Presents for Ellington's First Christmas & Philosophies on Gifting
By popular demand, I am sharing what we are getting Ellington (11 months) for his first Christmas!
We have given a lot of thought to how we want to approach family gifting for the holidays and birthdays (for him, one month after Christmas) and we are still figuring out what will work best for our family. There are so many thoughtful posts out there on gifting philosophies like:
Amanda Watters' (of @mamawatters) beautiful post on the Want / Need / Wear / Read gifting philosophy
Alison Mazurek's (of @600sqftandababy) posts of alternatives to tangible gifts and how to talk to your family about minimal gifting
The Minimalist's essay on Five Steps Toward a More Meaningful Holiday to inspire thought on how you want to give and receive during the holiday season.
Erin Boyle's (of @readtealeaves) inspiring idea of creating an advent calendar of used and borrowed books
But as we land on what will work for our family in the long run, we kept a couple things in mind this year when choosing gifts and suggesting gift ideas to our family:
We have a small home, and minimal storage space for single-use toys or toys that are quickly outgrown.
We want to fill the space we do have with toys that inspire imagination.
As much as we can, we want to purchase non-toxic, sustainable and eco-friendly toys and support small, local shops.
Ellington is developing rapidly and we will buy him toys as the year goes on, so it isn't very important to concentrate gifting on any particular day (especially given his young age)
Now, for the gifts! Here is what we put on Ellington's wish list:
This post contains affiliate links. Gheeful may earn a small commission, at no extra cost to readers, on items that have been purchased through those links.
Play Kitchen Food & Accessories: I plan to buy him a play kitchen for his first birthday, so I asked for play food and accessories to go along with that. I sent some suggestions (like this Mini Bamboo Utensil Set and the various options at Pottery Barn), but generally asked for felt and wooden accessories.
Block Sets, including this one we purchased and as seen in the photo above, and this one my parents purchased.
This basket (more for his birthday/when he is walking, but he already loves collecting toys and putting them in his wooden walker, so I think he will like this!)
A classic Rainbow Stacker
Any of the Alain Gree books
Along with this list, I sent our family Ellington's current clothing sizes and what he has too much of (sweaters!) and what he could use more of (shoes and pants!). I am hoping that will keep his closet under control!
As you can see, the list is small. His gifts from us as parents will be just the blocks and maybe a book, and the play kitchen for his birthday. We know as the first grandchild on both sides, his grandparents will go overboard despite our requests, so we kept our gifting extra minimal this year.
