China.

That same great-grandma left a massive old carved teak chest - I traded my mom for it when she redid her house, because her old hope chest was more her style and my husband and I had quite a bit of Asian art. 

Now I've added a few baby outfits from each child and sweaters that my mother-in-law knitted for them every year.

I took out those embroidered things and we use them frequently, now that we have a house with older kids and parents. Kind of fun to have things with a history, I think!