The first Christmas after losing someone is a strange one. The traditions are all still there, and one person is missing from every single one of them.
There is no gift that fixes that. But people do often want something to mark it, either for themselves or for a relative who is finding it hard, and a small number of things tend to help more than others. Our personalised memorial collection is where most of these sit.
Something with their name on it
The reason engraved memorial items work is that they say the person's name out loud at a point when a lot of people have stopped mentioning it. Families frequently say that is the part that mattered - not the object, but the fact that someone was still willing to name them.
Common choices are an engraved photo frame with a name and dates, a candle or tea light holder, or a small keepsake designed to sit somewhere visible.
On the tree
A memorial bauble gives someone a place in Christmas itself rather than beside it. The bauble range includes In Loving Memory photo designs, In Our Hearts At Christmas, and angel wings - and a pet version, which people ask for more often than you might expect.
Something that carries on a habit
There is a quieter kind of memorial gift: an object that continues something the person did. An engraved whisky tumbler for a family who always poured one for him on Christmas Day. A mug for someone whose grandmother made the tea. These are not sad objects - they are the opposite.
For a bereaved parent, partner or child
Be led by them. Some people want the person marked visibly at Christmas; others need one day where it is not in front of them. If you do not know which, ask a close relative rather than guessing.
If you are unsure, err towards something that can be put away and brought out again - a framed photograph, a keepsake box - rather than something that permanently changes a room.
What to engrave
- A name. Almost always the right answer on its own.
- Dates. Birth and death, or simply a year.
- A few words they used to say. More powerful than any verse, and specific to that family.
- Avoid generic memorial verse if you can. It is well meant, but it makes a personal object sound like a card.
A note on timing and care
Give it early rather than on the day if you can. Christmas Day is already full, and something like this often lands better in a quiet moment beforehand.
And if you are buying for yourself rather than for someone else - that is a perfectly reasonable thing to do. A great many of these orders are people quietly marking their own loss.
You can see the full personalised memorial collection, or browse photo frames for the most straightforward option.