One design, in quantity
Guests compare at the door. One design in one finish across the whole list reads as considered. A mixture reads as leftovers, whatever the individual pieces cost.
Svastika's
Baby Shower Return Gifts
Small plated diyas, tortoises and Kamdhenu pieces to hand every guest at a seemantham, valaikappu or godh bharai.
Authentic & True7 Days Easy Return
Relevant Collections
Lord Krishna
Lord Ganesha
Charan Padukas
Brass Diyas
Bulk Gift Items
God Idols & FigurinesBefore you bring one home
Choosing a return gift for the guests
Know the floor
Nothing here sits under about a thousand rupees a head. Below that, a sweet box, bangles or a steel item is the honest answer, and we do not make any of those.
Tell them to keep it dry
Plated pieces are a resin core, then copper, then gold or silver on top. A dry cloth is all they need, and water is the one thing the finish will not survive.
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A short guide
Return gifts for a seemantham, valaikappu or godh bharai
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The ceremony has a different name in every part of India, and the return gift is the one thing every version of it has in common. Seemantham, also sreemantham, srimantham or seemantha, across the Telugu and Kannada south. Valaikappu in Tamil Nadu, named for the bangles slid onto the mother's arms. Godh bharai in the north and in Hindi, meaning the filling of the lap. Shrimant, or dohale jevan, in Maharashtra. In English, simply the baby shower. Whichever one you have been invited to, the guests who come to bless the mother are sent home with something, and it is usually the last thing anybody plans and the first thing every guest handles.
Almost all of those guests are women, most of them from the two families, and they are handed the same thing at the door within a few minutes of each other. That is the whole design problem, and it decides everything below.
What this costs a head, and when we are the wrong shop
Most people looking for this are looking with a number attached: under 200 a head, under 100, sometimes under 50. The gift blogs that rank for these terms advise somewhere between 150 and 500 a piece, and they are right about the market. A fifty guest list at 200 a head is already a serious sum.
We do not sit in that band, and there is no point pretending otherwise. Under 500 a head there is nothing here at all. The smallest pieces start at about a thousand rupees, and the designs that exist in enough depth to cover a whole guest list in one finish sit a little above that. Below a thousand a head we are the wrong shop, and nothing on this page will make us the right one.
What is right below that is what families have always done: a sweet box from a good local shop, glass or metal bangles at a valaikappu where they are part of the rite in any case, a small packet of kumkum and haldi, or a steel item. We make none of those, so this is not a nudge toward a cheaper page of ours. If the budget per guest is under a thousand and you want it spent on one thing, spend it on the sweets, and give a single good piece to the two or three people it would mean the most to.
Where this page earns its keep is the smaller, older gathering. Twenty or thirty guests, mostly family, where the return gift is meant to sit on a shelf rather than be eaten in a week. At that guest count a thousand a head is an ordinary number, and a plated keepsake is a better answer than a hamper.
Buy one design in quantity rather than a mixture
Guests compare, because these are given out at the door and opened in the car. A mixture reads as leftovers however good the individual pieces are, and somebody always goes home with the one that looks like the cheap one. One design, in one finish, in the full quantity, is the single decision that makes a return gift look considered.
It also has to be a design that exists in that quantity, which is a real constraint rather than a formality. Ask for the count before you settle on a subject rather than after, since a particular finish is the first thing to run short. Send the number and the date through the bulk order enquiry page so the whole set ships together, and see what works in numbers.
What to give the guests when you do not know their households
A return gift goes to fifty different homes with fifty different deities in them, so the safe subjects are the ones that ask nothing of anybody. The Kamdhenu cow with her calf reads unusually well at this particular function, being a mother and a calf, and it is domestic rather than devotional. A tortoise is welcome in almost any house. A charan paduka is small, unmistakably auspicious and takes up no shelf.
Where you do know the room, the household deity beats all of it. In Telugu and Kannada families that is usually Balaji, and a small Balaji face is the piece most likely to go straight into a mandir rather than a cupboard. In Tamil homes it is often Murugan with his vel. Ganesha is the default nobody objects to.
A pocket temple is the upgrade where the budget allows it, since it is the only thing on this list a guest will still be using in five years. A brass diya is the other good answer, though brass is heavier per head in both senses of it and suits a shorter list.
What not to give is anything for the baby. The convention at this ceremony runs the other way, and a good many families prefer nothing for the child before the birth at all. The gift for the mother herself is a different question with a different answer, so see what to give her.
Why these are plated, and the one thing to tell the guests
Most of what suits a return gift here is plated: a resin core, a layer of copper over it, then gold or silver electroplated on top, and on some pieces both. The copper is the layer that matters, because resin cannot be plated directly and the copper is what the precious metal keys onto. It is also why these pieces are light, which is not a small thing when you are carrying sixty of them into a hall, why the detail stays crisp at a small size, and why water is the one thing the finish will not survive. Say so when you hand it over, or put a line in the card: a dry cloth, and no abhishek.
