Baby's First Christmas

Even if baby is too young to understand what is happening, it is a special time for a family when the baby celebrates his or her first Christmas. Taking the care to acknowledge the event will create memories and mementoes the family can treasure for many Christmases to come.

Why celebrate?

The simple answer is Why not?

But it is a significant event for the parents, seeing their child join in with Christmas for the first time. It can also be significant for Grandparents and other family members.

Christmas is often said to be for children, in the sense that they enjoy the magic and wonder of the decorations, the parties and the presents. For the religious, Christmas is a reminder of the birth of a baby, a baby who grew into a man who loved children, so there is also significance in the baby’s first Christmas.

Obviously, the baby will not remember their first Christmas, and many are too young to even notice what is happening. But that needn’t stop us making note of the event anyway.

How to celebrate?

Overall, the Christmas celebrations will be the same as they are for you in other years. A few little touches will make it special for Baby and parents.

Take baby to visit Santa or have a professional child photographer take some Christmas shots, either of baby alone or of the whole family. These photos make wonderful additions to the family album but also are great for turning into gift cards. Send cards with the photo to grandparents, aunts, uncles and so on, especially any who live too far away to be with baby for Christmas.

Start a decoration collection for the baby. Decide on a theme or not, then give the child something for the collection each year from their first Christmas until their 18th or 21st. By the time the child leaves home, they will be ready to decorate their own tree.

Get a special decoration for the tree or mantelpiece that actually says “baby’s first Christmas”. Such mementoes are cute and bring a smile to everyone’s face, as well as providing a lasting reminder of baby’s arrival in the family.

Deliberately take a lot of photos. Get a shot of baby with all the significant people in his or her life in front of the tree or on Christmas day. This makes a beautiful album so the child can look back and see who was around. It is also a great way to refresh any family photos that are getting a little old; how often do you forget to take photos of loved ones because you see them so often? Your last photo of Mum might be five or ten years old if you’re not careful!

There are also special bibs and outfits to acknowledge that it is baby’s first Christmas. Although there may be a few Christmas events to wear these outfits too, they probably won’t be worn very often. However, if the child has an appropriate sized teddy or doll, the outfit can be brought out every Christmas for display.

Whatever else you do for baby’s first Christmas, make sure you shower baby and his/her parents with love and cuddles at this special time.

Tash Hughes is a Mum of two in Melbourne. She is also a writer and owner of Word Constructions. Tash is available to write articles and profiles for any business, as well as doing other business documentation projects. You can see her site and services at www.wordconstructions.com