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My daughter turned a year old in December and by far her favorite gift was a set of cardboard alphabet stacking blocks. Six months later she still plays with them every day.

http://www.wonderbrains.com/alphabet-nesting-stacking-blocks.html

Books. From a small, independent bookstore. The parents will love it, too! If you get books for older years (ones with real pages i/o board pages), then the baby will enjoy them longer.

We always love getting books. My son turned one and we received simple board books from a friend. He loves them. We like books because they are easy to store and interest in them can last.
Those blocks sound cute too. Thanks!

I love to give simple birthday gifts that have a lot of impact: a large colorful bouncy ball (you can find these anywhere all summer long for under $5. about 2 feet diameter) or classic children's books like Madeline, the velveteen rabbit, good night moon or maybe an Eric Carle book. My babies love those with a rhythm like Brown Bear or Hungry Caterpillar. Wooden Puzzles like those from Melissa & Doug are great, too and they are under $15.

Books books books! Those chunky little board books are my son's FAVORITE things. He tends to rip out the "real" paper pages. Some suggestions:

* Goodnight Moon (this is the last book we read EVERY night!)
* Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See? (FYI - Kohl's sells this w/a Brown Bear stuffed animal... love it.)
* Pat the Bunny
* The Very Hungry Caterpillar
* Guess How Much I Love You
* Yummy Yucky, Quiet Loud, Binky, etc. (and the rest of the series by Leslie Patricelli

Also, I love the Oompa Toys website for fun stuff: www.oompa.com Not everything is super-expensive.

My son also loved chunky puzzles (Melissa & Doug puzzles are great & about $10 each or less).

I'm casting a vote for board books, too! Our favorites:

Chugga Chugga Choo Choo (Kevin Lewis/Daniel Kirk)
Spring is Here & My Friends (Taro Gomi)
Noisy City Night & Noisy City Day (Sarah Anderson)
Bear Snores On (Karma Wilson/Jane Chapman)
Haiku Baby (Betsy E. Snyder)
Big Red Barn Big Book (Margaret Wise Brown/Felicia Bond)
If You Were My Baby (Fran Hodgkins/Laura J. Bryant)
Listen, Listen! (Phillis Gershator/Alison Jay)

Puzzles are always perfect and really aren't that expensive.
My daughter received those soft foam alphabet letters for the bathtub and plays with them still at age 2. It also really helped her to learn her abc's.
You can also get the child a bucked art supplies...thing like crayons, coloring books, water paints, an art smock, finger paints and the paper to go with it. They love to get dirty at that age and it is great for kids to receive things that they can creative with. good luck.

bath toys are always a big hit especially if they are easy to store and/or if they double as beach or sand toys.

Another vote for books and the chunky ones work just fine. My DD is 3 and we still read the board books.

I was going to suggest the stacking blocks as well, both my kids will still play with theirs (and they are almost 3 and five!) Its one of my favorite first bday gifts to give.

http://www.eeboo.com/product.php?cat=340&prod=88

And I'll also throw in a vote for books too. There's no such thing as too many books and they are especially sweet if you include a note from you in the front.

Kids' music is a fun gift. There are lots of choices that won't annoy baby's parents to death. For starters, check out the albums from the Land of Nod, as well as those by Barenaked Ladies and They Might Be Giants. Of course, the birthday girl won't ooh and ahh over this gift, but she would get a lot of use out of it for years.

Other ideas: A little piece of artwork (check Etsy), fancy hooded towels, a basket of luxe baby toiletries, a lovely photo album, fancy bibs, a special set of child's dishes, a beautiful growth chart. Babies need a lot of stuff, and it's always a treat to have swanky versions of the necessities.

Of course, books and puzzles are great choices, too. Never can have enough of those.

Thanks everyone for the great ideas! Books, bath toys, art supplies are all super suggestions. And I like the fact that she will be able to enjoy these things for a long time.

Thanks again!
Jen

I love giving books!
Musical toys! http://www.oompa.com/baby-toys/item/PL64052/Plan-Toys-Oval-Xylophone.html?oompaItem=Plan%20Toys_Oval%20Xylophone
but we always always give Little Alouette toys! :)
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=26705096

I love to give books. My favorite for this age is "Where is the Green Sheep" by Mem Fox. It was hard to find in a board book though. I found it (from Australia) online @ Albris Books. My 2 year old daughter loves it still. It rhymes and she can "read it" to me now!

Pull toys are fun. Brio makes some nice ones.

Also, eeboo puts out some really cute memory games.

For our daughter's first b-day we discouraged guests from bringing gifts (our house can't hold anymore toys:), and asked they bring a meaningful memento for her time capsule...to be opened on her 10th birthday. One of the best items was a scrapbook from her grandparents which read like a family tree. Beginning with our daughters picture, mom and dad's photos, grandparents photos, and even great & great-great grandparents. I like the idea that the scrapbook shows a connection between gift-giver and birthday girl and will be fun to look at now, as well as years from now.

I second books. I always give our son at least one book for his birthday/christmas.

For his first birthday, I did want a good wooden toy, so we got him the IKEA train set. He's a bit too young for it immediately, but it will only be a little bit more and he'll love it. Maybe a wooden walker (also IKEA) or a good blocks set.

Another suggestion for a book-- but this isn't just ANY book. It's one you can personalize with the child's name, created by a company called I See Me. While it's slightly more than $20 ($29.95), it has great lasting power. I have given this to a few of my nieces and nephews and they loved it. Here's more info: http://www.randomneuralfirings.net/?p=52

We haven't been on the receiving end, but we recently gave a friend's 1 yr old daughter this great Melissa & Doug frog pull toy that we found at a local toy store. They also sell other similar toys like a hippo and a dog.
http://www.amazon.com/Melissa-Doug-Deluxe-Wooden-Frolicking/dp/B000MX7WBU


According to the birthday girl's dad, she enjoys dragging it around quite a bit (but admittedly, he could just be being nice).

Another vote for books.

My suggestion: The Gruffalo by Julia Donaldson. It's amazing. She also wrote a series called Tales from Acorn Wood, and those books are heavyweight paperbacks with flaps. My daughter loves lifting the flaps to see if she can find Fox's socks.

Another great idea is little egg-shaped maracas. My daughter loves those too. They were the hit of the gift pile at her first birthday. The ones we have are made by Vilac.

You could probably do those egg maracas and a book for under $20.

Love all these great ideas, in fact, I had to share them this morning on my blog. My kiddos loved quiet books or plush kits at this age (saw some fun ones here), or anything that involved a big pocket and lots of little things they could put in and take back out. These were also great for me b/c I could take them anywhere to keep my kids busy.

My son is turning one in two weeks, and what I think I'd appreciate most from my party guests is a phone call to find out what he'd like and/or need.

If that's not an option for you, I'd go with books, too. One of our favorites is "A Color of His Own" by Leo Leonni.

It isn't something that will last a long time, it's very ephemeral - but delightful. I heard about a mum who gave her daughter tissue paper, wrapped in tissue paper, for her first birthday. It was really fun for her to pull it apart and be entertained for ages, put bits in her mouth and make a big mess. Just like what they want to do usually:P But with permission and mum joining in! Then again, it might be weird coming from you, if the parents wouldn't appreciate it.

For my friends son's 1st birthday I got him one of those fisher price sit and scoot cars for $19.99 at target. It was difficiult to wrap so i used a plain white trash bag and tied it together with colorful ribbon and a large bow. HE LOVED IT and so did mommy :)

Im also the mother of a 10 month old, and I would love books or a fun toy, maybe even a potty to begin potty training in future months.