Do you buy your dc presents for 1st bday?

[Attila the Honey]

Only a month to go until dd is a year old.

I want to buy her presents, but I don't want to buy her stupid presents. Is there a way to give gifts without fostering consumerism? I need ideas.

We were really treated like royalty on our birthdays, we got to eat our favorite meals and everything was so special. I loved getting lots of pretty wrapped packages. I love giving people pretty wrapped packages. I don't want to buy dd toys that will be all but forgotten later on, though.

So far we have for her - 2 mini maracas and 10 knitted finger puppets from an ecuadorian vendor that was at the winefest; 2 wooden puzzles of birds (dh is a bird watcher).. and that's it. BUT, while we were at the children's museum yesterday she was mesmerized by the small community fish tank. We have a tank in storage, and I was thinking of getting it out and setting it up for her. Good idea? Bad? What do you think?

DH said we should just give her her very own 1/2 bushel of apples and let her take a bite out of every one. :LOL All day long we are shooing her away from our apples, she will literally take one bite of every single one if we let her!

So, tell me how you celebrated your dc's first birthday. I need some good ideas on how to make it feel like a fun and special day without breaking the bank and buying alot of junk. THANKS.

[cinnamonamon]

Sounds like you are all set! The fish tank is a great idea. We had a birthday party, with many of his & our friends around. On the invitation I wrote "mom says no gifts are necessary, I have lots of toys already!" but everyone except one person brought a gift and 3/4 of them were annoying electronic ones.

Perhaps if you were to have guests you could ask for no gifts or that any received will be donated. Oh, and from us Ian received: a wooden puzzle, a wooden ring stacker, and a wooden train. He plays with all of these things often (still). Simple things like balls, books, building blocks and vehicles are always good.

Have fun!


eta: the other thing we did to "make it special" was to make a seperate small cake for Ian to destroy -- he actually didn't eat much (thankfully! :LOL). It made for some cute pictures, though!

[weebitty2]

the fish tank is an AWESOME idea .. we just put one in dd's room, and when she wakes up at night she "talks" to the fishies until she dozes back off - they totally fascinate her!

We asked our family for no toys for her birthday, and surprisingly, they were VERY good about it. She's got a full winter's worth of clothes, and a set of wooden alphabet blocks my papa handmade for her. That was the extent of her birthday gifts, and it felt REALLY good.

We also made her a "special cake" aside from the big cake (a cupcake we frosted to look like a ladybug) for her to mash all over the place.

[kofduke]

Well, I got DS a new sling...can't really say if it was for him or me! I always encourage everyone else to get him books as well - we read so many books a day that a little variety is always nice!

[Melda]

My DD will be one on the 21st of October. We are doing a Ladybug themed bday (i know not very original) but anyway she will be getting these things....

I made her a quilt and a pillow that is embroidered with her name on it. I also did the same thing for my DS on his first bday.

We buoght her a Cabbage PAtch Kid (just because it had the name Teagan and i could not pass it up being that is her name)

A ladybug Chair

I will take her to get Speical Pics done in a beautiful dress i had handmade for her (with ladybugs on it) and we will also do a handprint in plaster on her bday ....

I am the most excited about the tradition i made of doing the quilts on the 1st bday. I will do that for any future children (although DH says we are done) and grandchildren down the road.

We tend to do more for 1st bdays than any other here just because it is their 1st ... we ordered a special cake from a bakery (not grcoery store type but wedding cake type) and bought all kinds of ladybug stuff for the party.

DS had an under the sea theme for his 1st bday and we did very similar things ...

[MidnightCafe]

We didn't get DD anything for her first birthday or her first Christmas, though we hosted a party for her first birthday. Does that count? She got so much from everybody else, and we'd been supplying her with things all year long. She was too little to care (still is to little to care *who* the gifts come from), and she doesn't know to expect gifts on her birthday until she sees them. Then she's really excited, of course.

[Korwynne]

we did a big party for the first birthday for both, with gifts.

I think a lot of people have problems with the "no gift" concept, they feel like they're doing something terrible by not bringing something.

I do have a couple thoughts, stolen from friends, for first birthday parties.. one of my friends did "great firsts" - had all sorts of stuff around that she'd printed out and hung up like "first man on the moon," "first cars" down to her little one's "first birthday" I thought it was a cute idea. She asked everyone to bring something, in lieu of a gift, that would be placed into a time capsule to be openned on her little one's 21st birthday. Another friend had a "library" party and asked everyone to bring a book. She had them read their book (in a quiet room) while she video taped and it's one of her little one's favorite things to watch... and she has a great collection of books as well.

We went the route of their nicknames.. Lindsey's nickname is ladybug, Josh's is duckie, so that was the theme of their first birthday parties, respectively.

[jazzpurr88]

My DS will be 1 in 10 days and we are having a BBQ for him at the local park. I bought him balls he loves to play with at Gymboree, two outfits, and 4 books. I am also looking for him a bean bag chair for him to climb on and dive into. When people have asked me what he wants or needs for his b-day I've said bathtub toys, winter clothes, and books.

I also cleaned out his toy box this morning and have boxed up his infant rattles, teethers and such and will be donating them this afternoon when Jake wakes up from his nap. I plan on doing this every 6 months.

As far as starting a tradition or carrying one on... Jake will have a smash cake, one year photographstaken, hand print in a stepping stone for the yard (made one when he was new born also), and I made a small scrap book of pictures of him over the year for people to look at and sign at his party.