Our Fave Creative Ideas to Celebrate Baby's First Christmas

Your first year with your baby includes tons of big milestones - from the first tooth to the first time crawling. The holidays are another important date on baby's calendar of firsts, and we have lots of great ideas for celebrating baby's first Christmas with style and meaning. You'll have lots of Christmases with you baby as the years go by, but nothing will ever be quite like this first holiday together.

Traditions for Your Baby's First Christmas

Holiday traditions are activities, events or special practices you repeat year after year. This is often where fond Christmas memories are made. Although your newborn or infant can recognize familiar sights and sounds, she's not likely to remember this first Christmas. Even though memories made in the first nine months may not become long-term memories, you can capture these memories with pictures to help solidify the history of a tradition as your baby grows.

Traditions can be simple activities or events you participate in year after year.

Matching Christmas PJs

Wear matching family pajamas on Christmas Eve and morning. These pant and long-sleeve shirt sets are white with red trim and a red/green Christmas tree pattern. Look for sizes that range from baby up to adult men's and women's. Siblings will love a tradition that includes them, and the attire makes for a great annual photo op.

Handprint and Footprint Ornaments

Make themed salt dough ornaments each year using handprints or footprints. Use handprint impressions to make Santa Claus, a snowman family with each finger as a snowman, the Grinch, or a reindeer. Use footprint impressions to make mistletoe, a snowman, a reindeer, a Christmas tree or a penguin. Choose one category, like footprint snowman, each year and have all your kids make the same kind of ornament. Since you'll choose a new theme each year, you'll have a variety of ornaments after a few years.

Christmas Carol Lullabies and Christmas Bedtime Books

Sing Christmas carols at bedtime instead of a typical lullaby. Encourage older siblings to sing carols they know to their baby brother or sister.

Read a new holiday book each day for a few days before Christmas. Since baby can't select books, get the whole family involved by letting each person choose a book one day.

Holiday Photo Advent Calendar

Make a photo advent calendar. Hang a long string on the wall and attach mini clothespins. Create 25 small squares of cardstock, and number each one. Clip them to the string. Each December day, replace the number with a photo of the baby or your family as a countdown to his first Christmas.

Fingerprint Tree Wall Hanging

Make a fingerprint tree wall hanging you can modify every year. Purchase a picture frame and cut a piece of poster board or cardstock to fit in the frame. Use a brown marker to draw the Christmas tree trunk and tree center on the paper. Using nontoxic yellow fingerpaint, stamp baby's handprint on top of the tree for the star. Then, use green paint to dot mom's, dad's, and baby's fingerprints around the tree center. Each year use a different shade of green to fill in the tree with more fingerprints. Hang up your creation every Christmas as a reminder how your little one has grown.

Choose a Few First Christmas Keepsakes

Since your baby's ability to participate in activities is limited, keepsake items help mark the special occasion and serve as a memento for the rest of her life. Start a new tradition for your baby this year when you:

• Purchase an ornament that says "first Christmas." You'll have a memory from this year and can start the tradition of getting a new memento ornament every year. This is a great gift for grandparents to give grandchildren.
• Keep baby's Christmas Day outfit to use in making a Christmas quilt. Grab a box or tote bin to keep outfits year after year. When you have enough, start making a quilt or a quilted stocking from the squares of fabric.
• Make a mini photo book each year. After Christmas events are over, upload pictures to a site like Shutterfly where you can make a small photo book. Each year you can look through the books from the past and relive the memories.

Set Up Some Christmas Photo Ops

Capturing baby's reaction to this magical season in baby's first Christmas picture gives you and her something to look back on for years to come. While fancy outfits and elaborate settings look great and seem festive, they can be really uncomfortable for your little one. Consider snapping your own candid shots to serve as this year's holiday picture. Take a family photo in front of your stockings or make a set for a baby photo shoot where your little one sits inside a box that's wrapped in festive paper on the outside.

Sibling Gift Exchanges

Christmas is a great time to encourage sibling bonds by allowing kids to pick out presents for each other. Babies can participate too if you get creative.

• Take toddlers and older kids to a cheap store like the Dollar Tree, where every item costs $1, and let them pick one or more items for each sibling depending on your budget. Talk about choosing a gift the receiver will love.
• Write down four or five gift options and assign each one to something baby can do. For example, you might say if baby smiles he chooses the first thing on your list, and if he toots he chooses the last item. After you complete the list, whichever action baby takes first tells you his selection for each sibling. Make the selection process fun for everyone by allowing each child to pick for others using the same criteria, no matter their age.
• Use a classic drawing to decide which one sibling each child gets to focus on and buy gifts for. Write each child's name on a slip of paper then have everyone choose one out of a bucket. Older babies and their big brothers or sisters can all participate.
• Have each kid create a work of art for each other using age-appropriate techniques like finger painting for babies, marble painting for younger kids, and splatter painting for older kids.

