Thoughtful Gifting || Keepsake Ornament Gift Tradition - Southern State of Mind Blog by Heather

Last year, among the crazy year of 2020, our family was blessed with our first true niece. Don’t get me wrong, I have lots of cousins with kids that I consider nieces and nephews, and we have stepsisters with kids and plenty of life-long friends with kids we consider family that we love to the moon and back. But this was our very first child from our siblings and we all just absolutely adore her!

The year she was born (2020), I decided to start an annual Christmas tradition for her. While she is too little to understand now, my hope is that she will end up with a box of very special Christmas ornaments chosen especially for her each year. And that someday when she is older and has her own Christmas tree, she will pull out these ornaments and be reminded just how loved she is by her Aunt, Uncle and Cousins.

We didn’t get to see her on her very first Christmas because of Covid, However, I started the tradition last year with an ornament showing the year she was born. Each year we will be selecting a keepsake ornament to commemorate something special from that year.

For 2021, I chose a Braves World Series needlepoint. What can I say – the World Series was a big deal for us and my brother-in-law is a huge Braves fan.

I really enjoyed putting this Christmas gift together and look forward to being able to pick out a special ornament for her every year. My plan is to keep the ornaments fairly small so that they will all fit into this Christmas gift box and will be something easy for her (and her parents) to store. I founds this cute Santa shoe box which was perfect for storing them.