Unusual Baby Gifts — in search of the unknown

There must be something in the air, or perhaps it’s just the time of life, but a whole new rash of friends are starting families and I find myself trying to find unusual baby gifts. And being childless and middle aged I don’t have a clue. It’s a long time since I bought a present for a baby. My nephews and nieces are all in their twenties now. Come to think of it, soon I’ll be looking for presents for their babies!

So where to start? If it’s a boy do you get a train-set with Dad in mind, or should that be an Xbox? Hardly. But Christening mugs and silver napkins don’t really fit the bill these days either.

Trying to think of the child, not the parents, wouldn’t it be great to find something which lived on in memory for their entire life? Or lived on as part of their real life — I’m thinking of Grayson Perry’s Teddy Bear, Alan Measles here. As this article on Grayson Perry from the Daily Telegraph explains Alan Measles has been there right from the start:

“What would you never throw away? My teddy bear Alan Measles, which I was given for my first Christmas. He was always hugely emotionally important to me, and ruled over the imaginary land that I made up. It’s amazing that he came through all the turbulence of my teenage years and beyond. He must have gone through all those flats and squats and somehow managed to stay intact, still in the jumpsuit that my Auntie Mary knitted for him. I made his throne in 2000 when I recognised his majesty. I’m making quite a lot of work about him at the moment: I’ve made a shrine to him and now I’m making a statue.”

I think I’m getting carried away here. Trying to ensure immortality by proxy through someone else’s childhood memories… No, I need to find something else. But when wandering into the mysterious world of shopping for presents for children as yet unknown, where do I start? Where do I go to look for something truly original? Where do I find unusual baby gifts? Online?