Gift Ideas for Baby's First Christmas

For most kids, presents are a favorite part of Christmas. Babies, on the other hand, will either sleep through this part or enjoy playing with wrapping paper more than gifts. Since this activity is more fun for the adults giving the gifts, consider useful or thoughtful gifts for baby's first Christmas. While you might not think diapers, books, and clothes are fun for kids most babies won't discern between types of gifts, they just love seeing new things.

If you do decide to purchase toys, keep holiday toy safety in mind and purchase items designed for your baby's age group. Great baby toys and gifts include:

• A set of wooden or plastic musical instruments including maracas will be fun for baby at any age and will last as they learn to use them in different ways.
• A DIY sensory bin made by filling a small bin with items like ripped strips of white paper to resemble snow then hiding in small, soft toys like felted critters and other Christmas items.
• Large indoor playsets are fun for older babies and continue to be a favorite toy for years to come.
• Find quirky fun toys like the Tobbles Neo set take classic baby toys to the next level. This set of soft, curved, stacking pieces feel great in baby's hands or mouth and offer endless hours of creativity.
• Clothing - Fun socks, cold weather accessories, and cute onesies are great.
• Board books - Classic made-for-baby titles include Sandra Boynton's Moo, Baa, La, La, La or Margaret Brown's Goodnight Moon.
• A gift certificate to an indoor play area, children's museum, or animal park can be fun.

Related: How to Set Up a Play Area to Help Your Little One Learn & Grow

Events for Baby's First Christmas

From small family gatherings to public events and large parties, Christmas is full of opportunities to show off baby or share the holiday spirit with your little one. Although you may feel tempted or pressured to do it all, keeping baby's needs as a top priority helps everyone have the best first Christmas experience. If you've got more than one child, keep everyone's needs in mind and look for opportunities to give each child an individual experience. While baby might not be ready for that after the dinner party, your elementary child would love the chance to stay up late and do something special with mom or dad while the other parent stays home.

Babies are constantly stimulated by their environment as they experience everything for the first time. All the extra people, decorations, lights, and music can be overwhelming for some. To make sure you and baby have a happy time during the holidays:

• Choose only the most important events to attend this year.
• Spread the fun out over a few days to give everyone time with baby and keep baby from getting too far off schedule.
• Ask ahead about a quiet place to go at the event when you see baby needs a break.
• Host a holiday open house in your home during baby's peak hours. This allows friends and family to pop in and keeps baby on a schedule. Ask everyone to wear onesie pajamas to match baby's typical attire.
• If you can't find ways to work around baby's schedule, do your best to schedule events around sleep and feeding schedules to optimize baby's awake and happy time while with friends and family. Plan to travel during usual nap times and feed the baby before you head to the party so she'll be ready to mingle as soon as you step inside.
• Virtually attend holiday gatherings thanks to technology like video call services where you can leave your webcam on during party hours. This gives guests a chance to see you and baby but also allows baby the comforts of home.

Comfort and Safety Tips for the First Christmas

Depending on your location, winter weather can put a real damper on holiday travel and activities. Keep winter safety tips in mind as you leave the house with the baby. Carrying an infant and all their gear along with presents can create a dangerous scenario.

Keep Decorations Age-Appropriate

Christmas decorations help create a festive holiday atmosphere, but they can also be dangerous for babies. When decorating indoors with lights follow Christmas light safety tips and check to make sure there are no frayed wires, loose bulbs, and try hanging them out of reach for baby. If using other decorations, try to keep them higher up so baby can't grab or pull them. Look for decorations that are nontoxic and shatterproof for maximum safety. Avoid any items that may fall easily, like tinsel.

Get Creative With the Christmas Tree

When it comes to the Christmas tree, there are many creative ways to get the look and feel of a traditional one without posing a safety hazard to your new baby. If you have a newborn, they can't get into anything on their own but you'll want to make sure there are no tripping hazards for you when carrying him. If you've got an older baby and are concerned about tree safety, consider one of these alternative Christmas tree options:

• Buy a small tabletop tree you can keep on a high surface where baby can't reach. Use a battery-powered string of LED lights if you must have lights so there won't be a cord hanging down to an outlet.
• Make a felt tree by cutting a Christmas tree and ornament shapes out of felt and attaching it to a wall. Baby can safely take down and replace ornaments making it an interactive experience.
• Hang your tree upside-down from the ceiling so it's nowhere near the floor. Make sure any lights and other decorations don't hang down too far or are at risk of falling off the tree.
• Use removable hooks and green string to create a string art tree on the wall. Make sure the string is tied tight on the hooks so baby can't pull it all down. Add plush toy ornaments by tying elastic to the ornament then the string tree. This way baby can safely pull on ornaments for play.

A Memorable Celebration

Baby's first Christmas is one of many opportunities to share traditions and capture your child's reaction to this magical time. If you keep baby in mind during all of your holiday activities, we promise this is going to be a first Christmas full of memories and joys for all of you.