First Christmas with a baby

Maybe your family is used to lots of Christmas traditions, big visits, Christmas cleaning, baking lots of cookies, and plenty of other things. But recently you had a baby, and suddenly you don’t know how you’ll manage everything. How can you enjoy your baby’s first Christmas so that everyone is happy?

Lower your expectations

A small baby doesn’t care at all how many kinds of cookies you’ve baked, whether they could be eaten off the floor, or whether you went to the trouble of making the Advent wreath yourself late at night. The most important thing is that your baby can feel calm and comfortable around you. That’s what Christmas should also be about. So lower your expectations and you’ll see that you can still enjoy Christmas to the fullest. 

Pre-Christmas cleaning

Cleaning before Christmas is a tradition that almost all families keep. Usually even the places that haven’t been touched all year get cleaned. But that shouldn’t be your case, so you won’t be even more tired afterward and can devote yourself fully to your baby. Ideally, plan a little something for each day that you can manage to clean when the baby is sleeping or when someone else is taking care of them. You can also ask grandmothers or friends if they could help you with the cleaning. I’m sure someone will lend you a helping hand. 

Christmas tree

If you have a baby who is already starting to crawl, stand up, or cruise around the furniture, then carefully consider whether you’ll get a Christmas tree at all. Your little one won’t really perceive yet why you have it at home, and it may happen that they pull it down on themselves. The first Christmas together can be without a tree, or with a smaller one on a table, or you’d better tie down the big one. Glass Christmas ornaments can also end up shattered on the floor, which will be upsetting not only for you, but the child could cut themselves. In this case, choose a material that won’t break, or that won’t shatter into multiple pieces if dropped, which the child could swallow. 

Advent wreath and candles

This time you can buy or make the Advent wreath without candles, so you don’t have to keep watching it all the time. Children are inventive, and even when you think they can’t get to a certain place, they’ll prove you wrong. 

The same goes if you want to light candles themselves. Better put them somewhere very high up, where the child can’t reach them, or don’t light them at all. It can easily happen that the baby wakes up, you go to them, and then you stay in bed with them because you’re tired, leaving the candles unattended.

Cookies

There’s no need to literally work yourself to the bone before Christmas just because your neighbor Máňa already has 20 kinds of cookies and you don’t even have one yet, because you’re constantly nursing, rocking, carrying the baby around, and resting a lot. You have every right to that. If you have a baby with a greater need for sleep, or if someone can take them out for a ride in a stroller, then feel free to make a few kinds, but it isn’t necessary. I’m sure your family will contribute a few pieces for the table, or you can simply buy them. No one will bite your head off for it, and you don’t have to tell your visitors. Some mothers don’t bake at all and would rather devote their time and energy to their children, because better than cookies that the little baby won’t eat anyway is a rested, relaxed mom. 

Christmas gifts

Here, the rule definitely applies that less is more. The baby won’t really notice the Christmas atmosphere, Santa, the tree, or unwrapping gifts. And whether there’s a onesie, a rattle, or a high chair under the tree won’t matter to them. The wrapping bags and paper the gifts are hidden in will probably be more interesting. For the first Christmas, choose fewer gifts, preferably practical ones and above all age-appropriate. There’s no need to have toys under the tree that the child won’t use for several years. Talk to your family about what you have in mind, and feel free to set up a bank account or a classic piggy bank where they can put money, which you can later use to furnish the nursery or buy a forward-facing car seat, for example.

Routine according to the baby

No matter how you prepare for Christmas, the most important thing should be family comfort and following the baby’s needs. If someone comes to visit you or you go to them, set only an approximate time so you won’t be stressed about running late. Your baby may sleep longer or, on the contrary, for a shorter time and then want to sleep again right when the visit is supposed to happen. It’s better to meet visitors for a shorter time so the baby doesn’t get overstimulated and cry unnecessarily in the evening. You also don’t have to have Christmas Eve dinner at the usual time. Get in tune with your baby and adapt these Christmas holidays to them. 

The first Christmas with a baby can be very demanding, especially if they are very clingy and constantly need your attention. But don’t lose heart. In the years to come, it will be different, and you will surely remember those first ones, when your little one was tiny and didn’t need much.