When my son was born, we bought him a Lionel train set for his first Christmas with the idea of buying the "dated" train each year after as a special gift that he'll always have and enjoy each year at Christmas. I'm stuck on something similar for my baby girl. I didn't want to do the holiday barbie because I want it to be something she can play with and not have to keep in a box, but I want it to be something special that maybe only is played with once a year like the trains. I was also thinking of a charm bracelet, but could go either way on that. Any ideas are welcome - thanks.
You can have an American Girl doll made to look like her. Or maybe a personalized BuildaBear? Just thoughts. Good luck!
I also like the Christmas Ornament idea. She can't really "play" with them (but hanging them on the tree is fun).
I am giving my daughter one special ornament a year. She can take them with her when she leaves home and already have enough to decorate her own small tree by that time!!
Have a wonderful Holiday Season!
I dont know the age of your baby girl, but why not a Barbie, that she can play with and it can have the special clothes and the other stuff that comes with her. My daughter has so many Barbies and they all are so special to her. She remembers who gave them to her now at this point in her life. We even started to name them after the women that had given them to her. It started to be a special thing of ours. She now has lots of coversation when shes dressing them and gives out fashion tips of what different family/friends (women) members should wear...Its so funny. She now also has two male Kens that were given to her by her father being that he plays doll with her more than I do..:0)
I buy my kids a new ornament every year to hang on the tree. Something that is dated. This way when they are grown and have their own homes, they already have a tree full of ornaments. It also makes decorating the tree fun, cuz we get to think about all the fun stuff.
How about a single pearl necklace that you add a pearl to each year? By the time she's ready to marry she has a beautiful strand of pearls to wear to her wedding!
For my boys, I bought the Hallmark Baby's First-Fifth Christmas bear ornaments. They changed the styles every few years. I'd do that no matter if I'd had girls also since the ornaments are gender generic.
However, I LOVE the idea of the music boxes. When I was a little girl, I was a flower girl for two weddings and I was given a music box for each one. That started my love for them. I have a huge collection and love to find unusual songs and unique figurines. The two from when I was a flower girl are on my list of top five favorites, along with Mickey and Minnie driving in a convertible with the song "Close to You" playing and the Victorian mother holding her infant that plays a classical song.
The San Francisco Music Box Company is an AWESOME store. If they don't have any near you, they do have a catalog. --Ok, no they don't. They used to. I just tried to order a catalog and apparently they stopped making them. But they are online. It's SFMusicBox.com and you can browse their inventory there. I'd imagine they'd have it so you could sammple the song selection with the music boxes, too, but I was looking for a specific music box so I didn't see if I could listen to the songs.
How about a music box collection, starting with unbreakable kids' ones and moving on to more intricate ones as she grows?
What came to mind is a Christmas village. You know how some people set up on a side board or bay window, you gat little houses like a church, a school, a shop, and trees,a nd little people, you can set up a skating pond, you put it on a cloth that looks like snow, lot of them light up... You could give her an addition to the set every year and as she gets older she would enjoy setting it up with you every year.
i started with my little girl a scrap book..granted at the time she was not able to do much with it..but as each year came and went she was able to pic out the pictures she wanted in the book and the paper used for the back ground or detailing..as she got a little older we got her a camera of her own to be able to take pictures with and then printed them and got her more involved in the scrap book..she was even able to do one for school...we had the seperate book for christmas..and one for the school year and the activities that were done during the school year..she has so much fun with it..hope this idea helps..my girl i 7 now and is loving picture taking and the books...rosie
Christmas tree ornaments are nice. A friend of my mom has been giving my kids the nice Lenox ones for babies' first, second Christmas. But I also have a collection of different unbreakable ornaments that I got as a child that I still love today.
American girl dolls are a wonderful collection to start!
Please check them out.
We did teddy bears for our daughter, we would also get teddy bears from other countries for her. The big problem with that and I think you will have the same problem with American Girl dolls is that they take up a lot of room. I have saved them and I thought that since my daughter is now 29, has her own home and is expecting her first baby she might want all of the stuff I saved, well she didn't. She said that she didn't want all that stuff in her house because it was either going to take up space in her attic or collect dust sitting out. She took like 3 bears and I got rid of the rest.
We also bought her Barbie dolls, the expensive ones that you save, and she took those with her, I think she has them put away in her attic. So I guess I would keep it small whatever you decide on. Good luck!
When my daughter (now age 14) had her first Christmas, my FIL got her the Precious Moments train for under the tree, it was pink and pretty. I have no idea whether they still make this anymore but there are girl things like that.
How about the wooden nutcrackers. You can have them out to display every year and add to the collection. Just take a nice metallic paint pen marker and write the year on the bottom of each one. Then when your baby girl leaves the house she has a huge jump start on her house holiday decorations which you can continue into her adulthood.
Wow! Some great ideas here! Mine was Christmas ornaments. A friend of the family made me a set every year. Felt and seiqunes....the Wizard of Oz, Snow White/7 dwarfs, ect...I treasure them now that I am adult. I do it for my kids as well as my nieces/nephews. My mom does a Dept 56 village for my girls. Each girl gets one every other year (since I have two girls.) They love it, and will each have some to take with them when the are grown. I also get my littlest a musical snow globe for special occasions. She loves them. I would def. go with something more sentimental than stuffed animals or dolls. Something she won't out grow!
Cabbage Patch kids or Beanie Babies are good fro a girl. If you can afford it the American Girl dolls are great, but EXPENSIVE.
