Baby's First Christmas: 4 Gifts That Still Get Used in March
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A baby’s first Christmas gets a lot of cute, useless stuff. Ornaments. Tiny outfits they’ll outgrow in a month. A “Baby’s First Christmas” photo frame that sits in a drawer by February.
This list skips all of that. Every item here is something a baby actually uses, not something a parent just displays. No prices, just what the thing does and who it’s for.
The Picks
- Fisher-Price Deluxe Kick & Play Piano Gym: best for a newborn who still spends most of the day on a mat.
- Manhattan Toy Winkel: best for a baby who’s starting to teethe and needs something to gnaw on.
- The First Years Stack & Count Cups: best for a slightly older baby who’s sitting up and grabbing everything.
- Angelcare Soft-Touch Baby Bath Support: best for the parent, honestly. It frees up a hand during bath time.
Fisher-Price Deluxe Kick & Play Piano Gym
This one grows with the baby instead of getting outgrown in a week. It’s a soft, machine-washable playmat with a repositionable toy arch overhead, plus a removable piano that detaches and travels with you.
The piano has light-up keys, so even a baby who can’t grab yet can kick it and get a reaction. Fisher-Price built in 4 ways to play, from flat on the back to sitting up, so the same gym works from birth through 36 months.
That age range is the whole point of this gift. A newborn uses it lying down in December. By spring, the same baby is sitting up and banging on the detached piano like a toy on its own.
Manhattan Toy Winkel
This is a rattle and teether, not a toy that needs batteries or instructions. It’s made of soft polyurethane tubing twisted into loops, easy for small hands to grip from any angle.
It’s free of BPA and PVC, and it meets CPSC phthalate requirements, which matters since this thing lives in a baby’s mouth. You can also chill it in the fridge, which helps when teething actually kicks in.
A lot of babies aren’t teething hard at Christmas but absolutely are by March. This gift’s usefulness goes up over time instead of down.
The First Years Stack & Count Cups
These are stacking cups, but they pull double duty. The set comes with 8 cups numbered 1 to 8, and each one has a different cut-out pattern on the bottom, so they work as bath toys too.
They’re dishwasher safe, which matters because cups a baby mouths and drools on need to get properly clean, not just rinsed. They’re rated for ages 6 months and up, so a baby opening this gift in December may need a couple more months before stacking clicks, but that’s fine. These cups keep getting used at bath time and on the floor for years after a baby first starts playing with them.
Angelcare Soft-Touch Baby Bath Support
This is the one gift on this list that’s really for the parent, and grandparents shopping for a new parent should take note. It frees up a hand that would otherwise be stuck holding the baby upright during every single bath.
That’s it, that’s the whole pitch: one less thing requiring two hands when you only have two hands and a wet, squirmy baby. For more on why this matters and how to pick the right one, see The Budget Bath Seat That Actually Frees Up a Hand During Solo Baths.
If There’s an Older Sibling Too
Grandparents buying for the baby are often also buying for a toddler sibling at the same time. If that’s you, skip more plastic toys for the older one and check out 8 Toddler Gifts That Aren’t Toys for ideas that actually get used.
