My husband wanted to start something for his first niece when she was born 6 years ago (before we had kids). We had just gotten married, and on our honeymoon we visited an antique shop in New Orleans - saw many old-time "pill boxes" and so picked one out, in sort of a baby design and figured we'd build on the collection as time went by, by incorporating her interests, which we have done. Now you can find pill boxes in many catalogs, but we still try to give her an antique when we can (they can be pricey). For his second niece we decided to give her coins. The first year we got a set (penny, nickel, dime, quarter and I think half-dollar) from the year she was born. Second year we did one from 100 years before she was born. The third year her grandpa turned 60, so we got one from his birth year. Last year we did some coins(not a full set) from the year MN became a state (150 years before). This year I think we're going to give her the full State quarter set that I've been collecting since it started 10 years ago and is now complete. So, obviously these gifts for the girls are not especially "girlie" . When our nephew came along, we didn't quite know what to do for him, but my husband started looking online, Ebay or something and noticed there was a lot of military memorabilia, so we started the boy on WWII artifacts, first year we gave a medal we found online and this year we are either going to give him a book of artwork done by some soldiers that were stationed in France during WWII, or an army jacket we got at an antique shop on a recent trip of ours. We are kind of enjoying the "hunt" for these gifts and find it a nice way to be thinking of these kids as we are on our travels. Oh, one more thing... for my oldest niece on my side, since I am her godmother I started giving her a Christmas ornament with her name on it every year. By the time she moves out, she'll have a nice collection of ornaments for her own tree. Good luck!
