I'm so excited!!!

[MaltipooMama]

I shouldn't be this excited about Christmas, particularly as it will mean I am only one week before returning to work from maternity leave having been very lucky to take a year off! BUT, I still am! My baby boy will have turned one three weeks before and I want to have a magical (sorry to sound cheesy lol) Christmas as the first one was spent cooking/eating dinner around his erratic naps and falling asleep allllll the way through the Sound of Music (partner and I were both on autopilot as baby was only a few weeks old haha)!

As mentioned he will have recently have turned one by then and is already completely fascinated by everything!! So I want to go all out and have an amazing Christmas before I go back to the W word. What did you all for Christmas when your little ones were this age?

I can't help, but I am so excited for you!
Hope you get some lovely ideas

@gardenmusic ah that's so lovely of you thank you so much!

Something small I did was adding something that lights up, whether a hand sized ball or something, in their stocking. It will be dark when you open the stockings so opening something that lights up feels quite magical. I also put bubbles in for the same reason.

My DS learnt to clap on Christmas morning and it was so special.

Go to a garden centre and show them all the trees, decorations and glistening lights, one near me has moving reindeer and penguins etc.

And let them point/choose out a decoration (or even buy one they've taken a particular interest to) and it will hang on your tree for years to come, reminding you of their first Christmas 🎄

What a lovely post, and reply thanks for making me smile ladies. Hope you both have a lovely Christmas.
Mine are growing up so fast now that it’s less magical 😞 but at this age we did: Father Christmas visits, National trust Christmas trails. Arts and crafts, Christmas Eve box with personalised Father Christmas plate and cup which became tradition to use every year, a special ornament we hang on the tree every year. Of course most of this was for us but it was fun.

Oh what a lovely post.

Go and take them to see the lights. Locally to me a house decorates for charity and I have some gorgeous photos from that time.
As someone said upthread go to see all the lights and trees in a garden centre and let them pick an ornament.
Go on a Christmas light trail.

don't put lots of pressure on yourself for a perfect Christmas Day, go with the naps and have ten mins peace when he snoozes. Take millions of pictures.

Awwww, I get you. My DD now doesn't believe in Santa. But we love going to Panto every year (especially as she now gets the double meaning in most things), a mooch around the garden centres and picking a special ornament still and grabbing hot choc. And she is becoming a great companion for the Christmas markets.

So excited for you too! My advice is lights, lights and more lights! Do a light trail, or walk around your local town/ village and see the lights (it’s as much about making memories for your and your partner as parents as your LO).

We have a little boy (5) whose birthday is near Xmas so we go hard on the traditions so they feel distinct and separate.

I write a letter or note about our favourite memories when I pack the stocking away so I can read it when I get them out the next year. (Now my little boy will likely read it with me!)

you could also write a letter for him to Santa to keep - with all the things he’s done/ seen/ milestones of the year.

You can make an air dry clay mould of their hand etc and make an ornament he can paint/ decorate and write the date on.

My little boy loved the singing decorations at that age and we have a LEMAX Christmas village and each year we pick an ornament for it.

Get him involved in a wrapping session - mine still loves (messing) in the wrapping paper and the sticky bows! It will be a sensory playground for him.

Get cosy and get the snowsuit on and visit a park or a winter walk with hot chocolates. Just enjoy the simple things while he’s still tiny. It’s really a lovely age to just soak up all the magic as they’re so amazed by the little things.

I can remember over 60 years ago coming down in the morning about a week before Christmas to find christmas decorations up. Crepe paper streamers and balloons on the ceiling. Paper bells and balls. It's how we did it back then.
My parents had 'no idea' how it got there.
That was magic.

Oh wow some of these ideas are amazing, I'm going to write out a list so I can start to map out some plans, so exciting and so lovely hearing what wonderful things you did with your children, memories to cherish forever for sure! I've always loved Christmas but now with a chubby baby in tow who smiles at/is fascinated by/wants to touch... EVERYTHING, I am doubly excited! Really want to make the most of these years when I am lucky enough to see him experience and get excited by all the Christmas magic!

@cheddercherry that's exactly what I want to do as well, keep both celebrations distinct and separate with him having a December birthday!

This really reminds me of my Christmasses as a child, we never had any spare money for anything fancy so lots of our stuff was homemade. There was never any talk of Father Christmas or leaving cookies and milk out lol. At the age of 38 now though with my little one I am ready to go alllllllll out haha!

Even at one they don't really understand, but do like to pull the ornaments off the tree! So beware of putting precious ones within his reach, especially if walking.
The lights will be fascinating and I there's the trip to Santa if you are into that sort of thing (though up until about three they may find it terrifying or just plain overwhelming).
Ripping open the presents was more fun than what was inside.

