25 Magical Christmas Traditions to Start with Baby

1. Make Homemade Ornaments

This is a great opportunity for you to get creative and start your collection of homemade ornaments. To commemorate your baby’s first Christmas, you can make an ornament with their handprint and/or footprint. You can make them by making a batch of salt dough or using an air-dry clay kit.

Once baby is bigger, you can make ornaments together. You can use many things you probably already have at home and are inexpensive such as pinecones sprinkled with glitter, a laminated photo with a hole for ribbon, salt dough ornaments cut into shapes using Christmas cookie cutters, or DIY dried fruit slices.

When your collection gets large enough, it may warrant its own Christmas tree, which is another beautiful way to spotlight those special works of art.

2. Baby’s First Christmas Ornament

If you’re not into crafts, you can purchase an ornament symbolizing this exciting first holiday season. You could even have the ornament personalized.

In the years that follow, you can let your child or children each choose a new ornament or select one as a family to add to your Christmas tree.

3. Bake and Decorate Cookies

Who doesn’t think of delicious cookies when it’s Christmastime?! Although your baby may be too young to enjoy a cookie, that doesn’t mean they can’t have fun being part of the experience. You can tell them all about how to make and decorate festive, holiday cookies while also showing them what you’re doing along the way.

As they get older, you can involve them more in the baking process while also allowing them to get creative with their decorating skills. They probably won’t mind serving as your official taste testers either!

4. Host a Cookie Exchange

With all of that baking, you’re bound to have extras to share. Have each family member choose and bake the cookie of their choice, with some added assistance for the little ones. Then exchange cookies and ask everyone to share which is their favorite cookie.

You can also have friends and family come over and exchange cookies by asking everyone to bring a cookie of their choice with enough to share with everyone. Again, baby may not be able to participate their first year, but they will certainly appreciate an excuse to try different types of cookies once they’re older.

5. Wear Matching Christmas Pajamas

Order matching Christmas pajamas for your whole family! Once everyone is dressed up, you can take a photo to commemorate that silly moment. You can do this ahead of the holidays (recommended to get even more use out those pjs) to use for a card (more on that in the next tradition below) and/or on Christmas morning before opening gifts. You can even include your pets if matching bandanas are available.

It’s playful to get dressed up in matching clothes, especially pjs, so have fun with it and it’s always a good excuse to be comfy.

6. Send Out a Christmas Card

Gather photos from the past year or use that matching Christmas pajamas one, if you decide to do it, and create a personalized Christmas card. There are so many choices and ways to create a card to reflect on baby’s first Christmas. There are also templates that allow you to share your year in review.

Just be sure to order them before Thanksgiving (ideally in mid-November to avoid the rush) to allow for plenty of time for you to receive them and mail them out the first week of December. This allows at least two weeks for your recipients to display and enjoy the cards before Christmas.

7. Drive Around and Look At Christmas Lights

Put baby in their pjs, turn on some Christmas songs, and drive around your neighborhood to look at Christmas lights at night. It’s magical to see the twinkling lights and beautiful displays at night when everything is bright and lit. It’s even more magical to watch your baby experience it.

If there is a tree lighting ceremony in your area, that would be another fun event to attend with baby. There are also some towns that have drive-thru light displays. Be sure to check out what your area has to offer!

8. Adopt a Family or Elderly Person

You can make a positive impact on a family or elderly person by helping make their holiday season a little brighter. You can fulfill your adoptee’s Christmas wishlist for things they may need and are unable to get on their own.

Seniors are often forgotten or left feeling lonely, so it’s important to consider the importance of adopting an elderly person. This isn’t limited to gifts, but also spending time with them to offer companionship.

By adopting, you are showing your children the true meaning of the holiday season. You are also contributing to someone else or making it possible for their family to have a Merry Christmas too.

9. Volunteer

During the season of giving, the time you give to those in need is one of the greatest gifts you can offer to others. With a baby, it’s not usually possible to volunteer in person, which can be reserved for when they are older.

