The hope chest

I have never heard of this but I love the concept of it! I will definitely be doing this when we start having kids!

My mom is making one for us. As our engagement gift, she showed us the wooden hope chest she bought. Since then, she's filled it with a TON of stuff (she lets me peek every so often). I'm constantly telling her to stop going overboard but she can't help herself.

I'm not actually sure when we actually receive it, or how that works. My mom was born in America but she's 100% German. She says that my Oma did it for her and she grew up with this as a custom. I'm super excited to see what she's put together, it's such a sweet gift.

(for reference, my Oma passed away many years ago, almost 20 now. I actually have her original hope chest from her marriage to my Opa (he's been gone for ten years now). I refinished and restored it, and turned it into a window seat/bench in our living room. Soon I'll have my own, for the foot of me and FHs bed! )

I believe my parents are going to have the Amish make one for me. My mom has had one for forever, her mom bought it for her when she was dating the boy before my dad lol. But I have always wanted one and my mom knows it means a lot to me

My grandma has done this for me. She and my mom have added cookbooks, household items, and baby items in there for years. It's packed. So sweet.

Yes, my mom has one filled with extra blankets

I have one my mom put together. It's filled with stuff from school while growing up, pictures and things from when my mom was married to my dad and a blanket that was crocheted for me as an infant. I love going through it sometimes.

My grandmother had one from her wedding. She crocheted a lot of afghans and put them all in there and would let each grandchild select one they liked.

My Greataunt gave me hers when I first started planning my wedding

I have a Hope chest that my great grandpa made for my grandma when she was 16. She died when I was young so there was nothing in, but I inherited it as the oldest granddaughter. I'm using it to store wedding gifts as they come in

Yup I have a cedar chest that my dad made and gave to me for my 16th birthday. My mom also had one. Each birthday/holiday we added to it. When I moved into my first place I had a whole kitchen worth of stuff.

I have one! But my mom gave it to me when I got my first place, not when I was married. It currently just holds all of our scrapbooks, pictures, and mementos! It's really heavy and one of the legs is broken. It's going to be DH's job to fix it up for our daughter later on in life.

I never realized what a hope chest actually was before!

I have my g'ma's cedar chest. I use it for storing blankets & extra pillows.

Karen, I gave each of my nieces and nephews an unbreakable "First Christmas" ornament. The only one who is also my godchild got an unbreakable ornament every year until he turned 18. I figured it gave him a head start for decorating his own Christmas trees as an adult.

I have an ornament from my g'pa's first Christmas (in 1902) and one from my mom's first Christmas (in 1927).

FMIL had one for us and it was a huge blessing! FH's grandmother made a quilt for each of her grandkids to have when they got married, so that was the first thing to be added. As FMIL expanded her kitchen or found useful things on sale, she'd stick things into there. It was especially helpful before our shower!

My mom has one in their bedroom, not really sure the history behind it though.