How We’re Creating Meaningful Family Traditions For Our First Holiday Season As Parents

I love the Christmas season as much as the next girl, and having a baby makes it all the more special this year.  Everything we do, from decorations and treats to gatherings and celebrations, is shaping the memories that Caleb will have of his childhood Christmases. It adds a new joy and a new weight to this season and we are trying to be intentional in our choices and our celebrations.  Even though I’m sure our traditions will evolve as Caleb gets older or we eventually add to our family, but these are five things we are doing to be intentional in this first Christmas with our boy.

1) We are keeping our schedules open.

I feel like I’ve already written several posts on this, but having open space in our schedule is so important to us.  It’s so easy to fill our schedules with tons of engagements and get-togethers, especially around the holidays, but we want to leave open space in the evenings and weekends.  Open space is where the sweet, slow, and best moments happen as a family and we never want to be so caught up in doing a million things that we lose sight of the moments that really matter.

2) We are decorating our home with beautiful and personal decorations.

We were talking earlier this fall about things we looked forward to in the upcoming months, and one of the things Jordan mentioned was when I would decorate the home all cozy and make yummy soups.  Ha! It’s silly, but adding some special touches to our home is one of my favorite ways to mark the season.  Decorations were always so meaningful to me as a kid and I hope that they are the same for Caleb.  I haven’t shared a Christmas home tour for this year yet (hubby refuses to let me put up anything before Thanksgiving – c’mon, babe!) but make sure to check out our Christmas home tour from last year to see how we add some cozy cheer to our house without breaking the bank!

3) We are taking time to connect with the people we love.

I love that this time of the year presents so many opportunities to reconnect with people.  Like I said above, we are trying to keep our schedules from filling up like crazy, but we still want to spend lots of time with family and friends.  We want to have people over for meals as the Christmas tree twinkles in the background and sit on the couch as a family to watch Christmas movies and snuggle up.  This time together is so valuable and I am excited for Caleb to associate those moments with Christmas.

4) We are dreaming about what we want Christmas to mean for our family.

Now that I’m a parent, I think a lot about how the little things we do communicate our values and our hearts to our son.  We want Christmas to be about more than just presents – we want it to represent God’s heart to enter into the pain of his people and His desire for us to pour into our families and the people we love.  Caleb might be too little to really understand those things yet, but I am excited to build in conversations and traditions that show him what lies beneath all the decorations, gatherings, and celebrations.

5) We are reflecting on all the ways this year blessed us and challenged us.

The coziness of this time of year always makes our minds wander and reflect on all the things we did that year, all the experiences and moments that defined the year.  One of my favorite ways to do this is the process of creating our Christmas cards.  In a social media world sometimes it seems silly to create a Christmas card with pictures and updates from my year, but something in my heart just loves seeing beautiful photos of the highlights of our year on a card.  Jordan and I wrote letters all the way through our 1.5 year long distance relationship, so sending things in the mail has a lot of significance for us. It’s cheesy, but so, so beautiful!

This year we used Tiny Prints to create our Christmas cards and oh my HEAVENS I am in love with how they turned out! They had so many beautiful designs and I may or may not have designed cards in five separate, equally-beautiful layouts before settling on the perfect one.  Christmas is the only time of the year I really go for things that sparkle or shades of gold and red, and I love how Tiny Prints’ foil-stamped and glittery cards let me make beautiful cards that stand out from the rest of our mostly neutral home decor.

They also have beautiful custom addressing, envelopes, and stamps – great for a mama like me who doesn’t want to sit down and hand address a million cards (and also doesn’t have the cutest handwriting in the world – I’m jealous of all you ladies and your beautiful lettering)!

Before we had kids I sometimes felt silly doing a Christmas card – I mean, what had really changed over the last year? But Tiny Prints has so many different designs and so many different ways to celebrate a year, whether its celebrating milestones like graduating, getting a new job, getting married, travel adventures, babies, or so much more. Every year holds something worth celebrating and creating a Christmas card with pictures from those moments is one of my favorite ways to honor that fact.

The Christmas season is a beautiful time to slow down, spend time together, and reflect on all that happened in the year before.  What do you and your family do to add meaning to the holiday season?

P.S. I’m super excited to be hosting a giveaway for $100 to Tiny Prints! To enter, follow Tiny Prints on Instagram or head to the website below and comment with which design you would choose for your cards.  Winners will be randomly selected and notified by Clever by December 16, 2016!
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I was selected for this opportunity as a member of CLEVER and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.