Its Baby's First Christmas (Baby's 1st Christmas Bauble)

Member Name: ButterBear

Product:	Baby's 1st Christmas Bauble
Date:	30/10/08 (709 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Personalised. Plastic for longevity.

Disadvantages: Sticky letters can be fiddly.

Any one who has regularly read my reviews will know I'm a sentimental old fool, so you can just imagine what I'm like when Christmas is combined with babies! This year will be baby Jacks first Christmas and just like in 2006 and 2004, my other children's first Christmas' I wanted to mark the occasion with a special decoration for the Christmas tree. Back in 2004 I had purchased the Babies 1st Bauble from the Studio catalogue and was delighted in 2006 to find they were still running the same design as it would mean I could have matching baubles for both my babies, now we have baby 3 and I wanted to keep up the tradition so took a look at the Studio website to see if the same bauble was still available, my luck was in and the bauble was still available and on discount at £1.99 so I placed my order and waited for it's arrival.

The bauble is a traditional ball shaped ornament featuring an old fashioned teddy bear, traditional foliage pattern and a section where you can add your childs name and year along with pre-printed words "baby---------------1st Christmas-------------" the design is repeated on the bauble twice so no matter which way it hangs on your tree you'll be able to see the bear and the text. The bauble is made of plastic and the design is printed on a cellophane wrap which covers the bauble, it may not seem like the classiest of materials to make a bauble out of and may make you doubt the quality but when you remember that it is to mark a special occasion and has many years to last through then it starts to make sense, a glass bauble is easy to break but a plastic one is likely to bounce from even the highest height. If you're anything like me you'll want to put the bauble on your tree year after year, I certainly plan to use all my babies baubles on our tree until the very end.

Personalising the bauble is done with the aid of 3 sheets of small transfer letters, important letters and vowels are on the sheet in higher numbers whereas a less used letter like X is only provided once per sheet, the same applies to the numbers with the sheets having more 0 then other numbers. In the past I've had no problems applying the letters to the bauble and even using some of the small swirl embellishments on the transfer sheets to add a little extra detail to the baubles, all you are required to do is place the sheet over the bauble, rub your nail over the letter required and peel the sheet away, this leaves the letter on the bauble and you can move onto the next letter.

The sheets I received in this years bauble were what I call "oober sticky" and on my first try of applying a J found the whole sheet stuck to the bauble transferring all the letters, after a few minutes of scratching them off I picked up the next sheet and a pair of scissors, this time I cut the individual letters out and applied them one by one, this was a little more fiddly and time consuming but it meant no more mistakes with the lettering. It's a good job Jack has such a short name otherwise I could have found myself running out of letters for his name, K only appears once per sheet so with one having been wasted in the initial accident I only had 2 remaining, one for either side of the bauble.

There is ample space on the bauble to be able to fit longer names, although middle names and surnames are likely to a bit of a squeeze should you decide to include them. Christopher is one of the longer names being 11 letters long but still fits nicely in the space, I'm glad we didn't have the transfer problem with his name, we'd never of had enough R's to go round.
The baubles are lovely and lightweight being made of plastic and can stand up to a fair bit of abuse, I'm not the most delicate of beings when it comes to putting up the tree, it's hard to balance on a ladder while putting baubles near the top and more then one bauble has met its doom at my hands, but the Baby's First Bauble can defeat even my clumsiness. It has an integrated plastic loop which you thread your ribbon or bauble hook through to hang it on the tree, this is fixed in place unlike those on glass baubles which have a habit of coming loose leaving you unable to hang your bauble, you wont have this problem with the Baby's First Bauble meaning you'll be able to hang it year in year out if you wish.

I absolutely love my children's 3 baubles, I'll never forget their first Christmas or the year it took place but it's lovely to be able to mark the occasion and be able to look back in the years to come and reminisce. The bauble is very traditional in its design so if you prefer more modern themes then it may not be the decoration for you, still it is a lovely reminder of a special time in your families lives and being able to personalise it makes it that little bit more special than any other Baby's 1st Bauble available.

The bauble is currently available for £3.99 at-
http://homeshopping.24studio.co.uk/searchresult/1

Summary: A wonderful oppotunity to personalise a bauble for your child.