Holiday Traditions with Baby

The holidays are teeming with wonderful and cherished family traditions. You may plan to continue traditions from your childhood and even implement new ones with your growing family. Whether this is baby's first Christmas or an older sibling's third Christmas it's never too late to start a new tradition.

1. Get ready for bed with a holiday book. Young babes will love flipping through holiday themed picture books while mom or dad reads aloud. A classic read is "The Night Before Christmas" while putting the little ones to bed on Christmas Eve.

1. Buy new pajamas for the whole family, even mom and dad, to wear on Christmas Eve and wake up in on Christmas day. Matching pajamas make for extra cute pictures Christmas morning.

1. Customize baby's Christmas stocking as a special touch and create a stocking they can use for years to come. A beautiful store bought stocking can be simply customized with iron-on letters of your baby's name or you can sew or needle-point a truly custom design.

1. Send out a holiday card to your friends and family. You can take the picture yourself or use the opportunity to have family portraits done. Make the cards extra special by sending them with a letter updating your loved ones on your past year. Make sure you save a card to look back on during years to come.

1. Buy or make baby a special keepsake ornament every Christmas. When baby is older, let them choose their own ornament and be in charge of hanging them up on the Christmas tree.

Developing your own holiday family traditions is incredibly exciting and one of the most wonderful parts of the holiday. The best part is with your new family you can choose which traditions to include and as baby grows older you can implement even more traditions such as playing cards on Christmas Eve and helping to prepare the holiday meal.

General information, not medical advice. For guidance specific to your baby, talk with your pediatrician.