Green Christmas Tree Baby Chime Toy by Mon Ami

Baby Christmas gifts are hard for one simple reason: most of them are really for the parents. This one is for the baby. It is a Christmas tree chime toy from Mon Ami in a bright green, and a chime is a gentler sound than a hard rattle, which makes it easy to hand to a very small person without startling the room. It makes a good baby first christmas gift precisely because it is not a keepsake. It goes in the stocking, then the car seat, then the diaper bag, and it carries on being a toy long after the tree comes down.

When can a baby hold a rattle? Babies generally begin grasping and holding a rattle or soft chime toy at around three to four months, once voluntary grasp starts to replace the newborn grasp reflex. Before that, soft sound toys are typically used by a caregiver shaking them nearby, since the gentle sound and high contrast shape are what a very young baby responds to.