Simple Baby First Christmas Ideas
for Extravagant Memories

Busy moms everywhere have used these simple tips to meaningfully capture the significance of this baby first Christmas.

It will never come again! So use these little suggestions to shake every ounce of meaning out of the busiest season of the year.

Set aside a corner of a bookshelf or counter to have your chargers plugged-in and ready to go at the first sign of a low battery.

What a horrible feeling it is to watch your baby experience snow for the first time, or get excited watching you hang lights, only to grab the camera and see it's as dead as a doornail.

Also, purchase extra tapes or film so you always have one at hand. You never know when your little improv artist will start performing! Keep those memory-capturing tools primed and ready for instantaneous use!

{Photo by funkeemonkeeland}

The presence of the lights, smells, and sounds of Christmas is a significant way to boost development!

• Hang the lights on a tree (even if it is a mini-tree)
• Play the music (and don't forget to sing)
• Let him hold the shiny ornaments (as long as they're plastic).

Regarding gifts: don't bury the Christmas tree in presents. After all, it's the ribbons and bows that will catch his eye the most anyway! Choose a few high-quality and useful toys or books. (See this year's award-winning baby toys here.)

By only choosing a few quality gifts, you'll be less likely to hurry him through the unwrapping process. The tearing and ripping of Christmas paper is a great fine-motor-skill developing activity!

Here are a few of the most commonly missed holiday pitfalls, and how to fix them before they happen.

Fact: Babies can easily be overwhelmed and over-stimulated during the holidays.

Solution:

• Try to keep to a routine as much as possible. If you sense your baby is reaching the limit (the ear-splitting screams may be a good sign) take him to a quiet room for some extra-special mommy attention.
• Consider purchasing a noisemaker, or adding a fan or humidifier in his room to limit excessive guest-noise from disturbing his much-needed rest.
Fact: Not all babies respond well to Santa's lap!

Solution:

• If your baby seems extra-sensitive to strangers, skip Santa this year. Instead, focus on getting photos of baby experiencing Christmas through as many of his senses as possible. Ripping paper, tasting new holiday foods (age appropriate of course!), seeing all the lights...they will be just as magical, and probably less traumatic.
Fact: Even the Holidays need to be baby proofed.

Solution:

• There are just as many household hazards around the holidays (if not more) than the rest of the year. Make your baby first Christmas a safe first Christmas. Anchor the Christmas tree to the wall or ceiling to ensure it won't topple over onto your baby when the inevitable tugging happens.
• Keep glass and other breakable ornaments on the top of the tree. Fill the bottom of the tree with plastic ornaments and other trinkets that can withstand exploration. (Just make sure they don't have any small parts.)
• By the way, the belief that poinsettias are poisonous was recently debunked by the Poison Control Center in Madison, Wisconsin. The National Capital Poison Center now classifies it as a non-poisonous plant. So you can keep them out, just watch for soil-eating! (Click here to see which common houseplants are, in fact, poisonous.)

• Keep a holiday journal to record the happenings, presents received, traditions started, and other holiday memories you don't want to forget.
• Transfer those holiday photos as soon as possible to your computer and upload to get them developed. Your baby is too cute to sit on your hard-drive all year! Get those pictures made and then put them in scrapbooks or photo albums.

  I prefer using Snapfish for this service. They will hold all my photos until I decide to print, and then will either mail them to me, or let me pick them up at my local Walgreens. (The low price certainly helps as well!) Click here to get exclusive Snapfish coupon codes for free prints and other specials.

• Vow to move all your Christmas videos from this year to a more permanent and useful location before you put the decorations away (which will hopefully not be in July!). Switching them to a VHS tape or DVD will allow you to keep your memories available at a moment's notice.

Capture the Holiday with Baby Christmas Ornaments

Immortalize this important baby first Christmas occasion by picking up a baby Christmas ornament to hang on the tree. Your growing child will be thrilled to be able to hang her first ornament on the tree every year.

Don't settle for some Hallmark reproduction - go for an original. Here are some of the most adorable baby Christmas ornaments on the web. (Naturally, the ornaments will have this year stamped on them!)

See More Hand-Painted Ornaments	Make a Handprint Ornament	See More Original Ornaments Like This	See this Country-Style Ornament	See Baby's First Noel Ornament

It will only come once...and it will pass way too quickly. Before you know it, you'll be celebrating your baby's fourth...fifth...sixteenth Christmas!

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