Baby's First Christmas Gifts to Keep

Its page calls it a first story for a first birthday, or a first Christmas. Their name is engraved in our script on the first page, followed by two oak tiles, the wood and the cottage, and The End, all in a cotton drawstring bag. At this age, the page says, the story is yours to tell and theirs to point at: lay the first page down, say their name and walk the path together. Every tile added later joins on, so this is the beginning of their set. Like every Story Path piece, it is covered by our Multiple Lifetime Guarantee.

Designed for seated play from 12 months onward. A solid oak board, 2 cm thick and 50 cm long, holds eight exotic-wood shapes in their own pockets with an oak stylus, and turning it over gives a second set of outlines. Its page names balancing, sorting and stacking among the first ways it is played; slotting and tracing the shapes builds pre-writing strokes. Finished with Osmo Wood Wax Finish, wrapped in wool felt, and called heirloom-quality on its page.

Ideal for ages 1 to 3, says its page, so it waits for a baby to grow into it rather than being outgrown. Four curved hardwood pieces in tigerwood, padauk, purpleheart and zebrano sit around an engraved oak circle in a solid oak base, and turning each one until it fits is the whole game. A puzzle designed to be felt, with no paint, plastic or batteries, and covered by our Multiple Lifetime Guarantee wherever it goes next.

From one year old, its page says. Sixty hardwood blocks in purpleheart, padauk, zebrano and oak, each a classic shape, with their colour brought up by a natural oil-and-wax finish rather than paint. They pack into a solid oak tray like a mosaic, so the set looks at home on a nursery shelf now and in a playroom later. It is covered by our Multiple Lifetime Guarantee, lost blocks included: a photograph of the gap is all we ask for.

Tested to CE and UKCA standards for ages 1+, its page says, and hand-finished in the UK. Creamy maple, deep walnut and red padauk, with no paint or plastic, finished with Osmo Wood Wax Finish, which is food-safe once dry and saliva-resistant, and with edges rounded for small hands. The boom pivots and the bucket really scoops. The Allen key in the box lets them take it apart and rebuild it when they are ready, so it keeps finding new play.

Its page calls it a keepsake book for a well-curated nursery, and a gift for baby showers, birthdays and special occasions. A gentle 24-page board book that walks through the alphabet by way of the Greek myths, with Kathleen Marcotte's illustrations and a cover picked out in gold foil. A small thing to tuck in beside a wooden present, and one to read aloud long before the letters mean anything to them.

A year in the wood, month by month, for a first year of reading aloud. Mouse sets out in wintry January to visit his friend Squirrel, wakes Hedgehog for the spring, picnics among the bluebells with Mole in May and picks berries with Dormouse in June, until winter draws in and he takes refuge in Fox's cosy caravan. Alice Melvin's story, now in board book form, with thick pages for small hands.

A story about something that lasts. A tiny acorn falls to the ground and grows into an enormous oak; over a thousand years children play games around it, families dance about it, and squirrels, badgers, birds and beetles find food and shelter in it, until it falls in a storm and a new acorn sprouts. A board book by Julia Donaldson and Victoria Sandøy, and a fitting one to give beside a first piece of oak.