Share memories of your baby's first Christmas and tips for surviving the festive season with a newborn - £300 voucher prize draw! NOW CLOSED

[AngelieMumsnet]

As the festive season approaches and we all get a bit nostalgic about Christmases past, Nurofen for Children would love to know what you remember about your baby's first Christmas.

Did you do anything special to mark the occasion? Did having a baby change how you celebrated - or give you an excuse to rekindle some family traditions from your own childhood?

And if you were hosting visitors or travelling to see family and friends, how did you get organised with a newborn in tow? Was there mad mild panic as you tried to pull things together? Or did you hand over the festive stress to others so you could make the most of the special time?

However you spent it, we'd love you to share your fondest memory, and any advice you have for those looking forward to their baby's first Christmas this year.

Everyone who posts on this thread will be entered into a prize draw where one Mumsnetter will win a £300 Love2Shop voucher!

The new Mumsnet Baby Bundle app, sponsored by Nurofen for Children, provides parents with a handy toolkit for your child's first years. Information, advice, wisdom and wit are all close to hand - whenever and wherever you need it. Download the app now - tiny.mn/1kCoMoT

Thanks
MNHQ

ds1 was about 7 months old on his first Christmas. He was sitting up, and we have some lovely pictures of him sitting under the tree on Christmas day. I remember how cheap that Christmas was compared to the ones that have followed! Having children has allowed me to fully appreciate Christmas again, so much of the enjoyment comes from watching them enjoy themselves.

DD1 (3 months) first Christmas was hectic, I was trying so hard to make it perfect and include all the extended family. I wore myself out, was stressed and didn't enjoy it.
This year with Dd2 (also three months) we are staying at home for Christmas day and will take it as it comes. If we have lunch at 4pm, that's fine. If we stay in our pj's all day, no problem. We will visit family before or after Christmas Day, but my top tip is preserve your sanity! Just for this year, lower your expectations and just enjoy being together.

this will be my baby girls first christmas. We are all dressing up in christmas outfits this weekend to take some photo's for our first family christmas cards. We are concerned that she may pull our christmas tree down this year, so we are considering putting it in a play pen so she can't get near it!

When DD arrived it started a trend of us staying at home and hosting rather than trailing from one set of parents to another. For me Christmas is about children so the day is about DD's enjoyment first and foremost.

My advice to new parents is not to put too much pressure on it being perfect. Babies and young children really don't need lots of toys and won't care if sprouts are hard. It's about being together and having fun.

It's a lot more laid back

The only thing I remember about DD's first Christmas is her having a febrile convulsion in the car, and having to be bluelighted to hospital. Fortunately all turned out well in the end, but it was a terrible Christmas Day!

Baby's first Christmas involved socks (well everyone gets socks for Christmas don't they), a cold winter walk, and grandad and daddy spending most the afternoon trying to put a sit and ride type car together for him.

When we got back from our walk it was ready to play with.

And we were ALL exhausted by the end of the day!

The first one was fun. DS loved eating the wrapping paper and his favorite present was one of those foil helium balloons in a wrapped cardboard box. Ah happy days.

I still remember the first Christmas with my daughter. She was only 2 months old, my mum came from Italy to spend the holidays with us and it snowed on Christmas day.

DD was born early and therefore saw her first Christmas when only a few days old (& unfortunately had lost a load and weight and wasn't feeding properly on Christmas Day) after trying the hospital Christmas dinner I was phoning Dh to tell him to bring me blue cheese and edible food in. Every Christmas since then has been an improvement (even the one where we ended up in Hospital with DD having a febrile convulsion).

Don't do too much. We visited both sides of the family on Christmas Day, couldn't settle baby for a nap properly, came home by baby's bedtime exhausted and cross, and hating Christmas. I wish we'd stayed at home.

After that year it's been all good!

We never really had a proper family Christmas when I was young so when the 1st Christmas with my eldest was magical for me. I loved starting our own little traditions that continue now & probably the 1st time I felt like I was part of a proper normal family (if there is such a thing).
I think that's probably why Christmas is so important to me now🎅

My (Australian-born) daughter's first Christmas was spent in the UK. We'd returned from Oz, hoping that our decision to come back was the right one. The evening I stood with her in my arms next to the twinkling Christmas tree, looked out of the window and showed her the soft, falling snow, was the moment I knew that everything was going to be right.

