Fairy Gift Ideas and Keepsakes for All Ages

This collection of Fairy Gift Ideas and Keepsakes for All Ages is a celebration of hand-crafted fairies, and all things fairy related. Let’s face it, we could all use a little sprinkling of fairy dust in our lives – something sweet and joyful to make us smile – whatever our age.

And just so you know, this fairy gift ideas guide is not just a selection of random, commercial (and usually overpriced) fairy merchandise. We’ve only selected the most thoughtful gifts created by talented craft makers and authors.

So with that in mind, we will be taking a little break from the everyday stresses that come with being a human and enter the enchanted world of fairies.

Here’s what’s on our wish list, so you can scroll straight down if you want to:

Fairy Gift Idea	Details
Needle Felt Fairies	These sweet, handmade Waldorf style fairies are suitable for special occasions or just as a stocking filler.
Fairy Books	Written in 1923, The Flower Fairies is the ultimate fairy book.
Fairy Costumes	Stunningly beautiful fairy costumes – all hand-made by talented designers and makers on Etsy.
Small Fairy Themed Gifts to Capture Children’s Imagination	Fairy doors and tooth fairy gifts.

Why Give a Fairy Gift?

There’s a reason why so many children love fairies. Fairies are the gateway to their creative imagination -as well as a welcome break from the everyday rules of life we all have to follow.

But I think that’s also the reason why adults love them too and the reason why fairy art prints, needle felted fairies, and other fairy themed items are so attractive to all of us.

Needle felted fairies, make especially decorative and thoughtful gifts for a best friend or for a special event such as the arrival of a new baby, baptism, or other special occasions. And honestly, they really don’t have to cost the earth!

Fairy Gift Ideas No 1 | Needle Felt Fairies

You can find beautifully handcrafted, themed needle felted fairies on Etsy, and in many cases, you can request to have one custom made especially for you or for a friend if you have one in mind.

Below are a few very affordable and beautiful new mom themed fairies on Etsy.

Waldorf Style Fairies

You may have noticed that many needle-felted fairies all have a similar and very distinctive style? That’s because they are based on the educational philosophies of Waldorf (or Steiner).

Waldorf inspired needle-felted fairies are designed to be minimalist, allowing the imagination to fill in the extra details. They are simple, yes, but at the same time, they are incredibly expressionistic and convey so much more emotion than you would think their simplicity would allow.

Below is one I made myself. It was my first one so I’m over the moon with how well she turned out.

Our Favourite Fairy Fiber Artists

Here are some of my favourite fibre artists with a few examples of their work:

Petra Vengar is from Slovenia in Europe. She is an incredibly talented mother of two daughters, both of whom attend a Waldorf school. It was through them that she was inspired to create these stunning needle felted fairies.

They are all as exquisite as the ones you can see below. And if you ask her, she will even make you a custom fairy.

Petra says “you can choose a hair color, color of dresses, hairstyle …actually, you can decide what story you want to tell and I can help to create one…”

You can visit Petras Etsy store and see more of her work, there.

Rebecca Varon owner of Nushkie on Etsy.

A native of New York and now living in California, the very talented Rebecca Varon, shop owner of Nushkie on Etsy was inspired by her daughter to make natural toys. She uses organic wool, merino wool fibers, silk fiber, and wire to make her wonderful creations. Rebecca will also make you a custom fairy.

You can see examples of Rebecca’s work below and more of her work here.

Sophie Streit owner of LivelySheep on Etsy UK

Sophie started needle felting just after the birth of her first daughter and quickly became hooked. She has recently moved to Irland where she makes exquisitely detailed, Waldorf style faires, inspired by nature.

Here are some more stunning examples of needle felted fairies, made by Sophie and other European fiber artists on Etsy.

Fairy Gift Ideas No 2 | Fairy Books

Books make wonderful gifts for children. I think I am not the only person who still owns a few much-loved childhood books. Richard Scarry‘s Animal Nursery Tales is one of my keepsakes. I loved the illustrations (still do) and I also have a very old, but beautiful copy of Alice in Wonderland – passed on to me by my mother, from her childhood.

So if you’d like to give a gift that a child might want to keep forever, what book could be more worth treasuring than a Flower Fairies book?

Cicely Mary Barker’s Flower Fairies books have delighted children and adults for almost 100 years.

And no wonder. First written in 1923, her books were filled with botanically accurate illustrations, and her fairies were all based on the sweet faces of real children that she sketched at her sister’s nursery school.

I think she has a very sweet face too, don’t you?

