Hey ladies! My third child is turning ONE in a few weeks and I am needing some creative ideas from you! This is my third first birthday in the past three years (whew! I know!). For each child's first birthday I like to do something memorable and kinda sentimental as part of the party. For my first child's 1st party I asked guests (all family or really close friends) bring something to add to a time capsule for him. (It turned out AWESOME!)
My daughter (child #2)was born in Decemeber, so I asked guests to each bring her an ornament to decorate her very own Christmas tree. (I tagged each ornament with who they were from, and it is SOOO cool to decorate that little tree each year and tell her who brought which ornament for her.) Well, now I have run out of good ideas. Baby #3 turns ONE in December. I don't want to repeat what I did for the other kids. Does anyone have any great ideas? Something free or inexpensive for the guests (again, just family and close friends) to bring. And I want to steer clear of everyone writing the baby a letter- that idea was done at my baby shower. And I don't want to ask everyone to bring a child's book - I am a former elem. school teacher, and have more books than you can even imagine!Any ideas would be appreciated! Thanks!
You could ask them to bring a 1st home made christmas card that says my first christmas on it and have each member of the relatives and friends family sign it.
I think the ornament idea is still awesome! What a great memory, and since it is December, that is too good of an idea!!! Good Luck, God Bless....and Happy Birthday to all your little ones!!
I second the quilting square idea. That is what I was going to suggest. We did something similar at my sister's shower. We had all the guests sign a receiving blanket instead of a guest book. You could have each guest buy one quilting square at the fabric store, and write something to your son, then you could either sew it or have someone sew it for you.
Let us know what you decide to do! Your ideas are amazing, I wish I'd thought of that. :)
What about scrape book page(s) made by the guests? It's a slightly twist on the time capsule idea. When your son gets older he'll have an easier time putting names to face, even the ones he hasn't seen for a while.
I dont think its exactly what you're looking for but at my baby shower I had a stuffed dog that everyone wrote on, and I found one that said 1st bday so I had that at my daughters shower. So she has one from the shower and her bday. And also, my cousin had a plate made at walmart with my daughters picture on it.
A., those are the best first birthday ideas I have EVER heard of. Kudos to you! The one thing that pops to mind is a music theme. It isn't as sentimental. However, you could ask guests to bring a handheld instrument and/or children's CD. We have a lot of fun in our house with a box of instruments we keep in the living room. You can get a lot of interesting and affordable instruments from a Ten Thousand Village store, or contact Musikgarten for beautiful, wooden, safe instruments appropriate for baby.
Other ideas:
- material from each family to make a quilt. I think you can send it out to quilting groups to sew for you.
- Pictures. Each family could bring a picture or two that you could put together in a photo book. Love the photobooks from Lulu.com
- Final idea from this end. You could start a story, online, and ask each guest to contribute to it. Sort of a grapevine idea. Use your child, family, street address, etc. as the central theme. At the end, get the story published. Again, consider a company like lulu.com - a self publishing company. You can publish just a single book very reasonably. My 5 year old is writing a simple story for his baby brother for Christmas this year.
Good Luck,
D.
How about a picture album and a pic of each guest.
First, I really like the tree ornament idea. (I don't think it's bad to repeat it. In fact, as the children get older, there may be the question... why didn't you do that for me? If you want to change, you may consider everyone bringing something significant to the baby's home-town. That will be special to him after he has moved away. Even if it's a picture of a local something. Another idea would be to request a different Christmas cookie cutter from each person and a family recipe for the holidays. You could include a basic cookie and icing recipe and start the tradition of a cookie decorating party.
hi, since you said everyone was family or close friends why not ask everyone to bring a picture of themselves and make the child a lap board. you could decorate it for the 1 b-day part and glue the pic's all over it and them polyuratane it. it would be cool to have this to look back on and to use.. good luck. mom of 7 R.
How about asking guests to bring a small charm that represents something special to them/your family? You could start it with one that represents her birthstone/flower and then you could put them all on a nice bracelet for when she is older.
Good luck and Happy Birth Day to you too! :-)
I tried to take a pic of every person that attended my son and daughters first birthday parties and a pic of every present they received. I also took lots of pics of the cake and decorations and made a very cute scrapbook that could reflect back on. Now you could make them a Baby's 1st Birthday Book off of Snapfish or Kodak Gallery. That would be very cute and sentimental. You can even put your child on the front cover. Awesome!!!
I have also, heard of people having all guests bring a couple of bucks to donate in your child's name to a charitable organization for the holidays. For a needy child, family or shelter of some sort.
Planting trees in the child's honor through the local Wildlife federation.
For my sons first birthday, we got one of those frames with the matting and asked everyone to sign it with different colored markers. Everyone added a little note or well wishes using different colors to match his first birthday picture. It's still my favorite picture in the house!
Maybe everyone could create a scrapbook page for her..? I had previously created a scrapbook for our daughter, before she was born, and then after her birth - asked each family member to write something special to her in the book, near their photo. I'll share it with her when she's much older, of course, and not eating the pages! Thanks for your ideas - Our Livy turns One in January!
You could ask them to get some kind of charm or something that you can attach to a large plain Christmas stocking or that you can attach to a tree skirt for the Christmas Tree.
I think your family sounds wonderful and the ideas you had/have are awesome. Best of luck on your adoption, my prayers are with you.
We did a autograph frame where everyone signed the matte on the frame of a picture of my son on his 1st birthday. You can update the picture as he gets older.
Hi A.!
I recently did a custom photo DVD for a little girl's birthday party in Seattle. The DVD feautured her photos from the hospital, delivery, 1st months at home, 1st walk, food, etc. It turned out wonderful and the guests LOVED it.
Pls see my website and look at the 1st Bday Sample on the DVD Samples page.
Please email me if you think you'd like to do this for YOUR party!
R.
Owner, Creative DVD Designs, LLC
____@____.com
I love the scrapbook idea nad the charm idea. You can ask each friend or family member to make a scrapbook page of a certain size: 6X6, 12X12, 8.5X11, etc Each could do a different theme or holiday. You put the pages in a book and you add the pics as you make them! The charm thing I like b/c for my daughter I bought her a charm bracelet with one charm when she was born and each year for her bday I buy her a charm that has something to do with her personality, life, character, etc I got the bracelet a larger size so when she turns 18 I will give it to her and it will fit at that time.
Have fun, sounds like great ideas already! W.
