Wendell August Forge makes fantastic “annual” ornaments and they have been making metals for over a hundred years in Pennsylvania. It’s a great tradition a lot of people do. They’re around $20.

Plant a tree. My parents planted a cherry tree at my birth and I was always very fond of that idea. It‘s also true buyitforlife, since the tree might just outlive us all.

Maybe antique children’s books, like grimms fairytales

Or maybe something you could try… like a bifl chest? Each year buy something, not necessarily a big item that they can use when they “fly away” we sort of did that the last couple of years before we got married, in terms of asking for bifl items for gifts

I just spent months decluttering our family home (2 adults 6 kids) for a long-distance move. IMHO you shouldn’t saddle your kids with boxes of sentimental junk that accumulate over the years. Put that money in a bank account or something. Or write a letter and seal it up for them to read many years later.

Agree with this, parents please don’t start your kids out with the “too much dust gathering junk” hoarding habit! It’s so hard to break later and you have to drag that albatross through life. The tree planting or money in a special account idea is a good one.

r/minimalism

My mother in law started Christmas ornament collections for her boys and we love it. It’s not a big item so we can store it easily. We enjoy opening the box each year. The ornaments are always nice and reminiscent of an event, trip, memory from each year.

Both my grandparents gave me a saving bond for holidays and birthdays starting when I was born. I didn’t appreciate it until I suddenly had a bunch of extra cash to put down on a house.

Agree with this poster 100%.

This stuff is sentimental to YOU and being imparted on your child; when your firstborn is old enough and gets handed a box with 18 gold roses in it, chances are that they will either feel obligated to hang on to it despite no attachment, or just sell/donate them.

Make retirement IRA accounts for these kids, and put money into it annually. In 18 years it’ll be worth way more than a handful of roses and baseball cards, and way more useful to your kids.

You have to have earned income to put $ in an IRA which most young children do not. Regular brokerage would work though

Ornaments, small pieces of jewelry, these days developing a digital archive with highlights of each year for them..all things that are very portable.

Gold charm for an eventual charm bracelet. Etsy has some nice ones (mostly from Turkey). Small, sentimental, easy to modify...something she'll really appreciate when she is much older. Charms can be meaningful and swapped out.

My sister and I got a Madame Alexander doll every year for Valentine’s Day growing up - we each keep them in a special doll display case now

Silver eagle coin of that year. Maybe a graded proof coin would be closer to your price point. Also a good lesson on inflation and intrinsic value.

Yes, sorry, was typing on the fly and didn’t think it through. Just any kind of account that will accrue tons of value through their lives is where my brain was going.

VTSAX

A gold rose sounds like the worst thing ever. Imagine dragging that like an albatross to every crappy apartment/roommate situation until you can finally settle down. It wouldn’t take me long to sell them for the gold.

Bitcoin

I get everyone’s point about dragging stuff apartment to apartment but perhaps an annual georg Jensen Christmas decoration each year which you can decorate the family tree with until they get their own forever ish home.

When my first child was born I gifted him with diapers in valentines day.

I honestly agree with the savings account advice. Otherwise, maybe a pearl. In my country (somewhere in Europe) some jewellery stores sell individual pearls along with a box to store them. When you have enough they can make something for you with them. You might have to get several a year to get enough for a necklace at 18, but a standard cultivated pearl should be below 75$ so it should work. You’ll have to ask around if it’s a thing at all where you live however.

Small Swarovski figurines. Super cute and tiny.

If a girl you could follow a similar line to the roses and gift a Swarovski crystal figurine or something of that nature - some of them are limited and later can become collector’s items as far as I understand. They have very small ones which might be within the price range.

If a boy, maybe cards from another sport?

Don’t listen to all of the naysayers, aside from savings bonds being a very practical and good idea to consider, if my parents gave me a collectible item on a particular date every year I would absolutely treasure it. Perhaps not while I was moving around at university, but absolutely when I got settled in a home when a bit older. My partner has a book of Pokémon cards, and yes it’s in a folder gathering dust, but he has fond memories of searching flea markets on weekends with his dad for more. Every time he gets it out his face lights up - and it’s worth some money now.

Maybe baby #3’s gift could be something that you could do together to give the gift that additional meaning?

An RESP education account that you put money into every month for their post secondary .

We do coins for our kids. Every birthday we get them a new coin based on their interests or Chinese new year animal. Just something fun to do and it creates quite a collection. They both have a lot of cool coins in neat boxes that one day we will hand over to them with the stories. Sometimes when I travel I’ll buy a local coin of that year too :)

I love the idea of a letter each year. Would love to have received this from my mother.

Nailed it. The kids have college covered and all the post-grad money needed to get a good start once they have the diploma. Both my parents have now passed and all the “junk” that I’ve collected from them with shared memories is incredibly valuable to me - not the checks I cashed from them. I don’t expect them to keep every oddly shaped rock we find while taking an evening walk, but the annual gifts collected over their 18 year youth will certainly be cherished!

A friend of mine gave her nephew an apple tree which his parents planted in the back, and he, now 23, calls over to her with apples every autumn!

Same. When my dad died I really did long for letters or notes to me, just to hear him speak to me from the heart, and feel like I knew him better and he was close by.

Not just one, 18 of the by the time she’s old enough to leave home.

I read an article about a dad doing this for his son. He bought him a premium bottle of whiskey every year from the same company. The son sold off the collection when he was old enough and managed to by a house (or at least the deposit) with it.

My uncle gave me an 80-100 dollar toy tractor every year that I wasn’t allowed to play with as a kid. I’m 31 now and 1/8 of my basement storage is tractors. So my recommendation is to at least do something small lol

I think it’s impersonal nature of the gifts that make them valueless. Who knows? Maybe the daughter will turn into a heavily tattooed heavy duty mechanic, and the son will be an interior designer with no interest in sports. I’d rather a Christmas ornament every year that reflects what the child’s interests are. Something that shows you are paying attention to the child. They could each have their box of ornaments that they are in charge of putting up every year. Make it a memory.

I recently got three bins of my grandfather's writings...letters, poems, stories, drawing, newspaper articles, etc. Reading through them, I get extra excited when they mention me. He has been gone for 15 years and I am treasuring them. I want to write things to my children now so they can feel the same way.

The best time to plant a tree is ten years ago.

The second best time is now.

Yeah! Thanks dad, another gold dipped rose. Just like last year... And the year before...

Coin? Mint has 100$ coins.

^ this is an amazing idea

My uncle did this for me. I’m forever grateful.