Baby’s first Christmas is a magical experience. It’s one of those times you’ll never forget. Even though baby isn’t quite old enough to know what’s happening, there’s nothing like looking at your baby and realizing nothing else that you get on Christmas matters.
With all the joy and excitement of baby’s first Christmas, this is also your chance to start some fun Christmas traditions as a family. We’ve partnered with Pampers for this sponsored post to bring you some of our favorite first Christmas traditions.
Traditions to Start on Baby’s First Christmas
A yearly photo
Choose a spot where you can take the same picture of your child each year. Maybe it’s the fireplace, or propped in a certain chair. Choose something that will be easy to replicate year after year. If you plan to move soon, find a prop or Christmas decoration that will be moving with you from house to house so you can recreate the same scene no matter where you live.
The ornament tradition
Each year, purchase (or make) an ornament for your child. Try to find things that reflect your child’s year so far. A baby’s first Christmas ornament is the simple choice for this year, but as your baby grows you can choose ornaments based off of their interests that year. Then, when you child gets married or buys their first house gift them all of the ornaments you’ve purchased for them through the years so they can use them on their tree each year.
Pro tip: If you are making special ornaments like these handprint ones, make one for you to keep forever, and one for your child to eventually take, because you won’t want to let those baby handprints go when your baby is an adult!
Christmas storybooks
Start collecting Christmas storybooks to read with your child each year. If you collect 25 Christmas books, then you can do a Christmas countdown, opening a new Christmas book each evening in December as you look forward to the holiday.
Christmas PJs
Seriously, Christmas PJs are the cutest things…ever! We buy new ones every year, and I love taking pictures of the kids in them. Red or green stripes are always my favorite to dress them in!
Family photo
We talked earlier about getting a shot of baby in the same place every year, but also make sure you get a photo of the whole family in front of the Christmas tree. Watching every one change and grow together through the years is a beautiful thing!
Be prepared for anything
While this is not strictly a tradition, it’s worth mentioning. You want to be prepared for whatever baby might through your way during the holiday. Have a plan for nap times and especially for noise during nap time. It can be hard to get baby to sleep with so much going on in the house, so make a game plan before baby is tired and crying for sleep.
Make sure you have the BEST diapers on hand and lots of them. Pampers Swadlers is the number one brand chosen by hospitals, which puts it as the clear choice for baby’s first Christmas! You don’t want photos ruined by a diaper that’s leaked onto baby’s “first Christmas” outfit. Seriously friends, this happened to me one year and it was SUCH a bummer!
You’ll definitely be wanting to use them on baby for Christmas eve too. The Absorb Away liners wick away the wetness so baby can sleep better. You’ll both get the rest you need for a big day of holiday celebrating.
Get the Pampers Swaddlers Overnights, to keep your baby dry during nap time, photo time, bed time and ALL the time! Until November 12th this year you can get a $20 Babies R’ Us gift card when you purchase any two value boxes of Pampers (in stores).
You can also check out the in-store events with Pampers at Babies R’ Us November 12th (For babies born April 2016 – July 2016) and November 19th (For babies born August 2016 – November 2016). The events will help you meet local parents with babies the same age and participate in fun holiday activities with your baby.
Enter the giveaway below for your chance to win a $25 Babies R’ Us gift card! Comment and tell me what you are most looking forward to about your baby’s first Christmas, or if your baby is older, share your favorite memory from their first Christmas in a comment!
This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Procter & Gamble.
Heather Hammel says
These are some great ideas, especially the storybooks! Giving them an ornament every year is a great idea too but I’m pretty sure Jesse’s mom will be in charge of that b/c she has always done that for Jesse and still does and now she gives me an ornament too- we need a bigger tree!
My due date isn’t until after Christmas and my c-section isn’t scheduled for until after Christmas. The majority of me doesn’t want Rory to be born before Christmas since we wouldn’t have anything special planned for her and we could possibly be in the hospital during Christmas but with her already weighing 6 lbs 1 oz with me only being 32 1/2 weeks along, I kind of want her to come just before Christmas because she’s going to be a huge baby. Plus, for some reason I have a feeling she’s going to be born somewhere between 36-37 weeks. If she can at least safely stay put until I’m 37 weeks, I’ll be happy/ happier.
http://dogmomchic.blogspot.com/
Erin W says
Our little girl “helped” make Gingerbread house her first Christmas. It was mostly gnawing on her gingerbread man, but it was darling!
Adrienne says
My daughter is 10 months old right now and exploring everything! I can’t wait to watch her play with boxes and wrapping paper, feel the Christmas tree, and see her grandparents.
Jennie Sanderson says
My son was due on Xmas but he came a few days after, his first Xmas was funny because he had literally no interest in any of it. Not the tree, not the food, not the gifts. Hoping for a sibling for him by next fall!
Chelsea says
Love the Christmas ornament tradition! A favorite tradition of our own is participating in advent, j sharing the Christmas story.
Sarah says
We’ve started an ornament tradition at our house :) Well, really… I have started it LOL. Since we got married by Christmas we buy an anniversary ornament every year, and I buy or make one for each child every year (usually).
