Christmas

selement

I'm going to have a roughly 1 month old this Christmas(maybe 2 month if baby arrives early). I'm looking forward to starting some new family Christmas traditions but baby will be too young for it to be worth doing much . I think I'm going to leave presents up to everyone else. Might do an Xmas eve box that's more for me and OH (can include for baby next year). Not going to bother visiting santa this year either. It's up to you of course it's just you'd be going to effort for you as baby won't know what's going on

TBagpuss

fairy_lights wrote: »

No one, apart from possibly grandparents, wants a card with a picture of your baby on.

I disagree.

Lots of people enjoy getting christmas cards and still more like getting a hand written thank you note.

You can have fun buying or making a cute outfit for your baby and using photos of it as thank you cards (probably baby will get gifts from others)

If you normally send out Christmas cards, then taking cure photos of the baby to use this year is fine - some people will enjoy them just because it is nice to get a card, others will enjoy seeing a picture of the baby dressed up as Santa, or a fairy or angel or reindeer or whatever you pick!

For the rest, I'd say don't spend a lot / much on gifts for the baby, as they will be too young to remember or notice. Decide what you and your partner will enjoy and what may make nice memories - so you could, for instance, think about whether you want to start a tradition of buying or making one new bauble / decoration each year.

Talk with your partner about things he would like to do by way of making new traditions, or carrying on traditions his mum had, or any specific things he would explicitly like to avoid.

Mabr

I have 4 kids and for each of their first Christmas's I bought a Cherished Teddy Christmas ornament with the year on it so that they each have one to take with them when they move on to their own homes. Totally agree with not buying much but I did buy the last one a Steiff Teddy (about £25/30) with the year on it's foot which has become her favourite teddy. I wanted her to have something special and as it was her only present I didn't mind buying a slightly more expensive teddy.

surveyqueenuk

fairy_lights wrote: »

No one, apart from possibly grandparents, wants a card with a picture of your baby on.

I have to agree here. Whilst a baby is the most beautiful thing ever to its parents and GPS (and quite rightly so), many others feel it is a case of "Seen one, seen them all".

Robots

If you really want to do something, I would suggest buying an inexpensive toy and wrapping it. You can then have a video 'memory' for your child when they are older. I also agree with starting a tradition, such as reading the same book each Christmas Eve.

LilElvis

Even if it's just the three of you then get the Christmas Day food ready prepared. Trying to juggle all the food prep, stuff going in and out of the oven etc whilst also feeding/ changing baby and trying to enjoy the day is very tricky - even more so if you have grandparents and relatives staying for dinner or "just popping in for a few minutes". My daughter's now eight and I still opt for an M&S Christmas dinner - in fact I was the first person to place my order in our local store, for the fourth year running

suki1964

I would concentrate on you and your partner tbh, baby is far too young to know whats happening, even a 2 year old doesn't quite grasp it. They don't get into the excitement zone until at least 3 or 4.

All your baby wants on Christmas Day is being fed, watered, changed and napped as usual, whilst you want to be doing the big Christmas thing. As for seeing Santa , I can remember screaming the place down as a child, I remember my little sister doing the same and I most certainly remember my grandkids doing the same, even at 3 years old

I really don't want to rain on your parade, its just experiences of Christmases with baby nieces and nephews and grandchildren have shown me that its a total waste of time and money making the day for them that young. Both my sisters loved Christmas Day with us because they got to concentrate on baby and catch up on sleep whilst there were willing hands doing the cooking and babysitting, step daughter was the same

Now my youngest granddaughter is five and Christmas has become magical for her and we do hype it up for her now with the Santa letters, the Santa spotting, visiting Santa, leaving the food out etc etc but before now it really didn't mean a thing for her

Start the traditions that you had as a child and want to recreate surely, but don't expect too much this year or next

One tradition we have is a new tree bauble for the birth of each child and as they get older they are the ones who put it on the tree

we have the bauble that was made for my husbands birth, a hand carved car