It can be hard for a child to have a birthday during the holiday season. The focus is on everything going on at this time of year, so birthdays can easily take a backseat. As an adult that’s not a lot of fun, but for children, it’s especially tough. So if you’re expecting a baby in December or even early January, or have a wee one with a birthdate then, start now to separate their special day from the holidays.
Here are a few things to keep in mind for holiday born babies and kids:
If a baby shower is on the horizon, pick a non-holiday theme. Even if you stick with a red, green, silver, or gold color scheme, keep the theme itself on the baby or a non-seasonal character, style, animal, etc.
If you’re attending a baby shower or first birthday party, make sure the present isn’t holiday related. Personalized baby gifts are ideal picks no matter the time of year and keep the focus on the child, so you can’t go wrong. (ONE/TWO: Sweet Fox and Firetruck Fun personalized onesies; THREE/FOUR: Birthday Girl and Happy to Be 1st Birthday Shirts)
Always wrap gifts in birthday wrapping paper or bags, not holiday themed paper. It may seem so much easier to use the same paper you’re already using to wrap Christmas presents, but trust us, it does make a difference to the recipient eventually, so start the trend now to only use birthday wrap for birthday presents.
Same goes for birthday cards. It’s a wee one’s special day, so take the time to acknowledge it as such and not just lump it in with another holiday.
These tips are coming from the personal experience of someone with a holiday birthday, so hopefully they’ll come in handy and help make those with December/January birthdays always feel as special on their day as they deserve.
P.S. Don’t forget, through Sunday, Dec 15, get free standard shipping on personalized growth charts, 1st birthday shirts, big sister shirts, and big brother shirts. Just use code FREESHIP for any order of personalized baby gifts.
5 Playful Gift Sets for Boys
Creating custom gift sets is so thoughtful, and that’s what great gift giving is all about – the thought! To help inspire you, we’ve created five playful gift sets featuring big brother shirts. And stay tuned, we’ll have a separate post with big sister shirts as well.
ONE: Kids Play Big Brother T shirt and a Radio Flyer Wagon
TWO: Dig In Big Brother T shirt and a Tonka truck
THREE: Skyline Big Brother T shirt and a set of building blocks, Legos or Lincoln Logs
FOUR: Double Trouble Big Brother T shirt and the classic Trouble board game makes a great group gift for siblings.
FIVE: Stamped Style Big Brother T shirt and an ink stamp set for hours of indoor play.
Three Ways We’re Green
As professional designers, we love making the cutest personalized baby gifts we can, but as parents we’re also concerned with creating a safer, cleaner world for our kids. We’re always striving to make our products and our business practices as green as possible.
Here are three ways in which we focus on being environmentally friendly:
Traditional inks are petroleum-based, while the ink we use is a water-based solvent, making it gentler on the environment. Water-based inks also create a safer work environment for our printing company and their employees, who do not need to use harsh chemicals to clean their presses, like other companies who use petroleum-based inks do.
Not only does digital printing allow for a richer, deeper color, it allows the ink to become part of the fabric as opposed to iron-ons or silk screened images which can flake and come off over time, causing potential issues if children eat or suck on any loose pieces.
Not only are our personalized onesies and tshirts incredibly soft, they are made of 100% untreated cotton to be gentler on skin, especially important for those wee ones with sensitive skin or eczema. Many growth charts are made with treated canvas or plastic, but our personalized growth charts are made with 100% cotton canvas, with no solvents or chemicals added so they do not emit any potential toxins.
Décor Inspiration: Peacocks
Whimsical or sophisticated, peacocks make a pretty choice for a nursery. And whether you feature the bird itself and/or its feathers, there are a range of deep purples, greens, and blues to choose from to decorate with.
We’ve rounded up some peacock inspired nursery décor you will be proud to decorate with.
