Babies are hard to shop for. They can’t exactly tell you their preferences, and there are so many gift-giving occasions for little ones. From baby showers to the first holiday season to first birthdays and second birthdays, the gifts do seem to pile up. Then add all of the other babies and toddlers that you know and you realize you’re in a never-ending loop of brainstorming gift ideas.
Luckily, there’s a foolproof out-of-the-box baby gift that you probably didn’t think of– and we can almost guarantee that nobody else at the baby shower or birthday party will have thought of either. What is this magical gift idea? A magazine subscription.
Like, for the parents? A magazine about raising babies? No, a magazine for the babies themselves. And if that sounds like a comedy skit waiting to happen, hear us out. We have five excellent reasons why magazines make the best gift for all of the babies and toddlers on our list.
They’re tailor-made for little hands.
Our personal favorite publication for babies is BABYBUG Magazine. Ever since 1994, BABYBUG has delighted children with short and sweet stories, poetry, and artwork. But if imagining a baby holding a magazine sounds absurd to you, re-calibrate your imagination. BABYBUG isn’t a full-size magazine but a small sturdy square with rounded edges and staple-free pages. We know babies chew on things. It happens. BABYBUG is designed with little hands– and little mouths– in mind. More durable than standard magazines, it can hold up to the most intense, um, little readers.
A gift that keeps on giving all year long.
Many of us don’t get to see the babies in our lives very often. Maybe we’re grandparents, aunts and uncles, parents’ best friends or coworkers, or even former neighbors. A year-long subscription is a way to keep sharing quality time with the baby in your life from a distance. Every time a new issue arrives in the mailbox, parents can snap that adorable picture of their little one staring wide-eyed at the pages. We love getting texts like these: “Millie’s new BABYBUG just arrived in the mail! She absolutely loves it! She wants us to read the bubble poem again and again!”
A curated selection for little minds– and parents.
Picking out reading material that appeals to babies can be so tricky. Books for babies are so short and every family goes through so many. Parents end up with one of two problems: either they’ve accumulated an overflowing library of seasonal storybooks with nowhere to store them or they keep running out of books as their children chew on them or tear them up. BABYBUG and other magazines for babies provides new reading material every two months, with plenty of poems and stories and pictures for each season of the year. There’s no guilt getting rid of old copies, but they’re perfectly fine to save and keep around in your library, too. A regular supply of BABYBUG Magazines saves parents hours of time shopping for new books or scouring the local library for stories their family hasn’t read yet.
Reading that grows along with your child.
BABYBUG is a great gift for babies and toddlers from infants to age 3, so you can keep renewing that subscription each year. Different features in the magazine will appeal to little ones at every age and stage. But what about when they move on from toddlerhood to the preschool years? Cricket Media publishes magazines for kids of all ages, and it’s easy to trade one subscription for another. There’s LADYBUG (ages 3-6), SPIDER (ages 6-9), and CRICKET (ages 9-14), so big siblings and little siblings can all enjoy their own magazines. That’s, what, 14 years of birthday gifts or holiday gifts you don’t need to think about!
Resources for caregivers.
Each issue of BABYBUG Magazine comes with a guide for caregivers at the back, complete with fun ideas for activities inspired by the content in that issue. A recent issue of BABYBUG featured a poem about soup. The guide for caregivers suggested parents use the poem as a recipe and let their babies or toddlers help add ingredients to the pot. Another issue provides suggestions for kids and parents to create home-made hats just like the characters from a story. When you gift BABYBUG, you’re not just giving your loved ones something fun to read. You’re providing their parents with hours of ideas for imaginative, educational play. They may very well thank you for it!
Are you ready to be the most popular baby gift-giver on the block? Start a subscription to BABYBUG now! Or, if you want something tangible to wrap, grab a single gift issue for now! And don’t forget to sign up for our CHIRP newsletter to get special discounts for whenever those gift-giving occasions roll around! Happy gifting!
