Simple Baby First Christmas Ideas
for Extravagant Memories

Don't let a busy schedule cause this baby first Christmas pass by unnoticed. Take the whole season (rather than just the day) and watch it blossom from lukewarm to legendary.

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 Up a Charging Station

One of the simplest things you can do to set up for your infant's first Christmas is to keep all your digital cameras and video cameras charged and ready for grab-and-go use.

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 tonguetyed}

Christmas is a Learning Tool

Oftentimes new parents will neglect setting up any Christmas decorations. They cite their baby's "oblivious" state as a reason to avoid the task of setting up the tree and other festivities. Oh contraire!

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), and let him hold the shiny ornaments (as long as they're plastic). All these out-of-the-ordinary things will excite and stimulate his brain to puzzle through these new sensations. It's a whole new world for him to explore.

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.

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!

Preserve Memories as They Happen - Don't Procrastinate!

Make a pre-year-end resolution to capture these baby first Christmas memories as they happen and then to preserve them right away. Here some of my favorite ways to keep these memories fresh year after year.

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 see Snapfish's monthly specials and coupons.
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.

Baby Christmas Ornaments ~ a Great Way to Capture the Holiday

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.

These hand-painted ceramic ornaments by artist Kathleen Virtue are one-of-a-kind and personalized with your baby's name and the year. (Pictured on the right.)
Also hand-painted and ceramic, these ornaments have a country-flair that's appealing. I especially like this pram-in-the-snow design by Jamie Lentzner. You can even choose the ribbon color to hang on the tree.
If ceramics aren't your thing, this cleverly-designed baby Christmas ornament opens for two photos and plays music.
Or...you can purchase a do-it-yourself ornament to capture your infant's print for the tree! You'll love taking this ornament out every year and marveling at how tiny her fingers were for her baby first Christmas!

Implementing just one of these suggestions will make your baby first Christmas as special as your baby. Don't let the significance of this first Christmas for your infant pass you by!

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!