Wall art, like a personalized growth chart or alphabet poster, is an easy way to incorporate the pretty bird into décor. (ONE: Animal Crackers and TWO: My City personalized growth charts; THREE: Zoo Friends alphabet poster)
Hang this 3 Sprouts Peacock Mobile over a crib for a touch of whimsy. (Walmart)
Soft and sweet, this Peacock Blue Blanket adds comfort and style to a crib or thrown over a rocking chair. (Amazon)
Colorful and chic, this Peacock Table Lamp can tie together multiple hues in a baby’s room. (Wayfair)
The gorgeous bird’s feathers are the highlight of this Peacock Throw Pillow which makes a stylish statement in a nursery. (Paper Mache Dream)
Would you consider a peacock themed nursery? How would you incorporate the bird, through a personalized growth chart, bedding, lighting, etc?
Free US Standard Shipping All Week!
At this time of the year there are so many things to think about – parties, gift giving, etc – so we thought we would make one thing a bit easier on you. From Dec 9-15, we’re offering free standard shipping throughout the US on all orders of personalized growth charts, 1st birthday shirts, big brother shirts, big sister shirts, and personalized onesies.
So if you have personalized baby gifts on your holiday shopping list, now is the time to take advantage of the free shipping. Just use code FREESHIP now until Sunday, December 15 and start checking those personalized baby gifts off your list!
Our Favorite Christmas Gifts: Part 1
There’s nothing like the joy of watching wee ones open up their presents, whether it’s on Christmas morning or on one of the eight nights of Hanukkah. It’s something we all look forward to, how about you?
If you’re looking for some holiday gift giving inspiration for your kiddos, as creators of personalized baby gifts, big brother shirts and big sister shirts, we know a thing or two about thoughtful gifts. We polled some of our team members and asked them what their favorite big brother shirts and big sister shirts are and they gave us some personal insight into the designs they chose.
HILLARY, art director, heads up most of the design inspiration for our line of personalized baby gifts, so it’s tough for her to pick which big brother shirts and big sister shirts are her favorite. She has a two year old, Lily, who became a big sister earlier this year and when they announced the pregnancy Lily wore the Color It Up Big Sister Tshirt, so of course that design has a lot of meaning to her. And now that she has two girls, she’s especially fond of the Over the Rainbow Big Sister Tshirt, which she plans to give to Lily along with the coordinating onesie to new baby June.
RUTH, operations manager, is all about SPORTS!! She’s even a referee, so of course her fave big brother t shirt design is the Batter Up Big Brother T shirt.
LEON, web developer, and his son, Zeke, LOVE superheroes – actually their whole family does. So of course his big brother t shirt design of choice is the Super Big Brother T shirt.
CATHERINE, production director, is a major traveler who lived in the United Kingdom last spring and summer and most recently spent the last several months living in Brooklyn. Her love of travel means she can’t help but gravitate towards the Around the World Big Brother T shirt and Big Sister Tshirt.
If you’re looking for personalized baby gifts, we hope the big brother shirts and big sister shirts some of our team picked will help inspire you. We’ll offer some additional ideas for personalized baby gifts from more of our staff next week.
Décor Trend: Washi Tape
If you’ve spent any time on Pinterest , you know that washi tape is all the rage. This Japanese decorative tape can be used in so many decorative ways, so of course we thought we would experiment with it and find some new and interesting ways to hang our personalized growth charts. And of course, we just had to share our findings with you!
(We’ve found some darling and affordable washi tapes on Etsy!)
Here are a few ideas and tips on how to hang your child’s personalized growth chart with washi tape.
ONE: For a quick and easy way to add an extra pop of color and pattern, simply place the washi tape of your choice at a diagonal across each corner of the growth chart (and try 2 washi tape patterns for more fun!). Because washi tape is very light, this style works best on our signature paper personalized growth charts, as opposed to the heavier canvas option.
TWO: Create a frame around the entire growth chart. This will work to hold both paper and canvas growth charts in place and will look especially cute using patterned washi tape with solid colored styles, like the Preppy Pennant or Perfect Pennant personalized growth charts.
