Hi there! Any suggestions on a great 1st Birthday gift that is not a toy or clothing?
Depends on how much you want to spend but here are a few ideas...zoo membership, gift certificate for swimming lessons or gymnastic lessons or some other activity, an offer to take them for a day and do fun things, money for a savings account.
Several people gave us money intended to be used for college tuition...we added it to his college fund and it's amazing how quickly it added up.
Another non toy, non clothing gift my daughter got was sippy cups and plates and silverware in cute characters. The friend who did this got a cute pink basket and filled it with this stuff and baby friendly snacks. It was cute and practical.
One of the things my X in laws did was give savings bonds. With today's economy, I'm not sure if this is still a good idea, but we saved them and used them for school. Gold pieces are nice if you can afford to get one. A gold coin, could be held and seen.....Gold always goes up.
You could also get a child's chair, little recliner or something that they like. My grand-kids liked those little tables so they can sit in the living room and watch tv and eat like the big people do with their wooden tables.
Maybe a trip to a kids place, fair, food place, a gift certificate for that or a gift card would be nice too.
Good luck and enjoy.
Honestly, in this economy, if you have the money, I'd recommend starting or contributing to a 529 or other kind of savings fund for the child (if it's yours or even if it's someone else's). With ~5% tuition increases/year, the cost of post-secondary education is going to be astronomical. Even $25 will accrue and have an impact down the road.
Savings bonds and/or family pass to museums, parks, zoos.
Think ahead for what the child may also need in the summer, or early fall.
We asked for bedding and room decor from asking grandparents for our daughter's second birthday/Christmas. Probably not what you need now, but just an example.
Savings bond and a cute card!
Blessings.....
Savings bonds. GET credits for future higher ed costs. Books for Mom or Dad to read (my favorite gift to receive and give... and my kids have these books in their treasure boxes to take with them when they start their families).
Books! You can never have enough!
Do books count as toys? All kids love books.
I am not sure if its for your child or not, but I gave both my kids (boy and girl) a beaded bracellet with their "nickname" on it for their first birthday. They wore it until it got too small and now they hang on the wall as a reminder of how little they were. :) If you want information about this, send me a privite message. The lady that makes mine is on ebay. We have purchased over 10 of her custom bracellets over the past couple years for various reasons: cancer patients, loss of a loved one, births...etc. Most recently i got matching mother/daughter ones for my sister who just had a daughter!
I would suggest a board book because my one year old loves books. Just make sure that it is cardboard or plastic to the pages won't get eaten or torn out. Also make sure there are colorful pictures of real things for the baby to look at. Another thing that I just thought of that is kind of a toy is measuring cups and/or tupperware. Toddlers loves stacking them and playing with them even though it is not a conventional toy.
If it's for a baby girl, a really nice charm bracelete would be nice. You can add the first charm and then get her one each year on her birthday. Obviously, this is something that would have to be put away until she is old enough to understand the meaning behind it.
Depending on how close you are to the child, you could make a scrapbook of the baby's first year
A gift certificate for a photo session with a great local photographer
I'm a sucker for personalized things, too. =0)
saving bonds or starting a 529 account for college
The perfect gift would definately be a little girls keepsake bracelet from www.rufflesandcream.com. They also have matching mommy bracelets.
I was also going to suggest Savings Bonds as well. At one years old, they really don't know what they are missing. One year I wanted to get an outdoor play set for my twins and my mom just gave us money towards that. Worked out perfectly.
we love it when people get our daughter (she is 2) a month of some kind of class. this year she got a month of a toddler movement class and a month of a all sports class
No toys at all? A few toy suggestions...that aren't typical toys...music stuff, basketball hoop, tricycle with a push bar (we have been using this for 3.5 years - graduating to regular tricycle), books are always great, CDs of kids music. Non toy ideas - magazine subscription (there are some very picture oriented magazines), bond, jewelry for later on (although that isn't much fun!), a donation, adopting an animal at the zoo, membership to a children's museum or zoo or other museum. Good luck!
My son loved books, even at that age. Find age appropriate learning books. They are fun to share with you child too. A very good bonding time. And when my son got older, I found out that he really liked spending that time with me.
Maybe a trip to the zoo or children's museum. Or a membership to one of those spots?
BOOKS! You can't have enough and they are really expensive to buy yourself. Just pick out a few ones you like with nice pictures and they'll get a lot of use.
Books! Any book is probably good.
Donation to their education fund.
Gift certificate for an experience like KidsQuest, the aquarium, zoo, etc.
A donation to a non-profit in their name.
Lately, I've been giving a book with a little $$ in the front cover. It's something the kid can unwrap, but then the parents can use it for what the kid needs/wants.
Savings Bonds for college
do you want a sort of keepsake? My suggestion would be a photo book or I had a friend that made my son a picture book for his 1st birthday and he loved it! She did something like cut out pictures of an orange cat, and orange, and other things that were that color and then cut out letters for the color on the next page, so he could relate the color to the picture. It was wonderful and I loved the idea that she had made it, it made it very special.
