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Letters for later
What to put in a first birthday time capsule
What to put in a baby’s first birthday time capsule: things from the day, from their first year and from the world right now, and what to leave out.
Their story,
in your words.
in your words.
Fill it with flat, dry things that describe this one year: printed photographs with names on the back, an outfit they have outgrown, a newspaper, a coin from the year, a handprint and a letter from each of you. Leave out food, batteries and anything that exists only on a USB stick.
Choose the box and the opening date first
The box decides what fits, so pick it before you collect anything. A lidded archival storage box or a clean metal tin about the size of a shoebox is enough. Keep it indoors. A capsule buried in the garden is a romantic idea and a damp one, and families move house.
Most parents choose the eighteenth birthday. Sixteen, twenty-one or the day they leave home work as well. Write the date and your child’s full name on the outside, and tell one other adult where the box lives.
In seventeen years the ordinary things will be the strange ones.
From the day itself
These are the things that will be gone by the end of the week if you do not put them aside. Collect them on the day and add them before the box is sealed.
- A photograph of everyone who came, with full names written on the back in pencil
- The invitation, and a napkin, party hat or candle from the cake
- A card signed by the guests
- The front page of a newspaper from that day, in its own sleeve
- A note of the weather, what was on the table and what they did with the cake
About your baby at one
A one-year-old changes so fast that you will not remember this version of them by Christmas. Write these down on a single sheet, in your own handwriting if you can.
- The outfit they wore, or one they have just outgrown, in a sealed bag
- A first pair of shoes or a much-loved sock
- A handprint and a footprint on card
- Their height and weight, and how many teeth
- Words they say and sounds they make, spelled the way they say them
- Favorite food, toy, song and book, and what they are afraid of
- A lock of hair tied with thread
- What a normal day looks like, from waking to bedtime
From the world this year
This is the part your child will find funniest. When a parent on r/AskUK asked what to put in a first birthday capsule, the most upvoted answers were outgrown clothes, a newspaper and printed photographs. Others suggested a banknote or coins from the year, since the designs are likely to have changed, along with stamps, a supermarket receipt and a takeaway menu.
One reply added a sensible caution about the money: treat it as a curiosity. Eighteen years of inflation means a note in a box is a poor way to save for them.
- A coin minted this year and one current banknote
- A few postage stamps
- A supermarket receipt for an ordinary weekly shop
- A takeaway menu or a ticket from a bus, train or car park
- A list of what a pint of milk, a coffee and a tank of fuel cost
- The song, the film and the toy everyone was talking about
- A photograph of your street and the front of your home
Sources: Reddit, r/AskUK: “What can I put in my one year old’s birthday time capsule?”
From the people who love them
Objects show what the year looked like. Letters say what it felt like, and they are what an eighteen-year-old reads twice. Ask each grandparent for one, however short. More than one person in the same Reddit thread made the point that some of the writers may not be there when the box is opened.
- A letter from each parent, written separately
- A letter or a few lines from each grandparent
- Notes from guests, godparents and older cousins
- A family tree with everyone’s age this year
- A recipe in a relative’s handwriting
- Your predictions for the year they open it
Invitation wording, guest prompts and example letters
Get prompts for your own letter
Sources: Reddit, r/AskUK: “What can I put in my one year old’s birthday time capsule?”
What to leave out
Anything that rots, leaks, melts or perishes will take the paper around it too. Leave these out.
- Food, sweets and drinks, including the cake
- Balloons, rubber bands and anything made of rubber or latex
- Batteries, and toys with batteries still inside
- Liquids, lotions and candles that can melt
- Newspaper touching photographs, because newsprint yellows and marks what it touches
- Sticky tape and glue on anything you want to last
- A phone, tablet or USB stick as the only copy of a video
- Money you would mind losing the value of
Photos, video and voices: keep a second copy
The Reddit thread had a good suggestion and a good warning in the same breath: record their babbling, and do not trust the memory stick. Nobody can promise that a USB drive left in a box for seventeen years will still work, or that anything will have a socket for it.
Print the photographs you care about. For video and sound, put a note in the box saying where the files are, and keep them in at least two places you look after: a backed-up computer and a cloud account, or a family archive.
Everlittle is the family archive we make, and it suits the half of the capsule that cannot go in a box. Keep the first birthday photos, a recording of their voice and a letter together on your child’s timeline. Then seal a written note as a capsule until the date on the box: nobody can read it before that day, including you. It is free up to 100 MB, with no card.
Start a free archive for the digital half
How a digital time capsule works
Sources: Reddit, r/AskUK: “What can I put in my one year old’s birthday time capsule?”
Pack it with the checklist
The checklist tool has every item on this page with a box to tick. Choose the opening date, tick things off as they go in, add your own and print the finished list to put inside as an inventory.
If guests are writing notes at the party, the letters guide has invitation wording, prompts for the cards and example messages.
Sources
Keep one detail from today.
Start with a sentence, a photo or a familiar voice.