First Christmas keepsake gift

[FairfaxAikman]

DS will be eight months at Christmas. We want to get him a special keepsake gift - the kind he will still have once he's grown up.
I think a tree bauble would be more something for us than him. Any suggestions?

Buy a new bauble for the tree every year and then give him them when he leaves home

Personalised stocking
Wooden or fabric advent calendar
Nativity set
The Night Before Christmas Book
Christmas Eve box
Mince pies for Santa plate and mug www.my1styears.com/mince-pies-for-santa-plate-mug.html

I made my son a stocking. If he doesn't treasure it forever I'll be disappointed! I found tutorials online. Also got him a personalised tree decoration and a Christmas Eve box. Personally I still have a toy I got for my first Christmas but it's the traditions I remember more than anything else. I hope you find something!

I bought this nativity advent stable a few years ago for my sons and also bought one last Xmas for my baby nephew.
It's lovely in real life and it's already become part of our family Christmas traditions. Last year DS was more excited about opening the drawer each day than opening his chocolate calendar!
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=lakeland+nativity&client=safari&hl=en-gb&prmd=smivn&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjkhN2MrrHdAhXiJcAKHV9HBswQAUIEygD&biw=320&bih=460#imgrc=CkATxObROO_LFpM:

A personalised stocking is a great idea. My boys like looking at their "baby's 1st Christmas" baubles and now they choose a new tree decoration each every year. When they move out they can take the decorations with them.

For DS1's first Christmas we bought a little potted Christmas tree the same height as him and planned to keep it in the garden in its pot and bring it indoors each Christmas but we forgot to water it and it died

C an I just say, I bloody hate our wooden advent calendar! It has little teeny wooden drawers and not only is it a massive pain to find anything small enough to go in them apart from chocolate, but I also realised when the DSs were small that they would probably empty all the drawers on 1st December if I filled them in one go so I started a stooopid tradition that Father Christmas sends an elf each night to leave something in the drawer and every year I spend many December nights waking up at 3am realising I've forgotten to do it and having to get out of bed and sort it. Bah humbug!

For Christmas this year I once again have decided to do a keepsake or trinket box for the kids. Last year I bought a keepsake box online and started filling it up with sentimental trinkets. Every year I hang stockings with pressies from their beds too. Last year they mainly got board books and toys. This year I plan on getting them some kid friendly art supplies too.

DS IS my Christmas keepsake. Got him at about 2am on Christmas morning 24 years ago. HIS Christmas keepsake is his third name - after one of the three wise men . My mum got him a bauble with "baby x's first Christmas". Oh mum, you twit, he was one. It was his second

Maybe it’s just the men I know but none of them are sentimental. I can’t see either of my ds’s wanting to take their collection of Christmas decorations away with them and anyway they’ll probably marry evil dil’s who will toss the lot out it doesn’t stop me collecting them in the meantime.

If you can stretch to it, get a limited edition bauble (like a Swarovski Star or similar) that will appreciate in value over time, or a little Steiff bear to sit under the tree.

When DD was about to turn 1 (she was born 26th Dec), I managed to get a Waterford Crystal ornament for the year she was born, so that was on the tree for her 1st Christmas. (Unfortuneately, while we still have it, the very tip for the ornament hanger is broken so it can't hang anymore).

I suspect your child won’t want to keep it.

We a bauble with DD’s handprint on for her first Christmas and every Christmas we let her choose a decoration for the tree.

I also got a nice hardback copy of "Twas the Night Before Christmas" for her 1st Christmas Eve, that is the bedtime story annually since (still - DD is almost 13!) and I hope will still be a keepsake in years to come.