Celebrating Your Grandchild's First Birthday
Is your grandchild’s first birthday coming up? This momentous occasion calls for celebration! But what exactly is a grandparent’s role in their grandchild's 1st birthday celebration? What’s the best gift for a one-year-old? How do you mark this special day? We’ve got some great tips for your grandchild's 1st birthday celebration!
First, make sure you understand how parents want to celebrate. Some parents want a large, lavish party with every detail carefully curated. Others just want a family lunch with a homemade cake. No matter where on the spectrum your grandchild’s parents fall, ask if and how you can help. It’s important that you don’t try to alter their plans by suggesting additional guests, asking them to work around your schedule, or trying to add to the menu. You got to plan birthdays for your own children, now you just get to sit back and let someone else make all the arrangements. Unless, of course, they ask you to help!
Since you won’t be in charge of throwing a party, you can spend your time and money elsewhere. For many grandparents, this means they concentrate their efforts on gifts for their grandchild's 1st birthday! The truth of the matter is that babies don’t care whether you got them something amazing. They don’t need a lot of fancy toys and equipment, and they won’t remember what you got them at all. This is why our suggestions for gifts for babies contains so many non-toy options. You can see all our ideas here. The only toys we recommend for babies and toddlers are the developmental toys from Lovevery.
One of the recommendations we make in our gift guide for babies is especially fitting for a first birthday: hire a photographer. Whether or not you will be there in person, hiring a professional photographer to record the day will capture memories that everyone will treasure. If you can find a photographer that specializes in documentary photography, even better. If that sound like it’s beyond your budget, ask around: There is likely a high school student in your neighborhood who’d be happy to help out for a nominal fee (or even just for cake and ice cream).
Once you’ve got pictures from the day, whether they are professional or not, creating a photo book is a lovely gift. Use a service like Pinhole Press, and get copies for parents, other grandparents, and one for your grandchild themselves. Too often photos from special occasions languish on our phone, never to be seen again. A photo book is a beautiful way to preserve a special day and revisit the memories in years to come. Read our review of Pinhole Press here.
Another way to mark the occasion is to write a special birthday letter to your grandchild. Share your feelings about the first year of their life, and write about any memories that stand out. Describe what they are like at this age, and tell them what you are looking forward to in the year ahead. This can become an annual tradition, one they are guaranteed to treasure as they get older.
There are other traditions you can start with your grandchild’s first birthday. Start a modern “hope chest”: Buy or make something they’ll need when they start their adult life, and give the whole collection when they fly the nest. One grandfather I know buys each of his grandchildren a commemorative silver dollar each year. He keeps them safely stored, waiting until they’re 18. They’ll have a little nest egg as they start their adult life, and know that he was thinking of them every year.
If you will be celebrating your grandchild’s birthday from afar, ask if you can join in via FaceTime when it’s time for cake. Some parents will set up a Zoom call so all the distant relatives can join in singing “Happy Birthday.” Make the call extra special by hanging a birthday banner behind you or wearing party hats. The baby won’t notice, but it will be more fun for you. After attending nearly a dozen virtual birthday parties, I’ll add one tip: have a treat for yourself to enjoy, too! Watching others digging into birthday cake can be depressing if you don’t have something yummy to eat at the same time.
No matter how large or small a birthday party, whether you can be there in person or miss it entirely, you can celebrate your grandchild’s first birthday by showing them that you love them and are thinking of them on this special day. That’s the best first birthday gift you can give.