Christening

A christening is one of those rare events where it matters what you give. You can’t trot up with something fun at a birthday and have everyone forgive you if it’s not quite right. This gift is special. Often the first a child will receive. It might end up on display for years, or filed away in a box only to be returned to you when they’re old enough to appreciate the thought. There’s pressure to get it right and we don’t take that lightly. But here’s the problem. The stuff you immediately think of buying feels like old hat before you’ve even purchased it. Sets of silver spoons that no one will know what to do with. Photo frames too small for anyone’s albums. Keepsakes that look nice in the store but will be filed in a drawer for eternity. We’ve put a lot of effort into forgetting those. Instead thinking about what will last, what parents appreciate on behalf of their kids too young to express opinions of their own and what will still be here when the bear decides to throw away everything else we’ve bought them. Everything in our list below falls into the category of lasting and useful. Some are beautiful objects that deserve to be on display for years to come. Some are useful and your little guests’ parents will quietly thank you for years to come. A few fall into both categories and those were the ones we banged our head against a wall to find. We’ve also given some thought to customising gifts. Having a child’s name and the date engraved on something changes it. Stop being an object and becomes a memento of the day itself. It’s not for everything but when it works, it really elevates a gift and we’ve made sure you’ve got the option to personalise the majority of gifts below. Lastly we didn’t want to fill up the list with things we would forget we bought a year later. Christening gifts can have a bit of reputation for being forgettable and we’re sure it’s because people just don’t try hard enough. These are the gifts we’d pick if we were heading down to a font on a chilly Saturday morning dressed smartly and feeling the gravity of the occasion. If we wouldn’t give it to our loved ones, we didn’t include it here.