THREE: Run washi tape across the bottom of a growth chart so it extends a few inches on each side, then run the tape across the top too. Next, make a triangle pattern on the top so it looks like a roof or that the growth chart is being hung from a hanger.
Have you used washi tape to hang a personalized growth chart? If so, we would love to hear how you did it and if you could share photos, even better!
Designer tip — washi tape is fairly thin so our trick to holding up our growth charts (either canvas OR paper) is gaffers tape! It’s the like magic. This tape has the strength to hold up pretty heavy stuff, but its not permanent AND it doesn’t leave a sticky residue like duct tape or other tapes. Also, it doesn’t damage paper so you can peel it off of your paper growth chart pretty easily and not ruin it. MAGIC right?! Down side, it’s not cheap but go ahead and buy a roll and you’ll use it all over your house to put up posters, art, decorations, etc! We buy ours on Amazon and usually buy white — but its comes in black, gray and sometimes other colors. Here is a link to a $13 roll in white.
Sweet Sugar-Free Personalized Baby Gifts
Candy canes, peppermint bark, gingerbread houses, and sugar cookies in festive shapes – there are so many tempting sweet treats during the holidays. But if you want to give your little ones some super sweet presents without all the sugar, we’ve got some personalized baby gifts that are sure to delight.
A personalized growth chart featuring scoops of ice cream makes a sweet addition to any nursery and will growth along with wee ones. (ONE: We All Scream, TWO:Doodle It Up, THREE: My City, and FOUR: My Town personalized growth charts)
Personalized onesies, as well as little and big sister shirts that feature candy canes, lollipops, and hard candies let kiddos wear their favorite sugary indulgences instead of eating them. (ONE/TWO: Sweet Treats Little and Big Sister Tshirt; THREE: Candy Cane Wishes and FOUR: Naughty But Nice personalized onesies)
December birthdays often get mixed in with holidays, but personalized 1st birthday shirts featuring cakes or cupcakes puts the emphasis on their own special day in a very sweet way. (Shown: Cake Time, My First Birthday, and Birthday Boy and Girl 1st Birthday Shirts)
Are these sugar-free personalized baby gifts sweet or what?!
Marvelous Things to Make by Muffin Freebie: Paper Cone Animals
Holiday weekends are usually filled with lots of events, but on weekdays when the kids are home from school in the afternoon or once holiday break begins, it can be tough to keep them entertained. We’re here to help though! We occasionally take a break from designing the best personalized baby gifts, big sister shirts, big brother shirts, 1st birthday shirts, and personalized onesies, to create fun freebies for parents and kiddos, like these adorable woodland paper cone animals that you can download here.
Download our Woodland Papercone Animals here.
After you download, print and assemble, here are a few fun ideas of how to use them:
- Place them on the Christmas tree to add to your ornaments, lights, etc.
- Place small ball ornaments, acorns, or pinecones on their heads to make festive décor for the mantel, tabletop, etc.
- Let the kids play with them like finger puppets or paper dolls.
- Fill them with small bags of candy or tiny treats.
Let us know how you plan to use these free downloadable cone animals, we’d love to hear!
Thankful Thursday
Happy Thanksgiving! As much as we love designing the cutest personalized baby gifts, including 1st birthday shirts, personalized onesies, alphabet posters, personalized growth charts, big brother shirts, and big sister shirts, we’re taking the day off to spend with our families.
We’re so thankful for you, our readers and customers, and we hope you are having a festive day with family, friends, and fabulous food!
P.S. If you’re planning to do some early holiday shopping and don’t want to face the dreaded Black Friday crowds, stay in your jammies, grab a mug of coffee or hot cocoa (with whipped cream of course!), and shop our 15% off holiday sale on personalized baby gifts. Through 12/1, use code Merry15 to save 15% off all 1st birthday shirts, personalized onesies, alphabet posters, personalized growth charts, big brother shirts, and big sister shirts.
Online holiday shopping and a sale? Another thing to be thankful for!
