Baby's First Gift

If you have any new little ones in your family this year, consider this idea for baby's first Christmas gift: Purchase a basket or bin and fill it with some of your favorite children's books to get baby's library off to a great start.


You can buy pre-made book gift baskets online, but they are uber expensive. I hit upon this idea a few years ago and it has become one of my favorites for welcoming a new baby and one that is greatly appreciated by new parents. This is also an easy gift to plan ahead for. You've got a good 8 or 9 months to get things together right? Be on the lookout for book sales and you can put together a great gift for very little moolah. Some of my favorite places to pick up gift books are Scholastic's Book Club or warehouse sales, Target's dollar spot, and Kohl's. The Kohl's Cares For Kids program offers classic children's books in hardback for 5 bucks. Right now they are selling the Laura Numeroff series If You Give A Mouse A Cookie, If You Give A Pig A Party, If You Give a Cat A Cupcake...This is a great deal! I picked up the last few titles we didn't already own to add to our collection. You can also snag one of the stuffed animal characters to fill out your gift basket.

We also love to make homemade gifts around here. Here are links to some of our favorites:

We make a couple of these ice candles from Family Fun every year.

Spice and I have been making treasure soaps similar to these for her Little Flowers group. We put silk flowers inside.

I love these coasters! I'm making these for the kids' teachers. You would think with homeschooling we would not need teacher gifts, but that's not the case. There are church teachers, dance teachers, tennis coaches, co-op teachers... I think these make a beautiful gift without breaking the bank. One tip though that I learned the hard way: If you take on this project, use very thin coats of sealer. Don't even worry about covering the entire tile at once. Just spray a light mist, let dry and go back and hit spots you may have missed. I ruined 2 sets last night by getting the tile too saturated on the first spray. I was not a happy camper standing there watching all of my ink run together.

We Are That Family's special gift themed WFMW post has a ton of other ideas if you're just getting started on your Christmas list.