Some Incredible Ideas for your First Christmas with your Newborn

When it is your first Christmas with your baby, there are a whole lot of things going through your head.

You want to commemorate it, and make it special. You may want to set up new family traditions or continue ones from when you and your partner were children. You are probably very excited at the idea of being Santa for the first time, even if your baby is not going to be aware of anything that’s going on. You may also be exhausted, overwhelmed and not have the foggiest idea about what you should be doing this Christmas.

Here are some cool first Christmas ideas for you and your new little family:

#1 First Christmas Ornament

This is a really lovely tradition. You can buy a special Christmas tree ornament, either a customised one with your child’s name and the year on it, or something else exceptional and unique. Think out of the box on this one, you are not looking at Target for a family heirloom.

You could buy just one for your baby’s first Christmas, or you could add a special ornament every year to the collection. When your child leaves home (it sounds like a long time away, but trust me, it isn’t) you can give them a box of all of their ornaments from when they were a child.

Check out jewellery stores, Christmas markets, or even perhaps Etsy for some handmade items so you know that this gift will really be one of a kind.

#2 Christmas Stockings

Along the same lines are customised stockings or Santa sacks, again with your child’s name on them. You might want to buy Mummy and Daddy ones as well while you’re at it, if you want Santa to come to you too.

#3 Santa photos

At your local shopping centre there is guaranteed to be a set-up where you and your baby can pose with Santa for some gorgeous photos. You get bonus points if your child hates Santa and ends up crying the whole time, or even perhaps spitting-up on him. These photos are something you can do every year, and might be a lot of fun while your kids are young. As a tip though, don’t leave this until later in December, as the lines for photos with Santa can get horrendous. Get this one done early on.

#4 Family Christmas cards

You can use the Santa photos for this, or design a scheme of your own, but another great family tradition can be the annual Christmas card. You can mock these up quickly yourself and get them professionally printed quite cheaply, through services like Vistaprint.

Be careful if you start looking at Vistaprint however, it can be addictive. You can get your gorgeous bundle of joy’s face put onto tote bags, puzzles, wall size canvases, coffee mugs, t-shirts and much,much more, and you may find that it is hard to stop at just one.

#5 Elf on the Shelf

Personally, I am not an Elf on the Shelf fan, but then I’m usually the grinchy mum that tries to get away with doing the very least that she can. But families and kids especially love this little guy. As with a lot of these ideas, your baby will not know what is going on, but you will, and this sets up something wonderful for years to come.

With Elf on the Shelf, you buy this little cheeky looking toy and then he appears on the first of December. He sits somewhere and makes sure that all the girls and boys are being good. But he is alive, so he periodically goes back to Santa to report. And every night he moves around the house and generally gets up to mischief.

If you haven’t heard of this before, search for it on Google, or on Facebook. There are thousands of ideas and photos of the naughty little elf (some are a bit X-rated!). As your kids get older they will really get into the spirit of this tradition, and if you’re a Christmas lover then you’ll probably really get into it too.

#6 Christmas outfits

These ones I recommend you get from Target, or one of the other big department stores, because you will get only one wearing out of them. But tiny Christmas themed outfits are way too cute to pass up. Dress your baby like a little Santa, elf, a reindeer, or a Christmas fairy, and then giggle and take about a zillion pics. And then post them on social media and send them to all of your family.

#7 Christmas eve traditions

This is when you can start something that can then go onto become what your children look forward to every year. Some ideas for things you can do on Christmas Eve as a family include:

1) Going to see Christmas lights on houses in your neighbourhood
2) Reading ‘A Night Before Christmas’
3) Opening one present each (you could make it the special ornament)
4) Baking Christmas treats to leave out for Santa
5) Watching a classic movie or a more modern gem, like The Santa Clause, or Elf.

#8 Homemade gifts for grandparents

It is a well-known fact that in the year they first become grandparents, people lose all sense of personal taste, and just love getting daggy homemade gifts. The Internet is a great source of inspiration for this one, try Pinterest or Instagram for some ideas.

Anything that involves putting your baby’s tiny hands or feet in plaster, paint or bronze is an excellent idea. Some of them are awful, but some of them are stunning, you just need to look a little to find some clever ideas.

Remember, it is supposed to be fun

One thing to remember though is to be a little bit flexible about these things. You don’t need to use exactly the same supplier for the first ornament and named stockings for each of your children. Chances are by the second or third child you have moved to a different home, or have no idea who you used the first time.

Don’t stress too much about them being exactly the same for every child. The difference in them (or why the third child didn’t get one at all) will just become part of the charming Christmas story that you tell them when they get older.

Don’t look at this list and then become exhausted just at the idea of it all. Do as much or as little as you like. Close friends and family may want to become involved and traditionally start being the relative that does that one thing every year. Let others be a part of it and don’t try to do everything yourself.

Christmas is by no means a time to start feeling like you need to be a supermum and have it all together. Breathe, eat something decadent and listen to whatever carols make you happy (I recommend Wham, but that’s just me). You have many years yet to mess everything up, don’t do it all in your first Christmas!