Recently, I reread the 16th century European fairy tale: Little Red Riding Hood. This time, it wasn’t the bright red riding hood that attracted me, but the humble basket. This basket was the driving force of the story.

Not far into the story, I remembered why reading this fairy tale was ill advised, especially at bedtime, where it might trigger nightmares instead of sweet dreams.

The story starts innocently enough: 
The red hooded cape is grandmother’s loving gift to her granddaughter. Aww, that’s so sweet.

Little Red loves grandmother and the gift she has been given, so much, that Little Red is always seen wearing it, thus the reason everyone calls her Little Red Riding Hood.

Good job, grandma. You know you gave the perfect gift when it’s always used.

This is a good place to close the book, tuck your little one in with a hug and a kiss, and say good night.

Otherwise nightmares may begin.

Grandmother is ailing, alone in her home, deep in the dark woods. 
Wow! How could things go wrong so fast?

I start to bite my nails at the introduction of these spine-chilling elements: sickness, isolation, and dangerous places. Not good for people of any age.

(As an author, I should take notes on how to introduce terror so quickly to a story, that is, should I ever want to write a horror story?)

More frights continue: Little Red is sent alone, on a mission of good will, into that dark forest. Wait, there’s more danger! A “wicked wolf” approaches Little Red with evil intentions. 

The action intensifies and a lot of gobbling up happens, along with deceit and multiple dissections before arriving at a strange, but happy, ending.
(You can read the rest for yourself, if you can stomach it, pun intended.)

I prefer to get back to something more comforting, the real reason for this blog: the humble basket.

The much-overlooked basket embodies gracious goodwill. 
The story states that the contents will do good for grandmother. 
In the end this proves true and Little Red’s mission is accomplished.

Baskets come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes, each carefully designed to deliver specific treasures.
For instance:          
Picnic baskets are created to carry food and utensils to enjoy eating meals outdoors. 

Fruit and flower baskets are decorative containers to hold and display various fruits or flowers. 

Laundry, storage, and market baskets may be larger and sturdier to withstand the rigors of their assigned tasks. 

A quality that all gift baskets share is that the contents are meant to be joyously given away. 

One may overflow from an abundance, 

    or,        

 to impart an item of singular beauty. 

Baskets may deliver the most extraordinary and surprising cargo, delighting the recipient with an unexpected surprise. 

But invisible gift baskets are the most magical baskets of all, when they carry invisible essentials to; a  family member, friend, colleague, or neighbor that might be in need of such things as:

Invisible but invaluable gifts, everyone can carry in their invisible basket, always at the ready to give to those in need.

In this month of giving thanks, let’s remember how easy it is to give these invisible gifts.

To paraphrase another nursery rhyme: