Gifts Kids Made For Parents In The ’70s’
In the 1970s, a gift from a child usually came wrapped in newspaper, held together with tape, and presented with a speech. The materials were pasta, popsicle sticks, yarn, and whatever the art room had in bulk.
Parents kept these treasures on shelves, in drawers, and in boxes in the attic. These 20 handmade gifts capture the spirit of an era of school craft projects.
Macaroni Necklace
Elbow macaroni strung on yarn and painted gold or in rainbow colors was the original statement jewelry for parents. The noodles absorbed paint and left a faint pasta smell for weeks.
Moms wore them to dinner, and dads wore them to the car.
Pasta Picture Frame
Cardboard cut into a rectangle, covered in dried pasta shapes, and sprayed gold became a frame for a school photo. Shells, wheels, and bow ties made the pattern.
The frame sat on a dresser for years, and the pasta never quite stayed glued.
Handprint Plaster Plaque
A shallow mold of plaster of Paris captured a child’s handprint, and a few days of drying turned it into a keepsake. The date and name were scratched into the edge with a pencil.
Parents compared the size of the handprint to the grown hand years later.
Painted Rock Paperweight
A smooth rock from the yard, painted to look like a face or a ladybug, served as a paperweight. The craft fit the spirit of the 1975 Pet Rock craze, when a rock in a box became a national joke.
Kids discovered you could make your own for free.
Clay Ashtray
Art class hands rolled a coil of clay into a bowl with a few notches in the rim, then fired it in the school kiln. Parents received an ashtray even when nobody in the house used one.
The glaze usually came out an unpredictable shade of green or brown.
Soup Can Pencil Holder
An empty soup can wrapped in construction paper, felt, or contact paper became a desk organizer. The edges were sometimes sharp, and the label ghost showed through the paper.
Fathers kept them on workbenches for decades.
God’s Eye
The God’s eye, or ojo de Dios, is a woven yarn diamond built on two crossed sticks, inspired by a traditional craft associated with the Wixárika (Huichol) people of Mexico. Children in the 1970s learned to wrap yarn in colored bands around popsicle sticks in art class.
The finished eyes hung in windows and above beds.
Popsicle Stick Frame
Craft sticks glued into a square and painted made a frame for a school photo. A magnet on the back put it on the refrigerator.
The glue showed at the corners, and every frame leaned slightly.
Tissue Paper Flowers
Layers of tissue paper folded accordion-style and tied with a pipe cleaner bloomed into flowers. A bouquet appeared on Mother’s Day, often in a coffee can vase.
The colors faded in sunlight, but the flowers lasted longer than real ones.
Loop Potholder
Colored fabric loops woven on a metal frame made a square potholder with a ruffled edge. Parents used them in the kitchen, though how well they protected hands from heat depended on the material and thickness.
Many survived long enough to be handed down.
Macramé Plant Hanger
The macramé craze of the 1970s put knotted cord in many living rooms, and kids learned the square knot in school or scouting. A plant hanger took hours and a pile of cord, and the result held a pot of spider plants.
In homes where houseplants were popular, a handmade hanger fit right in.
String Art
Nails hammered into a board and wrapped with colored thread created geometric patterns or the outline of a sailboat. A finished piece looked impressive from a distance.
Parents hung it above the sofa and tried not to look too closely at the knots.
Crayon Sun Catcher
Crayon shavings sandwiched between sheets of wax paper and ironed together made a translucent panel that glowed in sunlight. A parent supervised the iron and ended up with a waxy ironing board.
The sun catcher hung in a window until the colors blurred.
Salt Dough Ornament
Flour, salt, and water made a dough that kids rolled, cut into shapes with cookie cutters, and baked hard. Painted and varnished, the ornaments decorated the tree for years.
Many ornaments carried the date written on the back, and some survive in family collections.
Tie-Dye Shirt
A white shirt bound with rubber bands and dunked in dye came out as a swirl of color. The 1970s craft tied directly to youth culture, and a homemade tie-dye shirt was a badge of cool.
Parents wore them once and discovered the colors bled in the wash.
Burlap Wall Hanging
A piece of burlap, felt shapes, and yarn became a wall hanging with a slogan or a picture. Kids glued the felt and stitched the edges.
The burlap shed little fibers for years.
Felt Owl
Owls were a popular motif in the 1970s, and felt owls with big button eyes showed up on pillows, wall hangings, and stuffed toys. A kid with a pair of scissors and a glue stick could finish one in an afternoon.
The result stared down from a shelf in many a living room.
Pinecone Bird Feeder
A pinecone rolled in peanut butter and birdseed and hung from a loop of yarn, turning the backyard into a gift that kept giving. Kids pressed the seed in by hand, which meant the feeder arrived with a few fingerprints and a faint smell of peanuts.
Squirrels usually claimed it within a week, a fact that parents learned to praise anyway.
Handmade Card With Poem
Construction paper folded in half and covered in crayon drawings held a poem, often rhyming “love” with “above” or “dove.” The spelling errors added to the charm.
Parents saved cards in a shoebox, and the box got heavier each year.
Coupon Booklet
A stapled booklet of coupons promised a week of washing dishes, one free hug, or an hour of quiet. Parents cashed in the dish coupons and treasured the hug ones.
Few children honored the quiet coupon.
The Economics of a Handprint
These gifts ran to a few cents in glue and paper, which made them ideal for kids with no allowance. What they carried was time, effort, and the unfiltered attention of a small person trying to say thank you.
Parents understood the value even when the craft itself looked a little lopsided.
Decades later, those objects tend to be the first things people rescue from a closet or attic. A macaroni necklace in a shoebox says more about a childhood than a photo album, and the spots of paint on a handprint plaque are a kind of fingerprint of their own.
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