10 Ways to Preserve Baby's First Christmas
By Karin A. Bilich
Creative ideas for recording your first Christmas together.


Baby's first Christmas is certainly an event to be treasured. Here are
some creative ways to record your first holiday together.

1. Make or buy a personalized ornament. Hang an ornament painted with
your baby's name and birthdate. Every year you can take out this
ornament and remember your baby's first Christmas.

2. Create your first annual photo ornament. Place your baby's picture
in a tiny frame and hang from your Christmas tree. Do the same thing
next year and hang the two ornaments next to each other. As the years go
by, you'll have pictures of your baby from each Christmas.

3. Make a Christmas stocking from your baby's sock. Hang an adorable
miniature Christmas stocking next to yours. Decorate it with your baby's
name and the year of his first Christmas.

4. Save your baby's first Christmas outfit. Dress her in adorable green
and red Christmas clothes. These can get stored away and revisited
whenever you feel like reminiscing. When you come across it again next
year, you'll realize just how much your child has grown.

5. Give your child a Christmas-themed stuffed animal. There are
miniature Santas, reindeers, angels, and elves. As your child grows, you'll
always have it around reminding you of your baby's first Christmas. It
might even become your child's best friend for a while.

6. Make or buy a personalized Christmas blanket. You can store this
with your child's first Christmas clothes and or hang it on the wall in
your baby's room -- assuming you can persuade her to let go of it.

7. Give your baby a Christmas music box. These are treasures that can
last a lifetime. He'll want to fall asleep every night to the peaceful
Christmas music.

8. Take plenty of pictures. Get pictures of your child's face when he
first sees the Christmas lights or when he gets his first present. Make
sure to also get pictures of your newly formed family.

9. Write a letter to your child. Even though it'll be a while before
your child can read it, this letter can mean a lot to you for years to
come. In your letter, tell your child how happy you are to be celebrating
your first Christmas with her. Thank her for her first Christmas
present to you--being born.

10. Start a Christmas scrapbook. Decorate the cover with your child's
name and birthdate. Fill it with some of your Christmas pictures and any
Christmas cards to your baby. You can also write a short description of
your baby's first Christmas -- what you gave him, what he ate, or what
he found scary -- and add it to your scrapbook.

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