Personalized Gifts For Babies And Children

Mamaw put the velvet box into my hands and she said, "This is for you." Her silver lioness mane of a head was back lit by sunshine through the kitchen window as she said, "I got one when I was your age."

Then at the table next to her, my father sipped his coffee and stared at me. He had driven me down to visit my grandmother for the afternoon. We went straight south and turned off the highway where the river rose higher than the road, and was blocked by the shoulder of the levee. Mamaw warmed some shrimp on the stove and brought out the gift box from some where in the house's deeper rooms.

She asked me, "You will be making the first communion soon, will you not?" As she settled herself down again at the table, her hot kitchen smelled like my father's pipe smoke and peppermints as she continued, "You will need that. It is from the cathedral. Inside the engraved box she handed me, which had my name on it, was a slender hoop of silver and black beads with a pewter crucifix hanging delicately off its end. At first, I thought it was a necklace and slipped it over my head.

"Mickey," my father said, "It is a rosary. It is not jewelry. Come on, now." Mamaw shook her head and counted out the beads, showing me how the decades were to be recited and in what order. Wholly Cajun and devoutly Roman Catholic, she was attempting to pass on a part of her heritage at a turning point in my upbringing. That I did not recognize the rosary as a religious icon must have embarrassed my father, making him wonder about the money he had spent sending me to Catholic school back home.

The gift was given to nudge me into my heritage, and to remind me that I was Catholic from a family of Catholics. Months later, when I took the sacrament for the first time, the rosary I had used in preparation made the event a family event as much as my own. A sense of ancestry plays a powerful part in grounding children's identities, and giving them a sense of lineage and responsibility to the generations that came before them.

In my grandmother's case, her gift of rosary beads in the engraved box was meant to create a keepsake across generations. Heritage gifts, when done with taste and sensitivity, are more than just gifts. They become keepsakes that families hold on to, whether you are a blood relation or just a friend of the family.

Such presents offer the opportunity for family members to grow closer to one another and to tap into a sense of history they might otherwise be too preoccupied to consider. If you are considering giving a gift meant to evoke a baby's heritage, then take care to do research before deciding on the gift. Make subtle inquiries concerning the parents' thoughts about their own heritage, and determine which gift conveys your respect for their culture and legacy in the most tasteful manner.

Many on-line stores and retail shops offer heritage gifts as part of their catalog, and some with special heritage gifts that are divided by type such as Irish or Asian. Many of these stores will gift wrap them with respect to a group's traditional good luck colors and designs.

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