Starting Christmas Traditions With An Infant
Our holidays, prior to this year, have often looked like a whirlwind of getting each other gifts, fitting in as many dates as we can, and often taking a quick trip using reward miles on our precious few days off.
It’s amazing to me that life with a newborn changes your focus and priorities so much, so quickly! I’m already thinking of what Christmas family traditions we want to keep from both our families, and what family traditions we want to start with our new family, and how we should get things started while we have an infant!
One thing that keeps coming to mind is how spiritual my mom always made the few days before Christmas, she really wanted us to think about Christ and his miraculous birth instead of toys and gifts. She loves nativities and has several in her house. From nativity ornaments like these to one made of plastic that she let her kids and now grandkids play with and love almost to death! She’s reconstructed a hand that was bit off (poor Mary) and painted faces back on Mary and Joseph after many children have rubbed and literally sucked them off.
She often has to ask where Baby Jesus went to after a grandchild has taken him and included him in a My Little Pony or army man pretend scene. I guess even pink ponies need some religion from time to time. I love that my mom has made it so accessible for children and that all her kids and grandchildren could tell you all the characters in the nativity without blinking.
I’ve wanted a child friendly nativity set of my own for years as I’ve watched my nieces and nephews adore this set, but being totally honest I wanted one that I wouldn’t have to attempt to repaint a face on! Let’s not think about the paint toxins ingested, let’s just not. When I thought of Mack and his sweet innocent self being only three months old at Christmas, I thought a plush version that he could snuggle this year and next would be perfect! He basically only likes looking at lights and snuggling right now, so a cute, well done plush set was perfect! When I found the itty bittys® Nativity Set Stuffed Animals at Hallmark (click the Christmas Gifts tab from this link, it’s at the top) I knew it fit the bill.
I plan to use these four characters the week before Christmas as a countdown to Christmas Day, worthy of an infant/toddler attention span. Each night we’ll talk about one of the characters and their role in the Christmas story. Each night we’ll make sure our kids know why they are important and let them be played with and snuggled.
This year saying their name and giving a snuggle is probably all we’ll get to, but I love that each year we can add a little more information until we have a toddler who can start to take over and tell us about each character.
I went into a little more detail about it in the video below, and shared the cute #Hallmark set.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=goW76PAO_DY]
We’re so excited to have a baby to share our holidays with, and so excited for new traditions. I’d love to hear, what have you done with your kids to create your own traditions and memories that has worked and you’ve loved?
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