You have made me think, actually. There will be a 'crawler ' here on Christmas day, and I have greenery that should be put out of reach in case it's eaten!

@ZeroFucksGivenToday it sounds like you’ve made some new traditions with your DD and I like the positive aspects of your reply so will take that into consideration this year. Thank you.

My SiL got one of those baubles that open up and 7’ of ribbon and she measures my nephew each year on Christmas Day. It gets rolled up and goes back in the bauble, ready for the next year.

Aww it sounds like you'll have a wonderful time. My Dtwins loved the lights and also the M&S musical Christmas biscuit tins! In their stocking I included some of the toys/ props they'd enjoyed most at baby sensory. I also got them the Christmassy 'That's not my...' board books and the Lanka Kade Christmas figures. And a Christmas Jellycat but that wasn't so much of a hit!

We put the tree inside a playpen so DD could look but not destroy! Highly recommend! We let her get out all the non-breakable baubles and she was enthralled by that!

We got one of those flat felt trees with velcro -backed decorations to decorate herself. I'd say she was more into that at 2 than 1, but she did play with it a bit.

My dd was born two weeks before Xmas and it's magical.
She's 21 this year and we always go into London and look at the lights, everyone is happy, there's always something on it's so exciting!
We've some lovely traditions I hope you have a lovely time

We always go to our local garden centre which has lovely displays of lights and trees and decorations. I always let them choose one Christmas decoration each year and I have bought them mini trees to decorate themselves with their own decorations. (It means they happily decorate their trees and don't want to 'help' with mine!)

Bless you - I love that you are so excited and happy about Christmas with your one year old. Enjoy every minute

But - without wanting to be a grinch - a word of caution to tuck away:
Whatever you do around Christmas time is now A Tradition - and you'll be doing it every year.
You may well find that life gets busier and busier and demands on you grow as the years go by. Most of us are frenetic and stretched very thin by Christmas, making everything magical for our families.
My advice to you would be to make things easy for yourself.
Eg you might set up a tradition of always making a gingerbread house every Christmas Eve. You might subsequently decide that a fiddly, complex, labour-intensive project (that trashes your kitchen before you've even started with making a meal that day, let alone Christmas lunch) breaks you but there will be howls of protests if you suggest ditching this because 'it's tradition'. Whereas another family's Christmas Eve tradition might be to go out for lunch (great - one last meal out of the house before you start with the main event) and then to church (even if you don't normally go) to see the crib service. Something like this might be less wear and tear on your nerves in years to come.
^ forgive me for being the voice of doom. I speak from experience!

Enjoy your baby and enjoy planning all your festive loveliness.

Good wishes to you and yours.

Omg I 100% feel you op, first Christmas’s are amazing, but I think all the ones after are too.

i was determined to not go over board and “waste” money on stuff they would never remember. Obviously that didn’t happen. I definitely didn’t go as overboard as most years but I loved watching my dd open her first Christmas presents. I remember a blackboard we wrote a message on.

I wouldn’t go mad and put pressure on yourself. Traditions tend to develop over time. I know everyone is different but all our traditions and anything we do is child led and focussed. We now have pizza takeaway every Christmas Eve as per their request. Breakfast is the same every year as per their request too.

Every year we have a colouring table cloth. I also have washable colouring place mats. I always get child friendly crackers ones that are fun for the dcs. The table is set by the DCs too.

Thank you all so much for your absolutely wonderful suggestions and the warnings as well - I will head this advice to not go over the top (if I can help it!)

This morning I have made a list of my favourite ideas in my Christmas scrapbook (yes, I now have a scrapbook just for Christmas haha) and this is what I would like to do this year:

Garden centre to look at lights and decorations and to pick a tree
Christmas Eve box - some great ideas for what to put in them!
Christmas lights drive trail
Letter with our favourite memories to read next year
Winter walk, all wrapped up and hot chocolate
Bauble with the measuring tape (who knew they existed!) to measure little one each year
Christmas Eve takeaway before the cooking commences!

Can't wait to share these ideas with my partner when he comes downstairs for his coffee break, he will not be surprised that there is a Christmas list in existence in July haha!

Anymore please keep them coming!

heed this advice... stupid autocorrect!

If you pick the right garden centre there will be moving animals - ours has reindeer and penguins.
Probably too young this year, but steam trains often dress up over the Christmas season - we have Thomas the tank.
I have a complete folder -with sticky notes!

@gardenmusic that sounds utterly amazing, and he already has a train set as he is already obsessed with anything on wheels so this would be right up our street!

Oh dear god now I have binders and sticky notes whirling through my Christmas filled head!!