Modern anniversary gifts by year.

How the modern list reads

Helen Marek was a working Chicago jeweler when she published the 1948 modern alternate. The list was an honest update: the four-year fruit-and-flowers traditional category became appliances because that was what couples actually bought in 1948. The ten-year tin became diamond because the De Beers "A Diamond is Forever" campaign launched the year before had already shifted the gift market. Marek's list described what was happening more than it prescribed what should happen.

Some entries are inversions of the traditional. Year six is iron traditionally and wood modernly: the modern list pulled the year-five wood theme forward by one. Year nine is willow traditionally and leather modernly: the modern list pulled the year-three leather back. These are not errors; they are Marek's editorial choices.