Seven kinds of present, and who they are for

There is no list of products here, and that is deliberate. Recommendations go out of date, and the useful thing is not which one but which kind.

So: seven categories of present that tend to survive contact with a real child, and the temperaments each one suits. It works for a first birthday and for most of the second year.

1. The thing that gets better as they grow

Blocks. A good set of wooden ones, or something equally open ended that a one year old bangs together and a four year old builds a city out of.

Best for the deep divers: Taurus, Capricorn, Virgo, Scorpio. These children return to the same materials for years and get further into them each time. A really good set of blocks is close to the ideal present for a Taurus child and will outlast almost everything else in the house.

Least useful for Sagittarius and Gemini, who will use them briefly and inventively and then go and do something else, which is fine but does not justify the price.

2. The thing that goes outside

A ball, a small trolley to push, a set of buckets, anything that works in a garden or a park.

Best for Aries and Sagittarius, who are both considerably happier people outdoors and for whom an outside present is effectively a present to their parents as well.

Also good for Leo, who likes an activity with other people in it, and for Taurus, who is more physical than the reputation suggests and enjoys anything that involves carrying things about.

3. The thing with water in it

Bath toys that actually do something: cups that pour, wheels that turn, things that fill and empty.

Best for Pisces and Cancer, for whom water is genuinely regulating rather than merely fun. A Pisces child who has had twenty minutes at the sink is a different proposition at bedtime.

Also strong for Scorpio, who will experiment with it seriously, and for Virgo, who likes anything involving a system of pouring from one thing into another.

4. The thing with a small world in it

A set of animals, a few figures, a doll’s house, a farm. A collection of characters rather than a single toy.

Best for Pisces, Cancer and Libra, because what they are being given is not objects but relationships. A Libra child will pair them up. A Pisces child will run a continuous story through them for months.

Also excellent for Leo, who casts, directs and narrates, and will want you to take a part.

5. The thing that makes a noise on purpose

A drum, a xylophone, a shaker, something with keys. Brace yourself.

Best for Leo and Aries, who are both expressive and unembarrassed, and for Gemini, who is interested in the cause and effect of it long before the music.

A word of honesty: this is the category most likely to delight the child and least likely to delight the household, and it is worth a quick word with the parents first if you are not one of them.

6. The thing that is theirs alone

A comfort object, a soft toy of real quality, a blanket. Something intended to be loved rather than played with.

Best for Taurus and Cancer, the two signs most likely to form a deep, specific and long lasting attachment to one object.

A practical note that has saved more than one family holiday: if you are giving this to a Taurus or Cancer child, buy two identical ones and hand the second to the parents quietly. They will understand later.

7. The thing that is slightly too old for them

A puzzle a bit beyond them, a proper tool for a real job, a book with more words than seems reasonable.

Best for Capricorn, Aquarius and Scorpio. These are the children most likely to be pleased by being taken seriously, and a present that treats them as more capable than their age lands well.

It is also the category that goes wrong most often, so buy it slightly too old rather than wildly too old, and accept that it may sit in a cupboard for six months before it becomes the favourite thing in the house.

Three that rarely work, whatever the sign

Anything that does the playing for them. A toy with a full performance of its own holds attention for the length of the performance.

Clothes, to the child. Lovely for the parents, and genuinely appreciated by them. Not a present to a one year old, whatever anybody says.

More of what they already have a lot of. Ask. Every family has a category they are drowning in, and the person who asks first is remembered fondly for years.

And if you do not know the sign

Give blocks, a set of animals, or a book.

Those three cover every temperament on this page, they are used by every child who has ever been given them, and nobody has ever been sorry to receive any of them.

For the experience around the gift, read a birthday party for Leo, Libra or Sagittarius. Each needs a different centre to the day.