Plated pieces present at their best straight out of the box, which is the entire job on the day. Solid brass is the choice if the piece is meant to be bathed and kept for decades, and it is priced accordingly, so it belongs on a short list rather than a full one.
How they arrive
Every piece is checked at our own warehouse before it goes out, and everything ships in our own packaging, made to be opened rather than merely to survive the journey. That matters more here than on most pages, because a return gift is handed over in front of a room and a fair number of them are opened on the spot. Nothing needs wrapping before you give it.
Order as soon as the date is fixed. These are held in the later months and the date moves earlier more often than it moves later, which is how families end up buying sixty of something in a week.
The same guest list will meet again
Within the year, at the child's first rice, the annaprashan, and at the first haircut, the mundan. Both send guests home with something as well. Keeping to one metal across the three reads as a set rather than a repeat, and it makes the second and third order much easier to place.
✦ Questions, carefully answered
The small things you wondered about
Something small, auspicious and welcome in a house whose deity you do not know. The Kamdhenu cow with her calf suits this function particularly well, being a mother and a calf, and it is domestic rather than devotional. A tortoise, a charan paduka or a small Ganesha are the other safe subjects. A pocket temple is the upgrade where the budget allows, since it is the only one a guest will still be using in five years.
The honest market is 150 to 500 a piece, and at fifty guests that is already a serious sum. We do not sit in that band. Under 500 a head there is nothing here at all, and the smallest pieces start at about a thousand rupees. This page suits the smaller gathering of twenty or thirty, mostly family, where the return gift is meant to sit on a shelf rather than be eaten in a week.
Not us, and we would rather say so. Below about a thousand rupees a head the right answer is what families have always done: a sweet box from a good local shop, glass or metal bangles at a valaikappu where they are part of the rite anyway, a packet of kumkum and haldi, or a steel item. We make none of those. If the budget is tight, spend it on the sweets and give one good piece to the two or three people it would mean the most to.
One design, in one finish, in the full quantity. Guests compare, because these are given out at the door and opened in the car, and a mixture reads as leftovers however good the individual pieces are. Somebody always goes home with the one that looks like the cheap one. Ask what exists in your quantity before you settle on a subject rather than after, since a particular finish is the first thing to run short.
At the Indian versions, yes, it is expected. Every version of this ceremony sends guests home with something in thanks for the blessing, and at a valaikappu the bangles themselves are often part of it. It is not the western baby shower convention, which is why people attending their first one are so often caught out by it.
Seemantham, also sreemantham, srimantham or seemantha, across the Telugu and Kannada south. Valaikappu in Tamil Nadu, named for the bangles slid onto the mother's arms. Godh bharai in the north and in Hindi, meaning the filling of the lap. Shrimant, or dohale jevan, in Maharashtra. In English, simply the baby shower. One rite, and the return gift works the same way at all of them.
The bangles are given during the rite itself rather than as the parting gift, so most families still send guests home with something separate. Small plated pieces are the convention: a Kamdhenu, a tortoise, a charan paduka, or Murugan with his vel, which is the deity most likely to already be in a Tamil household. We do not make bangles, so if bangles are the whole of your budget, buy them locally where you can match colours to the sarees.
Something that goes on a shelf or into a mandir rather than into a drawer. A small Balaji face is the piece most likely to be put straight into a mandir in Telugu and Kannada homes. Beyond the household deity, the subjects that ask nothing of anybody travel best across fifty different houses: the Kamdhenu, a tortoise, a charan paduka.
Yes, and it is the normal way to buy this. Send the count and the date through the bulk order enquiry page and we will confirm what can be matched in one finish, since the quantity constrains the subject more than the budget does. Order as soon as the date is fixed. These are held in the later months and the date moves earlier more often than later.
They are plated, not solid: a resin core, a layer of copper over it, then gold or silver electroplated on top, and on some pieces both. The copper is what the precious metal keys onto, because resin cannot be plated directly, and it is why the pieces are light and hold crisp detail at a small size. A dry cloth is all the care they need, and water is the one thing the finish will not survive, so no abhishek. Worth saying when you hand it over.
No. Every piece is checked at our own warehouse before it goes out, and everything ships in our own packaging, made to be opened rather than merely to survive the journey. That matters more at this function than most, because a return gift is handed over in front of a room and a fair number are opened on the spot.
The same guest list meets again within the year, at the child's first rice, the annaprashan, and at the first haircut, the mundan. Both send guests home with something as well. Keeping to one metal across the three reads as a set rather than a repeat, and it makes the second and third order much easier to place.
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