I must like having "go to gifts" for set occasions. Actually I guess it is more accurate to say - I love having a great idea for a gift and then being able to fine tune it and give a variation of this gift each time this occasion arises.
I have mentioned my current favorite for weddings is a pitcher. They are very rarely given/thought of any more and I think much appreciated.
My "go to" for baby shower/new baby is swaddling blankets which I make out of flannel. Again, not likely to get duplicates and much needed for a baby.
Our favorite for confirmations is a (15") beaded cross. We love these. We do not make, we buy.
Our standard for high school graduation recently has been letters hand painted by middle. We have given lots of these. (If we are invited to baby shower, we give the blanket. If we are sending new baby gift to the same family, we do letters.)
I still do not have a set gift idea for First Communion. So if you have ideas, I would welcome them.
I now have a set gift for Baptisms - Church Quiet Bag. And I love it. Very original and not likely to be duplicates. I put a note (below) with it explaining to save for preschool years. Sometimes there are grandma/first grandchild baby showers and one of these bags would be a really, good idea.
I mentioned this quiet bag for church way back here, asking for ideas. I got great ones. Thank you. Which lead me to do a little web searching.
Remember, my goal was to only include church related things. And I tried for Catholic too.
Since I have been garage sale-ing, this has been especially fun.
This bag had a bit of an evolution, here is my thought process -
This (below) ended up being my inspiration piece. I did not buy it. Although one could, use it as it is, or add to it. It is a very reasonable price. The bag I bought is the next picture. My bag is bigger. And my bag being bigger lead to different bags.
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Love the illustration on this bag (below). Can't beat the price. I kept this one for myself. Very roomy. Too roomy in fact. Which lead to me buying the next bag(s) as my gift(s). In fact, I ordered three.
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These are lunch bags. I thought I was going to like the brown handled ones best. But these were made to roll the top edge over a couple times to secure the Velcro. This is just awkward. I ended up taking them apart, attaching the velcro at the bag's top edge, and moving the handle higher. Yes, a lot of messing around. I did it for the two brown handled bags I had already ordered, below. Not ordering any more of this style. It is the third picture (below) that I love.
 
I had also ordered this third bag, because I loved the picture. I did not think I would like the style of the bag, but I really did. Very good handle for little hands. There is velcro at the top to hold everything in the bag. The bag is actually very roomy. I ended up using this bag as my Baptism gift this past weekend. My RCIA sponsor's daughter had a baby over the summer. We (husband, middle, middle's boy, and I) went to the Baptism and then back to their house for an Open House.
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This is the first thing I put in my gift bag this weekend -
 I do not think any of my kids had these type of magnet sets, so it was a totally new to me idea from the comments on my original post. The tin box is 6" x 8 1/2" x 1" so it is a very nice size for a church bag. |
I also put this lacing set in my gift bag this weekend -
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| Ordered these lacing shapes (Noah's Ark theme, so still church related). This was in comments too, I think. And also in my inspiration bag. I think I was picturing heavy felt, for some reason, looking at the Amazon listing. It is very nice, durable, strong, firm plastic. Very easy to hold and lace. The aglets (or eiglets) are nice and long, for easy stringing. Really nice set. |
Other books sets I have ordered and now have on hand for Baptism Church Quiet Bags -
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These (below) are all board books. I found them at used book stores and garage sales. These are in my bag (that I am keeping, now you know why I kept the big bag).
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| These first two are most definitely Catholic. |
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| Second set of two clearly Catholic also. |
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| Patricia Pingry has some really excellent board books. These are not Catholic books (per se) but I really like what she does. |
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| These two are also not Catholic. Youngest went through them at the bookstore and said that there was nothing in them that was confusing, and we loved some of the pictures. So we were very pleased to add them to our little collection. |
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| These are just sort of universal themes. And they 'go' with my Noah's Ark magnet set. |
I can see having several sets of themed stuff which is switched out regularly to keep the bag fresh and interesting. I would not load my bag with all of these things at the same time, but mix them regularly.
I have my eye on these last three magnet sets (below). I think they would be great additions. I am making note of them here. BUT I think they are too big to fit in the lunch size bags. They would have to go in the big bag. -
To give you an idea of the (larger) proportion of the bag I kept for myself -
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| These are the items I included in the Baptism gift this weekend, I just put them in the smaller lunch bag with the exact same picture. And there was plenty of room in that bag for a lot more things. |
And two more items (below) I noticed. Not for my Church Bags, but as good gift ideas for small children for religious events.