DD was three weeks old on her first Christmas. We survived by having the family visits ahead of Christmas so we were just on our own for Christmas Day. This allowed us to just go with the flow - get up when we were all awake having a lie-in rather than rush to get up with guests, open presents gradually and 'lunch' was served around 4pm. I remember it being a special, relaxing day.

Dd was 3 months old last Christmas. It wasn't too bad. We went to my in laws for Christmas dinner. We fed her and settled her for a nap before the lunch meaning we had a relative calm, if not sober, lunch.

My main advice would be don't buy loads of presents, you will get bored opening them and the baby won't care.

DD was only 3 months old her first Xmas. Unbeknownst to me, she had eaten some red wrapping paper which I only discovered when I was horrified by red poo in her nappy. DH thought it best not to worry me about the paper eating so left me to be shocked when it came out the other end instead!

My daughter was 4 months old for her first Christmas. I remember her being passed round the gathered family so everyone got to help her open a present from her stocking.

Ds will be 4 months at Christmas. I can't wait to carry on some of my childhood traditions with him, such as new pj's on Christmas Eve.
I usually host, but this year my lovely bil has offered to cook for us all so I don't have to deal with the turkey and breastfeeding. He's a star

DD was almost a year by the time her first Christmas came. Of course she enjoyed the wrapping paper more than anything else.

My husband surprised even me when he sheepishly pulled out an extra gift for her- a ride on car by the same brand of his own car that he hadn't been able to resist!

1st Christmas with DC1. Dh and I were going to spend the day with my family,m so we planned a Christmas meal for the two of us a few days earlier, whilst DC had his afternoon sleep.

Nothing fancy, just a little three course meal as per child free days.

My DS crawled for the first time on Christmas Day so that is a fantastic memory of one of his milestones in amongst the chaos of the wrapping paper!

My advice about Christmas Day with a baby is to relax and not worry about routines for that one day. Let all the grandparents have a cuddle and try to relax and maybe have a cheeky champagne while there are lots of eager baby helpers around!

All three of ours were tiny for their first Christmas and slept through lunch, in the pram. The PFB's pram was parked by the dining table lest he stir and we all had to whisper. 2 years later, Dc2 was parked in the hall (the PFB hadn't mastered an indoor voice). Four years after that, ds3 was parked in the utility room. Poor old ds3. . He can save that one for his therapist.

Top tip is definitely to consider second hand. We didn't until the older two fixated on something that couldn't be had new at the time. We had a lot of fun stalking it on eBay, they were delighted with it and there was much less packaging to throw away.

I did a lot of prep before the baby arrived for Christmas dinner. Most of the vegetables (spiced red cabbage, par boiled potatoes and parsnips) and cranberry sauce, stuffing and bread sauce were made ahead and frozen. I invested in a second hand hostess trolley. I also bought all my Christmas presents and wrapped them before my due date. So Christmas was quite chilled out in the end. I remember a mumsnetter telling me there's nothing more magical than the reflection of Christmas lights in a newborns eyes. It was very true.

DS was 6 weeks on his first Christmas. We had both sets of grandparents over for the meal to ours to save us the travel and everyone brought one part of the dinner.

It was hectic but lovely to be at home and ds was thoroughly spoilt. To top it all off he slept through for the first time that night (Didn't again for another year but hey ho!)

It wasn't without its disasters though- these included smashing a glass dish into the gravy and knocking over an entire bottle of breast milk in the fridge that I had painstakingly expressed so I could have a couple of drinks. I cried.

Tips would be to definitely share the load- ie get everyone to bring one aspect of the meal (my parents cooked and brought the whole turkey!)

We prepped the veg the night before whilst ds was sleeping and put it in freezer bags in the fridge.

I par cooked the roasties too so they just needed a blast before dinner.

I also laid the table up and decorated it the night before as well so I didn't have to faff around with it on the day.

Oh and online shopping for presents!

My DS was 10 days old on his first Christmas - we had my DH's family staying nearby so they helped loads around the house while I sat by the fire with the baby, looking at our lovely twinkly tree. It was a bit of a blur but I had been quite organised before DS had arrived and done an online shop due to arrive on Christmas Eve, preordered the meat from the butcher, organised and wrapped all presents and so on. So the actual Christmas celebrations weren't as stressful as I thought they would be!