Accompanying each fairy illustration is a short song or poem – admittedly they are very old fashioned, but still charming.

You can meet Cicely’s fairies on the Flower Fairies website, and if you’d like a free coloring activity, you’ll also find a selection of black and white illustrations to print off.

Eight of her books are contained in The Complete Book Of The Flower Fairies that you can see below.

The Complete Book Of The Flower Fairies is available both in the US and the UK.

The Pop Up Books

When I was a child I loved pop-up books. Pop up books made me feel part of the story itself. The flower fairies series also has a selection of completely enchanting pop-up versions of the flower fairy books.

If you are in the US you can view them on Cicely Mary Barker’s author page here. If you are in the UK, you can view them here.

Fairy Gift Ideas No 3 | Fairy Costumes

We couldn’t have a fairy gift ideas guide without a few fairy costumes.

Children love to play at dressing up and rather than buying a cheaply made outfit that falls apart and looks a mess, you can find stunningly beautiful, handmade fairy dresses that are completely affordable.

Ideal for a party or special occasion, these dresses won’t go back into the closet to be outgrown before they get the chance to be worn again.

And did we mention how affordable they are?

So there’s a range of prices depending on what you go for, but if you compare some of the prices from FuzzyDucklingDesign‘s range to this one on Amazon, you’ll get the idea of what I’m talking about.

You can see more of Lisa Garcia’s wonderful creations at FuzzyDucklingDesign.

There are some beautifully handcrafted fairy costumes on Etsy. Above, is the Woodland fairy costume by Iowa, based designer and maker, Lisa Garcia from the United States.

And here is a stunning LILAH flower fairy tutu by British maker and designer Jade, owner of AramintaBoutique.

You can add some wings here.

Small Fairy Themed Gifts to Capture Children’s Imagination

For this section of our fairy gift ideas guide, we’ve put together a selection of small fairy related items to spark a child’s imagination.

Fairy Doors

I would have loved one of these when I was little, I think every bedroom should have one, and there are some that you can place in the garden.

And here is a selection from UK based sellers on Etsy.

Another idea from mapleandgrace, I love the description on this listing “perfect for writing notes to the fairy behind your fairy door”

And lastly, (until we add some more finds).

We all know that fairies have a very important job to do. So we’ve added some tooth fairy kits for girls and boys, from LittleLetterUK to our fairy gift ideas guide.

The History of Fairies

Though little is known of the true origins of these sweet little spirits of nature, they have endeared themselves to us over the years and ignited the imaginations of both children and adults alike.

I just wanted to show you this painting below, I think it’s completely stunning and sadly one of way too few famous paintings by women. Sophie Gengembre Anderson entitled the painting Take the Fair Face of Woman, and Gently Suspending, With Butterflies, Flowers, and Jewels Attending, Thus Your Fairy is Made of Most Beautiful Things.

If you’d like some decorative butterflies of your own, you can find some really pretty ones like the ones shown below.

Some Famous Fairies – A Fairy Timeline

• 1595-96 | William Shakespeare writes A Midsummer Nights Dream and everyone – apart from Samuel Pepys ( I’ll put his comments below, reading them always makes me laugh)* – is mesmerized by the fairies in the play. Peaseblossom, Cobweb, Moth, Mustardseed, and Puck. Puck is technically a sprite and he serves Oberon and Titania (the Fairy King and queen).
• 1697 | Charles Perrault writes a version of an age-old tale – Cinderella. But his version which is a lot more palatable than some of the other (gruesome) tales of the time, includes the adorable fairy godmother (and pumpkins).
• 1911 | J. M. Barrie publishes Peter Pan, and we are delighted by Tinkerbell.
• 1917 | The famous Cottingley fairy hoax hits the headlines of the day. Two little girls who claim to have seen and photographed real fairies caused a huge stir and convince many, including Sir Arthur Conan Doyle that the photographs were proof of the existence of fairies. (Everyone knows they can’t be captured on film).
• 1923 | Cicely Mary Barker is inspired to write a series of Flower Fairies books with more than a hundred botanically accurate illustrations. Drawing the faces of real children she sketches at her sister’s school, she brings the characters of her fairies to life.

_{* An extract from the Diaries of Samuel Pepys Monday 29th September:}

_{“and then to the King’s Theatre, where we saw “Midsummer’s Night’s Dream,” which I had never seen before, nor shall ever again, for it is the most insipid ridiculous play that ever I saw in my life.”}

We hope you found this Fairy Gift Ideas guide helpful. If you think there is anything fairy related that we should add to this list just let us know.