Here’s an in-depth guide to the receiving gifts love language for babies and toddlers, along with a huge list of ideas for this tricky love language.
What is My Child’s Love Language?
Is my child’s love language receiving gifts? Does your child give you things like drawings or flowers frequently? She might respond to this love language if she saves little trinkets and has a great memory for who gave her particular gifts. For her, a gift is a tangible reminder that someone cares—she can practically hold their love in her hand.
Receiving Gifts Can Be Tricky
I know I love giving gifts and finding the perfect gift for someone, but I’m terrible at receiving gifts myself—I often feel embarrassed. I think perhaps it’s from not having so much growing up and knowing how big a deal gifts were. So if your child has a giving heart, be sure to teach her how to graciously receive as well. Remind her to say thank you or offer a hug if appropriate, and teach her the etiquette of when to open the gift in front of the giver, or what to say if it’s not what she’s expecting.
All children, and indeed, all of us, need to receive all five love languages. Gift giving has been an important part of human culture from the beginning, and so teaching children good gifting and receiving etiquette is a time-honored tradition.
You may worry about spoiling your child if you give too many gifts, but spoiling is more about entitlement. If your child values each gift as an act of love, there can be no spoiling. The problem is you can’t just mindlessly give as a habit, you must give from a place of structure and love, so each gift is a unique event.
Giving Gifts to Babies
Babies likely don’t understand the principle of gift-giving, but it’s still important for you to give them things. With essentials like clothes and diapers, you meet their basic needs. With toys and objects, you introduce novel things for them to pore over. A baby seeing a new toy for the first time has to form all sorts of new neural connections. What is this? Does it make noise? Does it move? How is it like other toys I have seen? Can I use it in the same ways? It’s all fresh material for his growing brain.
Gift-giving doesn’t have to mean accumulating things or raising a spoiled child. There are lots of simple options from toy rotation to snack time that can please a gift-loving child. Even as you do basic things you might have done anyway, just kindly emphasize the gifting aspect of them, and, of course, graciously receive and value the gifts your child gives you.
Don’t Forget—Your Child is God’s Gift to You
“What have you that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if it were not a gift?” –1 Corinthians 4:7b
“Lo, sons are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward.” –Psalm 127:3
Everything we have is given to us. Even in the midst of the chores and the worries and the sleepless nights, don’t ever forget the gifts that your children are.
Here are some ideas for gift-giving for babies and toddlers:
I’ve included lots of ideas so you can get inspiration for your particular situation and budget.
- A special treat for no reason, or as appreciation for coming shopping with you
- Stickers!
- Give her a picture you drew of you together
- Give gifts freely, not as rewards.
- Print out a picture of him, or a picture for him to color.
- Rotate her toys and surprise her with old favorites every week or two
- Give him colorful flyers you get in the mail. Better yet, send him a letter or card.
- Make her a special snack—something she likes or doesn’t get very often
- Give him a coupon for a trip to the park! And honor it. Even if he can’t read, you can put pictures on it—but he will probably remember anyway!
- Cut her watermelon with a cookie cutter and give her fun shapes.
- Take him to a store or thrift store or garage sale and let him pick one thing (be sure to set a price limit ahead of time).
- Take her to a store or thrift store or garage sale and let her pick one thing for someone she loves (be sure to set a price limit ahead of time).
- Have a special place for the things he gives you, whether that’s a frame for drawings, a little vase for dandelion flowers, or a wooden bowl as a table centerpiece to fill with gifts.
- Make a stash of things she might like so you always have a little gift on hand when needed.
- Help him give and make gifts for friends, parents, siblings, and relatives; for a holiday or just because.
- If you are separated for day care or a date night or whatever, pack her a little sticker or drawing to find from you.
- Wrap up necessary items like clothes as a gift.
- Take a hike together and make a “memory stick,” picking up cool items along the way and attaching them to the stick with colored yarn. Or, fill the pockets of an empty egg carton.
- Pick a keepsake like a rock or stick from an outing and put it on display or in a special box.
- Identify one or two of your talents and make him something! Tangible or intangible (like a song or poem).
- Give a meaningful and persistent gift—like planting a tree in the yard and caring for it, or a special outfit or bracelet she can wear.
- Bring back a souvenir from a trip, or even an outing, like a piece of candy from the bank.
- Get him something personalized with his name.
- If you are crafty or handy, make something for her that she can use.
- Make or get a display case, treasure box, or other place he can keep special trinkets.
Receiving Gifts and Learning to Love God
“Every good endowment and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.” –James 1:17
Here are some extra ideas for those kids who love solid, tangible proofs of love, to help them understand and love God, who sometimes seems so ethereal, but nonetheless gives us everything we encounter in life:
- Teach your child to love the Eucharist as a tangible gift of God’s love.
- Get donuts after Mass.
- Teach your toddler about relics.
- Collect devotional items for your toddler to keep, such as large or child-friendly medals, Rosaries, holy cards, statues, bibles, and other books.
- Give your child a special gift on the anniversary of his baptism.
- Celebrate with a gift your child’s name day (the feast day of her patron Saint).
- Hint to godparents that religious-themed gifts would be especially welcome from them.
- Give your toddler a special prayer candle (electric if he will use it unsupervised) for him to use while praying.
- Help your child give to the poor.
- Give your child money to put in the poor box or offering basket.
- Volunteer to bring up the gifts at the offertory.
- Teach your child generosity, as well as Bible verses about giving (2 Corinthians 9:7, Acts 20:35, Deuteronomy 15:10, Luke 6:38, Proverbs 19:17, etc.). Point out occasions she can give.
- Fill the house with physical reminders of your faith, including holy images, crucifixes, and religious toys.
- Point out blessings as gifts from God each day, perhaps as part of a bedtime routine.
- When something good or funny or cool comes along, thank God right in the moment for His gift.
- Give your child a prayer shawl, veil, or special item to wear to Mass.
- Take home a holy card, pamphlet, rosary, or bulletin from the back of Church.
- Make a special surprise meal on Sundays.
- Help your child set up a “prayer space” with religious trinkets that are special to her.
- Make a pilgrimage to a nearby (or distant!) church or holy site and bring back a souvenir.
Do you have any other ideas to add? Comment below!
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