Stephanie Jones says
This is the first Christmas our youngest will really remember (he was only 3 months old last Christmas), so it will be fun to see how he reacts to presents/tree/etc. :) We don’t necessarily have any traditions since we are somewhere different each year lol.
Bonnie says
We do the ornament each year. I have a baby’s first Christmas, an Angry Bird, and a dump truck this year.
Danielle says
Im looking forward to start te ornament tradition and the 4 gift something to wear, read, want and need.
Grace Elliott says
Our tradition is every other year we get new Christmas pj’s! We also do the 4 present Christmas… need, want, wear, read.
Beverly jones says
My children are all adults, but everyone still gets a new ornament for Christmas. Use a sharpie and put a date on it. Sometimes it’s part of the ornament that shows and sometimes it’s just written on the back. Makes it fun to remember a particular year and what we were doing. The baby was born in October, so just a lot of snoozing going on that first Christmas
Rachel Zimmerman says
Going on see santa.
Jennifer Abadie says
My 2 year old daughter and I are going today or tomorrow to our local craft store and make our own Advent Calendar. I want to start that tradition with her. We will also later on see Santa and bake Christmas cookies.
Kate Skero says
Love these ideas! I always love taking photos of babies in stocking!! ?
Stephanie Phelps says
This will be the most exciting she is one this Christmas and we are planning to have her see Santa and we have bought her special pj’s for the special day!
Marilyn Nawara says
My son was only 1 month old on his First Chrismas so it was pretty uneventful. He received lots of gifts… toys, outfits and keepsakes.
Onyinye Elochukwu says
This will be my son’s first Christmas. We plan to go see Santa and take pictures.
Tiffany Greene Elliott says
My 8 kids are older than 1 but I always love watching them tear the wrapping paper to see what was inside!
I love the ornaments tradition!
Rosalee Jacklin says
Its my sons first Christmas! He will be 9 months old! We plan on videoing ALL of his moments from opening presents to playing with his gifts & eating his first Christmas dinner. Its such an exciting time because its the only time it will be his first. I make a huge deal out of first moments! And love to make scrap books!
Rosie says
These are nice ideas, good to think ahead to start at the first Christmas so you haven’t missed any for later on when you are looking back!
Karen Beckett says
I am so glad that I can look back & recall our family traditions.
Paol Trenny says
We are taking our baby girl to see her first christmas light show.
Karen Glatt says
I love the Christmas tradition ornament idea and taking a picture each year at Christmas to see child grow over the years is something that I am going to do!
Natalie says
This will be my niece’s first Christmas! I want to make it special!
Karen R says
I love the ornament idea. We adopted our son when he was 9. He and we had a special Christmas that year. He didn’t have much before then on Christmas so it was a joy to see how he reacted.
Lisa Coomer Queen says
These are great traditions. I will have to do some of these. I will have a new grandchild next Christmas. Thanks!
Alexis Martindale says
Take him to visit Santa
Audrey Stewart says
I remember our babies first kitchen as quiet. She was born on December 17th. The best one was when she believed in Santa Clause, and went to bed early. She was so excited.
Karen Propes says
I think a tradition to follow through the years is great! We started by having her take an ornament off the tree every year in a picture. It’s so much fun to go back and look how much she changed throughout the years.
TammyCatterton says
My son was so lucky to have his great grandmother she love to spoil him that time of year . Just say Christmas so special on their first Christmas to see their eyes light up with the lights so on
Samantha says
My poor parents have 12 class photos each for my brother and I in some kind of ornament. Some are worse than others but I know they cherish them. With my niece, we’ve been doing days where we try and get some kinda substitute for snow; whether it be bubbles or renting a snow machine. We live in Florida so my niece gets to make snow angels and have fun, all while wearing her little swim suit!
Dana Rodriguez says
I think personalized ornaments are a great idea. Our first grand child was born last week and I am getting him one.
Marina Cook says
My baby’s first Christmas was super cute, we dressed him as a baby Santa! My son’s big sisters made ginger bread houses and my son was trying to lick off the icing, too cute.
Shawna says
Every Christmas eve we would get to open one present as kids. It was always new pajamas so our pictures the next morning would “look Nice”. I did the same with my kids form their 1st Christmas. we still do it today and my kids are 24 and 27!
Ashley C says
Love these ideas! I plan on giving them a new pair of PJs on Christmas Even along with a special new book to read on Christmas eve too. I hope this can be our yearly tradition!
Casey Mclendon says
Awww love all your photos and story! I have 3 sons! Each Christmas has been magically enjoying it with them! My youngest son Landyn just turned 2. Last year he didn’t really know what was going on this year he’s all about Ho Ho /Santa Claus and says HO HO HO every time you say Christmas! His brother Lucas,4 taught him that! lol Thx for the chance to win! :) Merry Christmas!
Megan tilley says
We started the ornament yearl with my daughter. We buy one and make one.
Maria Beas says
We’re taking a family picture to get our Christmas cards done and send them to our family members that live far away. Happy holidays.