Gift Guide: First Christmas

The best part of a First Christmas? Making your baby wear every ridiculous Christmas props you can find.

There’s nothing quite as special as the very first Christmas shared with a little one. It’s one of the best things about having children – getting to relive everything again, for the first time. Meeting Santa, carols, seeing the lights – chaos of the holiday season aside, it’s a magical time.

In our house we try to plan our gifts around “Something you want, something you need, something to wear and something to read”. I say try, as despite my best intentions, I find twenty five books that we really should have, so the present pile ends up with something more like “Something you want, something you need, something to wear, some playdough that will destroy the carpet and a library to read”. 

For Bea’s first Christmas, board books and lift the flaps were an absolute hit. We stocked up on That’s Not My….(reindeer, Santa, snowman, truck, baby) as well as the Spot series.

My suggestion though, to really mark the occasion, is to start a tradition of collecting classic books to keep and share together as they grow. Here are a couple of our favourites:

1. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, by JK Rowling, illustrated by Jim Kay

Ok sure, these books aren’t exactly appropriate for a baby. I wouldn’t start reading them until the kids are seven or eight. But this illustrated edition is the most exquisite thing you’ll see and, with one released each year for the next five years (the second in the series, Chamber of Secrets, was released in October 2016), you’ll have the entire collection by the time the baby is seven and ready to start reading. Ta-Da!

I tried to stop her, but her love for Harry knows no bounds.

Truly, these illustrated version are beautiful. This image of Harry so perfectly captured how I had always imagined him (those sad eyes) and Hogwarts is every bit as breathtaking as you dreamed. Trust me on this. Start the collection.

2. Winnie-the-Pooh Collected Stories, by A.A Milne

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The Bea went through a phase when she was about one, where she would not settle down to sleep on her own. It was the worst. But, I discovered that if I read something long, and in a monotone, she’d quickly settle without the requisite three hours of patting. As Liane Moriarty had me laughing too loudly for her to sleep and The Goldfinch depressed us both, I picked up the collected stories of Winnie and immediately fell back in love.

Oh this silly old bear. It’s impossible not to giggle at his attempts to steal honey and, after our usual Christmas feasts, I totally relate to the trauma of being too fat to fit out of the doorway. The stories are poignant and my heart aches over the sweet conversations between Pooh and his friends, especially the last bitter-sweet goodbye with Christopher Robin.

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 We have these ones, as they're easy to hold and read, but there are some beautiful large editions out there.

3.Custom portrait, by Welly's Wonders

I guess you could say she was happy?

Sooo...this isn't technically a book. But these custom portraits are hand drawn by one of our very favourite illustrators so, just this once, we'll make an exception. 

Have you heard of Welly's Wonders? Created by an amazing husband and wife team, Adam Murphy and Demelza Haines, Welly's Wonders create beautiful children's stories about love, kindness, friendship and adventure. There are two stories currently available - Jenkins the Hare and Morgan the Magnificent (both would be sweet additions to the Christmas stocking - find them here).

When Adam isn't illustrating Demelza's writing, he's hard at work as an artist and lead animator on some of our favourite Disney and Lucasfilm movies (he's just completed work on the new Batman Lego movie) and   has now started doing custom portraits!

I adore our portrait of Bea (she was pretty thrilled herself) - the talent and heart that goes into each drawing is incredible and would make a beautiful keepsake for a little one's first Christmas. 

Get in quick - the Christmas cut off is 2 December.

Wishing all of the tiny ones out there a very Happy First Christmas!

The Book and the Bea x

A small note: I've included links to each of the books for those of us needing to shop online - however if you can, I really encourage you to shop local and get into your local independent bookstore! All of the books in our gift guides are available in person from your friendly neighbourhood bookseller.