5 Holiday Traditions You Can Start in Pregnancy

For many, the holidays evoke warm feelings about family togetherness and traditions. As you begin a family of your own, it's your turn to carry on time-honored traditions and create new ones. Even if you're pregnant through the holiday season, we have some ideas for starting fun family traditions before baby is born. 

5 Fun Family Holiday Traditions to Start While Pregnant

Family Photo: Take time out to take a picture of yourself and your partner/family with your growing baby belly, either professionally or as a candid shot. Choose a scene or background that you can easily recreate after baby is born and take again, year after year. It will be fun to compare the pictures through the years.

Letter to Baby: Some parents write a letter to their children every year, save them up, and present them with a stack of letters upon graduation or at another similar milestone. Why not start your first yearly letter when you're pregnancy? You can talk about your pregnancy, your feelings and growing excitement, and share about the events that took place during the year, and your hopes for the future.

Ornament: If your holiday tradition includes a Christmas tree, start a yearly ornament tradition. The first ornament could commemorate your pregnancy, and future ornaments could commemorate a special memory about your child that year. Or, make or buy an ornament with the year inscribed.

Keepsake gift: Buy or make a gift for your child that begins a yearly collection. Ideas include a charm bracelet or necklace, a book with inscription, a holiday-themed gift like a snowglobe or nutcracker doll, or whatever item that has special meaning to your family and will become a treasured collection for your child. 

Quilt Squares: If you're the crafty type, start a quilt for your child. Plan for a design that includes 18 squares and gift it to your child upon graduation, marriage, etc. Even if you don't know how to quilt, you can still collect squares each year, perhaps using a memorable piece of clothing (beginning with a maternity top), and hire someone else to assemble the quilt. 

Year-in-Review Photo Book: There are countless companies that allow you to create a photo book right now and most include a "year-in-review" template. Start a book now, before birth, continue the tradition throughout the years. Be sure to print two copies -- one to keep and one to give to your child.

What yearly tradition will you start this holiday season?