Christmas Gifts for Baby's First Christmas: Keepsakes and Cozy Basics
By the Giftruly editorsUpdated 22 hand-picked ideas
A baby's first Christmas is mostly for everyone else. The baby will nap through part of it, stare at the tree lights with total concentration and try to eat a corner of the wrapping paper. The adults, meanwhile, will take three hundred photos and talk about the day for years. Good gifts honor both: a little something the baby can grab, and something the family will be glad to have twenty Christmases from now.
How old the baby is matters more than at any other age. A baby born in November and a baby about to turn one are having completely different Christmases, so this guide is built around that. We start with first-Christmas keepsakes, then a short note on age and safety, then gifts for a brand-new baby (which really help the parents), toys for an older baby who's crawling toward the tree, December clothes, a sensibly filled first stocking, and ideas for grandparents and godparents who live far away.
For the rest of the year, see our main gifts for baby guide, or baby shower gifts if the baby hasn't arrived yet. Buying for a one- to three-year-old? Christmas gifts for toddlers is the next page along. And don't forget the new parents themselves: Christmas gifts for mom and Christmas gifts for dad have ideas for them.
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Quick picks for a first Christmas
Keepsakes for a first Christmas
These are the gifts that outlast babyhood. They're less about this Christmas morning and more about the twentieth one, when a grown child unpacks the decorations and finds an ornament with their own name on it and a date they can't possibly remember.
Personalized pieces can take a week or two to make and ship in December, so order these first.
- 1
Baby's First Christmas Ornament
~$16
The classic first-Christmas gift, and the one most likely to be treasured. Choose one with room for the baby's name and the year, or a little frame for a photo from this December. A shatterproof ornament is the sensible pick for a house with a crawler; glass ones belong on the high branches for a few years. Some families add a new ornament every Christmas after, so the child grows up with a box of their own.
- 2
Personalized Baby Christmas Stocking
~$25
A stocking with the baby's name on the cuff, ready to hang on the mantel for the next eighteen years. It's a keepsake with a job to do, since the family needs a stocking for the new arrival anyway. Check the spelling with the parents, and ask whether the family's stockings follow a style so the new one fits in. Once the baby starts pulling up on furniture, it should hang well out of reach.
- 3
Baby Handprint and Footprint Kit
~$25
Tiny prints taken in December and framed with the date become a record of exactly how small they were that first Christmas. The clean-touch ink means there's no paint to scrub off a wriggling baby afterward. It's a two-adult job: one holds, one presses. Give it a week or two early if the parents would like the prints framed and on display for the holiday itself.
Newborn or nearly one? It changes everything
A baby born in October or November is still in the newborn haze at Christmas. They don't need toys; they need to sleep, eat and be held, and their parents need anything that makes the nights easier. Clothes in a bigger size, help with sleep and a single first book are the most welcome gifts. A baby of around six months is starting to grab, mouth and sit up, and can enjoy a soft toy or a crinkle book. By ten or eleven months, many babies are crawling or cruising along the furniture, tugging at the tree skirt, and ready for a push toy.
Whatever the age, a few safety rules apply at Christmas. Babies explore with their mouths, so skip anything with small parts, button batteries or loose magnets, and remember that holiday decorations count too: glass ornaments, tinsel, ornament hooks and light-up decorations that run on coin batteries all belong out of reach. Don't add loose blankets, pillows or plush toys to the crib, however festive they look. And when you buy clothes, size up. A baby who fits 0–3 months in November may well be in the next size by the time the gift is opened.
If the baby arrived this fall
A newborn's first Christmas lands in the hardest weeks of parenting: broken sleep, constant feeds and a steady stream of visitors. Gifts for this baby are really gifts for the people looking after them, so think practical and quiet.
- 4
Soft Activity Play Gym
~$60
A padded mat with an arch of dangling toys, used from the early weeks for tummy time and, by three or four months, for lying back and batting at the toys. It gives parents a few hands-free minutes to drink a hot coffee on Christmas morning. It's a popular baby shower gift, so check the family doesn't already have one.
- 5
Hatch Baby Sound Machine and Night Light
~$70
A sound machine and soft night light controlled from a phone, so a parent can adjust it without tiptoeing into the nursery. It suits parents who are counting every hour of sleep, and later it works as a time-to-rise light for a toddler learning when morning starts. It costs more than a basic sound machine, which makes it a good one for a grandparent or a group gift.
- 6
Electric Baby Nail Trimmer
~$20
Newborn nails grow fast and scratch faces, and clipping them is a job plenty of new parents dread. A quiet electric file with soft pads makes it much less nerve-racking, and it can be done while the baby sleeps. It's an unglamorous gift, which is exactly why nobody else will think to give it.
- 7
High-Contrast Black and White Baby Book
~$10
Newborns see bold black-and-white shapes best, so this is a first book a baby can actually focus on in the weeks around Christmas. It's inexpensive, slips easily into a card, and makes a lovely first book to inscribe with the date and a line about the season.
For the older baby who'll go after the wrapping paper
Somewhere around nine months, Christmas gets interesting. The baby can sit up, rip paper with real skill and crawl straight for the tree. Toys at this age should be sturdy, simple and fine to chew, and the good ones stay in use well past the first birthday.
If the family is spending the holiday at a relative's house, a toy that keeps the baby busy on an unfamiliar floor is a gift to the parents as much as the child.
- Our favorite8
Wooden Baby Push Walker
~$50
Our pick for a baby who's pulling up on everything, the Christmas tree included. A wooden cart with a handle gives them something steady to push in the months around first steps, and blocks can ride along inside. Choose one with wheels that don't run away on hard floors, and remember it's a push toy, not a sit-in walker. For a baby younger than about eight months, it can wait in a closet for a while.
