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Martin Tanner, 2nd December 2025

There is a moment every parent remembers: the first time your child gives you a gift they chose all by themselves.

For me, it happened at our school’s Christmas Bazaar. They run a little room where children can go in without their parents, pick a present, wrap it, and emerge with the kind of secretive excitement only kids can pull off. Mine came out beaming, clutching a lumpy, slightly crinkled parcel with tape in all the wrong places and pride in all the right ones.

On Christmas morning, they couldn't sit still with anticipation as I opened it. Inside was… shower gel.

But honestly, it could have been anything. Because the magic was not in the gift, it was in the moment.

It was the first time they had thought about what I might like. The first time they had chosen something with their own tiny sense of independence. The first time they had felt the joy of giving, not just receiving.

That is the thing about gratitude and gifting. It is rarely about the object. It is about the connection, the thought, the spark of “I wanted to make you happy.”

And that is exactly the rationale for ithank.uk: to help people capture these small, fleeting, heart-full moments before they disappear into the rush of life.

What was the first gift your child ever gave you?