Some programs have volunteer opportunities you can do from home such as making blankets to be given to children in the hospital or the homeless. You may also volunteer by grocery shopping for someone unable to, which isn’t a major ask when you’re already going to the store for your own groceries.

To find what is available in your area, try google searching “volunteer opportunities [your city name]”.

10. Donate

It’s exciting to get new toys and other gifts, but it also means you are growing the potential for clutter in your home. Make it a habit to evaluate what you and your family no longer want or need and if it’s in good condition, donate it to an organization that can either give those items directly to those in need or one that has a store where direct proceeds from selling your items benefits their cause.

Some ideas:

• Unused Diapers – This is a good solution when baby has grown out of a size. Find out if there is a diaper bank in your area.
• Coats – Some coat drives take place in the fall so they can be distributed before it gets too cold. Find one near you by searching “coat drive [your city]”.
• Shoes and Clothes – Especially cold-weather items
• Gently Used Toys
• Housewares
• Blankets
• Holiday Decor
• Unexpired Pantry Items – These can go to a local food bank or food drive.

11. Baby’s First Christmas Stocking

Picking out a fun, personalized Christmas stocking is a must. Although you likely won’t be buying a new one each year, it’s still a tradition to shop for fun stocking stuffers to fill it.

As your baby becomes a toddler and on, you will quickly learn what their interests are and get ideas of what to put in their stockings, but until they can speak for themselves, here are some ideas for baby stocking stuffers:

• Teethers
• Bibs, silicone suction plates, drinking cups, and utensils
• Boardbooks
• Toothbrush
• Stuffies

12. Baby’s First Christmas Outfit

Although baby can only have a first Christmas outfit their first year, getting a special outfit each year can be a tradition.

If you aren’t into the matching Christmas pajamas, a new Christmas outfit each year could be a great alternative. You could even do both!

These outfits can be worn to a holiday event, to meet Santa, a Christmas Eve or Christmas day meal, or to a church service or mass.

Regardless of where you wear them, be sure to snap a photo to possibly be added to an album to look at as a family each year.

13. Baby’s First Christmas Book

Make it a tradition to read a Christmas book each year. Some classics include: “The Night Before Christmas“, “The Polar Express“, and “How the Grinch Stole Christmas“. You could also make it a tradition to give baby a new Christmas book each year. Any reason to read is good reason and always a great opportunity to help your baby learn.

16. Decorate Your Home Together

This one speaks for itself, but get everyone involved in decorating for the holidays. Baby won’t be a ton of help at first, but they sure are a cute assistant! It’s worth it to see their eyes light up as you take them around your home and showing them the festive decor.

18. Send Santa a Letter

Another magical way to celebrate the Christmas season is to send a letter to Santa. The US Postal Service has a sweet program where they have “adopters” review letters and send a response or sometimes a gift back. Baby may not have any requests, but it would be a sweet memento for them to see when they’re older and a fun tradition to carry on.

19. Make and Decorate a Gingerbread house

Admittedly, these are not the most sound structures, but the experience of building a gingerbread house and decorating it with colorful candies can be an exciting sight for baby. You can definitely buy a kit, but as another option you can do an easy DIY with graham crackers, frosting, Marshmallow Fluff, or melted chocolate, and candies. Once you kiddo is bigger, they may prefer the ladder anyway since it will taste much better than those that come in the kit. Let’s be honest, that’s the most exciting part about making a gingerbread house!

21. Visit a Christmas Market

The Christmas Markets of Europe, which was started in Germany and known as Christkindlmarkt, are spectacular street markets filled with a variety of vendors. They sell ornaments, holiday items, and an assortment of food, drinks, and delicious treats like Glühwein for the adults, candied nuts, cookies, bratwursts, stollen (German fruit bread), and more. If you’re near a big city, there may be a European-style Christmas market near you and you can definitely visit with baby in tow!

23. Advent Calendar

Get your little one excited for Christmas by creating a countdown using an advent calendar. There are a variety of ones you can buy depending on your children’s interests or you can DIY your advent calendar. If you make your own, it can be personalized for baby as they age.