Christmas Traditions to Start With a New Baby

Introduction

Sweeter than sugar cookies, this topic. I have watched families start traditions for forty years and I can tell you exactly which ones last.

It is never the elaborate ones. It is the small ones that survived a year when everybody was exhausted.

The Test a Tradition Has to Pass

Before starting anything, ask one question: could I do this in a year when I have had four hours of sleep?

If the answer is no, it will not survive to become a tradition. It will be a lovely thing you did once and then quietly stopped, and the stopping will make you feel worse than never starting.

Choose small. You can always add.

Traditions That Work From Year One

• A single ornament each year, with the year written on it. By the time they leave home they have their own boxful. This is the one families thank me for most.
• The same book on Christmas Eve. The same one, every year. Repetition is the entire point.
• A photo in the same spot. Same chair, same corner, every year. It costs nothing and becomes the most precious thing you own.
• New pyjamas on Christmas Eve. Practical, cheap in the sales, and it photographs beautifully.
• One dish that only appears at Christmas. It does not need to be impressive. It needs to be the same.

Traditions That Grow With Them

Some things are lovely at one and become properly meaningful at eight.

• Writing to Santa. At two you write it for them and they scribble. At six they write it themselves. At nine they write it for a younger sibling.
• Leaving something out on Christmas Eve. Starts as a plate you put down. Becomes a ritual they run entirely.
• Choosing a gift for someone else. Begin the year they can walk round a shop. It is the tradition most likely to shape the adult.
• A yearly message from Santa. Keep them all. A run of these from ages two to ten is something a family watches together for decades.

What Not to Start

Anything requiring nightly effort. Anything expensive that has to be repeated. Anything that only works if the child behaves in a particular way.

And be careful with anything that scales. A tradition where the effort grows every year will collapse eventually, usually in a year you least needed the extra guilt.

The First Christmas Nobody Remembers

Your baby will not remember their first Christmas. You will, in extraordinary detail, so do it for you. Take the photograph. Buy the ornament. Do not worry that they slept through the entire day, because most of them do.

The One Worth Starting Early

The tradition families tell me they wish they had begun sooner is a yearly personalised message from Santa. Started at one or two, by the time the child is eight there is a collection, and the earliest ones become extraordinarily precious.

Start the collection this year with a personalised message.

Final Thoughts

Pick three things. Only three. Make them small enough to do while exhausted, and then do them every single year without fail.

In ten years those three ordinary things will be what your child means when they say Christmas. Recipe for success, that.