What is a Gift-Buying Guide?

Gifts are an important element of any party, especially one being held for a kid. Just imagining a little child's face light up when he/she opens a present, is enough consolation for going through the stress of planning a party.

But has it ever happened to you that you got gifts that your kid wasn't able to use, wear, or simply did not appreciate? I'm pretty sure you've experienced that at one time. :)

It seems inevitable, that we'll get birthday gifts like clothes that are too big or too small, toys that cannot be played with by your kid at his/her age, or items that your kid simply can't use.

BUT THEN AGAIN, gift registries and wishlists happened.



And those two have simply 'revolutionized' the art of gift-giving, and gift-requesting.

I personally prefer it when a party host (mom/parent of celebrant) would inform me beforehand what the kid wants or what kind of gift they want to get from us. This way, I don't have to face the dilemma of not knowing whether to go to a toy store, a bookstore, or a clothing store, and not knowing which one in those shops the kid would like. It takes so much time and effort.

HOWEVER, I personally am not the kind either who's comfortable in putting up a wishlist or gift registry, as I would still love to have the element of surprise when we open gifts after my daughter's party.

Based on my experience during my daughter's first birthday and her baptism, it was inevitable that she will get gifts that were either way too large or too small for her, or stuff that she already has a lot of, or things that she really wouldn't be able to use. Don't get me wrong though, all gifts she ever received were still very much appreciated. :-) But then again, there's this small part of me that says 'this will just go to storage'.

So this year, I decided to take charge. I still was too shy to put up a wishlist on my Facebook page, but I figured it would be extremely helpful (for both me and my guests), if I could provide suggestions as to what kind of gifts my little girl would appreciate, and would actually prove useful for her.

I made this gift guide through Scrapblog:

It still needs a lot of work, but I'm pretty proud of it for a first-time attempt. :-) I know gift guides are not my original idea, I'm pretty sure somebody else in the whole wide party world has done it or has made one before. But I have to admit, my idea for this gift guide came out of need. Hehe.

If you would check the wordings I used, I didn't really specify the gifts we wanted, but I did put in some clues about stuff that my daughter enjoys, as well as her shoe and clothing sizes. This way, I was able to ensure that my princess will get gifts that she'll definitely appreciate and use. At the same time, I was able to help out my guests by giving them an idea of what to buy (or make?) for Keisha.

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I also posted this gift guide on the Smartparenting forum, and my fellow moms also made amazing gift guides of their own. I definitely salute these mommies for their undeniable creativity! :)



This one was made by username: mommybrzee. I absolutely love the color scheme, and the way she laid out and used her pretty little girl's pictures. It adds that warm personal touch to it. :)

mommybrzee's gift guide

The wordings for mommybrzee's gift guide was inspired by another SP mom, username: vanenie (you can also check her blog here.) I just love how she worded her guide, very conversational, and well thought out. It's really inspiring, and even served as a guide for other SP moms like mommybrzee.Here's her pretty gift guide for her pretty little girl:

This one was made by username: ainge88, and I just adore how simple yet attention-grabbing it is. The contrast of the white font on a red background is just awesome. :) 

mommy ainge88's gift guide

This third one was made by username:  prOudMomma and it's remarkable the way she chose complementary colors and accents, and I think the font she used also added that fun element to it. :) Really cute.

mommy prOudMomm's gift guide

There are more creative outputs from SP moms on this thread.

Through the SP thread, I also learned that there are numerous (free) software out there that anyone can use to make these lovely gift guides. And no, you don't even have to be a layout wiz to make one! :) All you need is an internet connection, the know-how on searching through Google for images, and that dose of creativity, and you're all set!

Here are a few examples of software you can use:

• MS Paint
• MS Publisher
• MS Word
• MS Powerpoint
• Adobe Photoshop
• Photoscape
• Scrapblog
• Wondershare
• Gimp

Oh there are more out there I'm sure, so I'll try to update the list when I stumble upon them. :)

Hope this post helps you with party planning! Thanks for reading!