Thanks, Dad! This box is LOVELY!
January 19th, 2006 | by mbhunter |Christmas with an 11-month-old baby.
You wrap up a great thingamajig for them. When it’s time to open the presents, you push the box toward them.
They look at it. Maybe plays with the bow a little bit. Looks at you.
You tear a little bit of the paper off of the box to get it started. Baby pulls off a little more. Looks at you.
Repeat a couple of times.
Eventually you open up the package the rest of the way, open up the box, say, “Oooooh! Isn’t this great??”
Meanwhile, baby is playing with the wrapping paper and having a grand old time.
Kristopher Kaiyala talks about this same occurrence in Post-Holiday Rant: Toy Trouble. “[T]he best and most appreciated gifts for kids are the simplest ones,” he says. Like boxes, subscription cards from magazines, building blocks made from milk carton bottoms and duct tape, and, of course, wrapping paper.
With a one year old you can almost get away with wrapping up empty boxes for Christmas. Assuming that you’re not depriving the child of developmental stimulation, that’s all that a baby really needs for his/her first Christmas. Usually there are lots of doting relatives that will shower the baby with cool stuff, so (s)he’ll probably get way too much stuff anyway.
Toys that are simple, and low-cost or free, are often as much fun as the $39.99 battery-guzzlers.
(Now where’s that coffee can? Time for Punkin’s drum lessons.)
