Baby’s first christmas

[ChequerboardCharlie]

I’m fostering a baby who will be 7 months at Christmas, and I normally look after teenagers. He is due to be adopted but it won’t be till around March, and I want to make a really special memory box for him so he knows he was loved, even if he was in care, when he is older. My own children are much older and I feel very out of date with what’s around these days!
I’d love a personalised letter from Father Christmas, and any other similar items. I’m going to get him a personalised Christmas Stocking - any recommendations or nice things for babies would be very welcome!
He is having a jumperoo for his main present and so far I have some wooden cars for his stocking.

What about a nice book? You could write a nice message in it?

For my daughter's first Christmas I got a few nice keepsakes, this for her nursery-

www.notonthehighstreet.com/modocreative/product/oak-engraved-moon-and-stars-wall-plaque

Bath toys because they always go down well and some hand held musical instruments.

A personalised toy box
Babies first xmas bauble
Key for Santa to come into the house
First hairbrush set
Personalised snow globe/ Xmas music box/musical ornament
Personalised blanket
Toys for the car/toy steering wheel
Push along pram trike
Dream catcher
Electric wooden trainer that he could take to go around the bottom of his Xmas tree every year

Electric wooden train not trainer

@ChequerboardCharlie

oh how lovely for him & you 🎅🏼 🌲 🎁

Thetes some gorgeous first Christmas stuff. Last year there were some gorgeous snuggly baby grows.

I'd get a 'First Christmas' bauble, a baby grow set, a teddy, small stocking & the usual toys. Take a LOAD of photos & afterwards make up a lovely 'First Christmas' album.

you're a ⭐️ there's no way I could hand them over!

A "my first christmas 2022" plush would be nice, we also got lovely embroidered banana style bibs with the "first christmas" and their name as well.

My 1st Years do a wide variety of personalised toys, clothes and teddies. The Advent train is particularly sweet. As baby will be 7 months you could put a little baby snack in each drawer?

My baby is 9 months old. He loves touchy feely books - like the 'That's not my...' range - there is a Christmas one called 'that's not my Santa'. A lot of the toys he prefers are the simple, inexpensive ones! A friend of ours gave us some baby toys to borrow (to rotate toys for her baby too) and his favourites from that were...
A recorder (he learnt to blow into it!)
Silicone toys that he could stretch and chew
A ball (he found it hilarious when I threw it into his lap😁)
Any toy that plays music

Both of my kids got the Harris’s teddy with their birth year embroidered on its foot.

I think you need smallish things that can fit inside a box, not toys that a child will want to play with. Personally I would steer clear of named items as it is possible ( unlikely by put possible) that the adoptive parents will call the baby by a different name, or a different version of their current name. I would suggest

a my first Christmas stocking
a cloth christmas bib
a tree decoration , maybe with 2022 on it
whatever Christmassy outfit you are planning to dress the baby in on Christmas Day
a Christmas card from you saying some of the things the child did on Christmas day, what time they woke up, what the weather was like, what they ate for their first Christmas dinner, what they played with, if you went out for a walk, who they saw on the day.
some photographs, include family Christmas tree, family pets, child opening presents, child wearing the clothes you are putting in the box, their lunch etc.