The Housewife Hospitality Approach to Gift Giving
Gift-giving is definitely my love language. I spend so much time searching for the perfect gift and hope you can find inspiration in my thought process for how I curate gift ideas for friends and loved ones.
Whenever I search for a gift I always try to make sure that I’m giving someone a gift that hits on these three main points:
- It’s a high quality or luxury item
- It will be useful
- It will be appreciated
Brainstorming the ideal Baptism Gift
When we found out we would be attending our four-month-old niece’s baptism my first thought was “what should we get her?”
I immediately began researching what people traditionally give as baptism gifts. I found that people like to give heirloom quality gifts that have some sort of religious overtone that will be cherished for a long time. Gifts made of silver are also very popular for christenings as silver represents a wish for prosperity.
I knew I wanted to give a somewhat religious gift. My initial thoughts were to get a cross necklace, rosary, bible, or board books, however, my concern was that those gifts would be extremely popular and I would run the risk of her getting a similar gift that someone else gave her. Had I gone with something without a religious tone, I was leaning towards a baby keepsake gift such as a memory box or photo album.
I adore buying personalized gifts, so I began searching for engraved silver pieces. That’s when I remembered a recommendation that someone had in a Grandmillennial Facebook decorating group I’m in. They recommended an engraved cake knife. So I did what any millennial would do. I opened Instagram and searched “#engravedcakeknife”. There were under a hundred posts and immediately I saw the perfect option.
Finding the Gift
The Instagram post shined down on me as I came across the beautifully engraved Kate Spade silverplate cake server & knife set. It featured a sweet bow accent on the handles which offered the most adorable modern, yet feminine charm. When I clicked on the post, it got even better – the company was called Flower City Letters, and their logo was a take on a five-pointed flower, made of calligraphy nibs, which I knew all too well. As I’m originally from Rochester, New York aka the Flower City, I knew it was a sign that this would be the perfect gift, as I would be passing along a little bit of my backstory to my niece. The woman who owns this small business, out of Rochester, is a calligrapher and engraver by trade. She specializes in classic and modern calligraphy that is absolutely beautiful. I love that she hand engraves each piece for a truly one-of-a-kind gift.
I immediately placed my online order for the set. I had the server engraved with God Bless followed by my niece’s name and the knife was engraved with her birth date and her baptism date.
At this point you’re probably asking – why on earth would you give a cake knife to a baby? Keep on reading. =]
The meaning behind the gift
The thought process behind this gift is that it’s meant to be a special knife that my niece will use every year on her birthday to cut her birthday cake. Eventually, when she’s older and it’s time for her to receive the sacrament of marriage, she’ll have the perfect “something old” for her big day. She’ll even get to have her spouse’s name engraved along with hers for God to bless both of them as they cut into their wedding cake. At that time, their future date can also be inscribed on their special cake knife. This concept also lends itself perfectly for a Confirmation, Communion, or even a First Birthday Gift.
As this is a gift that requires explaining, I wanted to make sure that the explanation could be written out and would fit inside the original box, so that each year when she opens the box, she can see the message personalized for her, and remember who it was from.
How I DIYed the Poem
I opted to DIY the message to fit inside the lid of the box. I went to the craft store and bought a piece of poster board, a pink marker and a set of antique-style photo mounts to hold the corners of the paper onto the inside of the lid. I cut the paper to size and began writing out the cake knife poem by hand. There are several versions of these poems online, and I mixed and matched them and added some words of my own to create a poem especially for her.
After the poem was written out, I mounted the metal corners to the lid using double-sided foam that came with the set of Halloween Bats that I had ordered online, although any sort of double-stick tape would have worked fine. Once the poem was in place the gift was finished. The entire process only took a couple of hours to complete.
The final product
All that was left was to wrap the gift and give it to her at the Baptism. I hope this is a gift and a tradition that she’ll cherish and will fuel her excitement in all of the special occasions to come in her life.
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