- 9
Wooden Rainbow Stacking Ring Toy
~$18
Bright wooden rings on a rounded post. At nine months they're for gumming and scattering across the rug; by eighteen months they're stacked in order. Inexpensive, quiet, and handsome enough to leave out next to the Christmas decorations.
- 10
Textured Sensory Ball Set for Babies
~$15
Soft, bumpy balls in different textures that small hands can grip properly. They roll slowly enough for a crawler to chase across the living room, which buys everyone else a few minutes to finish opening presents. Easy to wipe clean when they end up in a mouth, as they will.
- 11
Soft Cloth Crinkle Book
~$12
A fabric book with crinkly pages that babies grab, squeeze and chew. It's quiet enough for a church service or a long Christmas dinner, goes through the washing machine and costs very little. A good small gift to tuck alongside something bigger.
Dressed for December
Baby clothes are the easiest Christmas gift to get slightly wrong. Buy a size or two ahead, choose soft fabrics that snap open at the bottom, and remember that a festive outfit gets worn for about three weeks, while plain winter basics get used until spring.
- 12~$20
Baby's First Christmas Outfit
A festive bodysuit-and-pants set for the Christmas photos. It's worn for a day or two, so keep it inexpensive and buy a size up.
fun - 13~$28
Fleece Baby Bunting Snowsuit
A zip-up fleece suit for cold stroller walks. Bulky layers should come off before buckling a car seat; tuck a blanket over the straps instead.
practical - 14~$28
Wearable Blanket Sleep Sack
A wearable blanket for winter nights in place of loose bedding in the crib. Buy the next size up and ask which fabric weight the parents prefer.
practical - 15~$25
Organic Cotton Baby Bodysuit Set
Plain snap bodysuits, the layer under the Christmas outfit and under everything after it. A pack in the next size up never goes to waste.
practical
A first stocking, filled safely
A baby's first stocking is mostly for the photo, so it doesn't need much. Fill it with a few things that are fine to chew and useful afterward, and leave out chocolate and small trinkets, which aren't safe for a baby anyway.
16.Touch and Feel Christmas Board Book ~$9
A short board book with fuzzy, shiny and bumpy patches to touch on each page. Sized for a stocking and read all season long.
17.Silicone Baby Teether Toy ~$10
A one-piece silicone teether for sore gums. Many babies start teething around six months, so a spare is welcome by Christmas.
18.Waterproof Baby Bath Book Set ~$12
Soft vinyl books that float, squeak and get chewed at bath time. A cheap way to add a story to the evening routine.
19.Organic Cotton Burp Cloths Set ~$18
Strictly a gift for the parents, who never have enough of these. Soft cotton cloths for burping, spit-up and every other spill.
From grandparents and godparents far away
Not everyone can be in the room for a first Christmas. If you're shipping a gift across the country, choose something that carries your voice or your words into the house, or something that will still be around when the child is old enough to ask who sent it.
Ship by mid-December. Carriers are at their busiest in the final week before Christmas, and a late box disappoints the giver far more than the baby.
- 20
Recordable Christmas Storybook
~$30
A Christmas picture book that records you reading each page, then plays your voice back as the pages turn. Parents can read it at bedtime all through December, so the baby hears you even from a thousand miles away. Record somewhere quiet before you wrap it. Most of these run on small button batteries, so check that the cover is screwed shut and keep it as a book for reading together rather than a chew toy.
- 21
Baby Time Capsule Keepsake Box
~$35
A box with envelopes and prompt cards for letters and mementos, to be opened on a milestone birthday. Write the first letter this Christmas: what the world was like, how the family spent the day, what you hope for them. Ask the parents to add this year's Christmas card photo, and invite other relatives to tuck their own letters in over the year.
- 22
Plush Rocking Horse
~$75
A soft rocking horse with a low seat and handles is a gift a baby grows into rather than uses on the day. They're generally made for children of about a year and up, so read the label and think of it as a present for their second Christmas that happens to arrive early. A lovely thing to come from grandparents and be passed down to cousins later.
Shop this guide by price
Under $25
$25–$50
A few things new parents won't tell you
Ask how old the baby will be on December 25th, not when they were born. A couple of months makes a huge difference at this age.
Size up on clothes, and skip anything that has to be hand-washed or ironed.
One keepsake and one practical gift is a good balance. The keepsake is for the memory; the practical gift is for the parents' sanity.
Offer your time as well. A cooked meal, an hour of holding the baby while the parents nap, or a ride to the in-laws' house may be the most welcome present they get.
Not sure what suits this baby? Tell our gift finder the baby's age and a little about the family, and you'll get a short list of ideas.
First Christmas questions
What do you get a baby for their first Christmas?
A keepsake for the family, like a baby's first Christmas ornament, a personalized stocking or a handprint kit, plus one small thing the baby can enjoy: a crinkle book, a teether or a touch-and-feel board book. For an older baby, a push walker or stacking rings.
Should you buy a baby a Christmas present at all?
Some families say not to bother, since the baby won't remember. But the gift isn't really about the baby's memory. An ornament or a letter in a time capsule becomes part of how the family tells the story of that first year, so a modest, thoughtful gift is always welcome.
How much should I spend on a baby's first Christmas gift?
Somewhere between $15 and $40 covers most good options. Grandparents sometimes choose one larger gift, like a rocking horse or a sound machine, or put money toward something the parents need.
Are Christmas decorations safe around babies?
Not all of them. Glass ornaments, ornament hooks, tinsel and anything that runs on button batteries should be kept out of reach, and the tree should be stable or anchored once a baby can pull up. Many families hang only shatterproof ornaments on the lower branches for the first few years.