The first 12 months of having a baby is full of so many exciting firsts including their first Christmas. Last Christmas (Christmas 2020) was Rowan’s first Christmas and Edwin and I were just reminiscing about how Rowan had just gained some solid head control and how that was SO exciting and felt huge for us as parents. Fast forward 12 months and Rowan will be 15 months old experiencing his second Christmas later this week. My oh my he has grown so much. What a joy it has all been. I find that my joy-meter as a parent runs extra high at the holidays!
Anywho, it is incredibly exciting and fulfilling to celebrate baby milestones. I’ve tried to document every major moment (more on Rowan’s first Christmas here and here) and, after Rowan’s first year full of firsts, I think it’s a particularly great idea to make baby’s first Christmas celebration extra special. To go along with that, it is a wonderful time to start new family traditions with your new little baby in tow. So, in today’s post, I’m sharing creative ways for how you can celebrate your baby’s first Christmas celebration to make it more memorable for the whole family.
How To Celebrate Baby’s First Christmas
Wear Matching Christmas Pajamas
Perhaps the easiest (and also the cheesiest, I mean cutest!) way to celebrate your baby’s first Christmas is by wearing matching Christmas pajamas with your little bundle of love. You’re sure have an extra snuggly time with them and to get a great photo out of the matching cozy outfits.
Take an Annual Christmas Photo
Take an annual Christmas photo in front of your tree or somewhere else festive, starting with the year your baby was born, so you can look back and see how your little grows over the years Christmas to Christmas.
Design a Special Christmas Card
My mother did and still does such a wonderful job of designing a beautiful holiday card every year. I loved it growing up and find so much joy in doing it now with my own family. Rowan was born in late September so, for Rowan’s first Christmas, I decided to combine our Christmas card with his birth announcement and I created a hybrid Christmas themed birth announcement and Christmas card in one as seen here and here! I LOVE Christmas cards and love opening the mail every day in December to see whose card has arrived.
Designing an extra special Christmas card for your baby’s first Christmas is a great way to bring extra holiday spirit that year. P.S. More on my favorite Christmas cards here + I love this selection of holiday birth announcements (they do it every year so bookmark this for next year if you are expecting a baby in 2022)!
Find a Personalized Ornament
A really special way to celebrate baby’s first Christmas is to buy a sterling silver annual Christmas ornament for the year your baby was born. You can take it a step further by getting it engraved with your baby’s name. No other ornament will make you as happy as this one to hang on your Christmas tree every year.
Immortalize a Handprint or Footprint
Do a DIY arts and crafts project with your baby and immortalize his or her handprint or footprint from either birth or from his or her first holiday season by turning it into a Christmas ornament. Get creative and make it a really special, made with love memento.
Meet Santa for the First Time
Meeting Santa for the first time is a rite of passage during a baby’s first holiday season. Dress your little love up in their Christmas best or an adorable Christmas sweater for a photo that is sure to go down in your family’s Christmas memory books.
Make a Special Christmas Meal
Make a special Christmas meal that will mark the year or that could possibly become one of your favorite Christmas traditions. A few ideas include red and green Christmas enchiladas or something fancy like beef bourguignon.
Collect Christmas Children’s Books
So many Children’s books have pages at the front of them where you can inscribe who the book belongs to and sometimes who the book was gifted by. I suggest starting a little collection of children’s Christmas books for your baby on their first Christmas and writing in them your little’s name, date (i.e. Christmas 2021), and who they were from. You could even add an extra description of an antidote about reading the book with your little for their first Christmas that will be so fun to look back on and remember year after year when you bring out your holiday books at Christmas.
This will make the books a cherished item that your little can one day read to and pass down to their littles. One must is The Night Before Christmas! You can start the Christmas tradition of reading The Night Before Christmas to your baby on baby’s first Christmas Eve. P.S. All my favorite children’s Christmas books are here.
There are other holiday things you can do to mark your baby’s first Christmas like visiting the best Christmas lights in your neighborhood, attending a tree lighting, or going to a Santa tea. No matter how you spend your baby’s first holiday season, it is sure to be your most special Christmas yet.
