christmas pajamas Archives

Christmas Traditions to Start with Toddlers

December 10, 2019

Matching Christmas Pajamas

Always one of our favorite traditions… matching Christmas pajamas! As the boys get older, it’s always fun to have this tradition to look forward. Since William’s First Christmas, we have always found the cutest printed pajamas from The Beaufort Bonnet Company for the boys. The boys are wearing the TBBC Night Nights in mistletoe musings. Here are their pajamas from Henry’s First Christmas and last year!

This year the three of us girls have been really into loungewear, so that’s what we decided to do for this year’s Christmas pajamas. We love a blue and white stripe and although these “pajamas” aren’t red or green, they are soft and cozy… and we will be able to wear them after Christmas, too!

Christmas Eve Services

Every Christmas Eve we go to church to worship and praise God for the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ. We love seeing our friends and singing worship and Christmas songs together. It’s a great way for us and the boys to keep our eyes on just why we are celebrating Christmas and why it’s such an important time.

In case you are looking for a church to attend on Christmas Eve, our church, Citizens Church, has services at 3 pm and 5 pm!

toddler boys in matching christmas pajamas

Visiting Santa

This tradition continues to be such a fun afternoon with the boys’ and their grandparents. This year we had brunch at José on Lovers and then went to Neiman Marcus Downtown to see Santa. We love the Santa at the NM Downtown location. He is so nice and patient with the little ones and usually you don’t have to wait in line too long at all! Best part, no tears this year!

matching blue and white striped womens pajamas

Carriage Ride

This is something we used to do regularly, but haven’t done in a few years while we were wating for William and Henry to get a little older. We’re so excited to start it up again this year with some dear friends. The carriage ride starts at Highland Park Village and it takes you on a leisurely ride around the neighborhood to see all the beautiful Christmas lights!

Trains at Northpark

We’ve been seeing the Trains at Northpark for the past two years and this year the boys have already been asking when we’re going. They love trains and love seeing all the trains and settings at the exhibit. If you are local to Dallas, this is a fun activity to do!

toddler boys by christmas tree in matching pajamas

Gingerbread Houses

We started this tradition with William last year with one large gingerbread house. This year we found a kit with four little houses. It was perfect! Each of the boys could decorate a house of their own in the style they wanted. Pretty sure we avoided a lot of drama with this! And it was so much fun seeing how they chose to decorate.

mom with toddler in front of christmas tree

Angel Tree

We’ve been doing the Angel tree since I was a little girl and it’s something I look forward to every year. We typically will pick a family through our church’s Angel Tree. We took the boys yesterday to help pick out toys and clothes for the family we adopted and they loved being part of it.

blue and white striped pajamas with champagne in front of christmas tree

Decorating Christmas Cookies

Making Christmas cookies is another favorite Christmas tradition and so much fun to do with the boys. William’s first Christmas cookie decorating session was so special and he’s looked forward to it every year since. We’re sure Henry is also going to love it this year! How could he not, with all the sprinkles and frosting and cookies to eat? This is a great activity for a cold winter morning.

Advent Calendar

We’ve been using the same fabric Advent calendar for years. We hang it on the back door at Gigi’s house and William can’t wait to get there to add the next day’s ornament to the Advent tree. He is so excited to mark down the days to Christmas. We’re sure Henry will be looking forward to it just as much next year!

toddler boys hugging in matching pajamas

Cheers,

Stia, Jean and Katherine

six of our favorite christmas traditions

December 12, 2018

Christmas is one of our very favorite times of the year! Leading up to the holidays we had so many of you asking about our favorite family Christmas traditions. Christmas is such a special time, we really try to go out of our way to make the most of it. This year William is so aware of Christmas and all of the special traditions that it holds. He is very into Santa Claus, which is so much fun, but we also put a big emphasis on remembering that it’s Jesus’ birthday and that’s why we’re celebrating. Henry is still a little young to understand much, but he loves the lights and the tree- and Santa in theory, but not up close! It is so much fun enjoying Christmas with our little guys! Here are some of our favorite traditions this time of year. We would love to hear from you guys with any special traditions that you enjoy with your families, too!

gingham pajama set // Christmas train pajamas // Christmas stockings // Merry Christmas stocking holder // greenery // Christmas gift wrap and gift tags // fa la la pillow // cookies for santa plate- similar // Christmas tree mugs

Christmas Pajamas

This is one of our favorite traditions that goes back way before William and Henry were born! We girls always pick out matching Christmas pajamas and now we love to pick them for the boys, too. This year we went with J.Crew’s gingham pajama sets and we are loving them in the green gingham with red trim! We love TBBC Night Night’s for the boys. Since they love trains, we had chose this cute print and we love the I Want a Hippopotamus print, too!

Advent Calendar

This is a new tradition that we started with the boys this year. William loves it but Henry is a little too young to understand. I was searching for an advent calendar that we can use from year to year, but haven’t found one that I liked yet. I ended up getting a a one-time use Advent Calendar from Meri Meri. William can’t wait to open the new box each day. He also helps set up the Nativity with the new figure each morning. The Advent Calendar was one of my favorite Christmas traditions growing up and I’m excited to continue it with my boys. We talk about how we are in a season of Advent and that waiting for Christmas is how we are preparing our hearts for Jesus coming again.

Adopt from the Angel Tree

We typically will adopt children from our church’s angel tree, but this year every child was adopted before the second service that Sunday! Instead, we adopted children from the Salvation Army tree this year. We try to choose kids who are around the same ages as the boys and the boys love to help pick out items to give to the other children.

Christmas Decorations

We make getting ready for Christmas a family affair. Christmas music, a fire and the boys help decorate the tree! This year after we finished, the boys had hot chocolate for the first time and it was definitely a hit!

Visiting Santa

This is a tradition we started for William’s first Christmas and we look forward to it every year! We take the boys to visit Santa at the Neiman Marcus Downtown. The store is always decorated beautifully, you usually wait wait less than 15-20 minutes and Santa is so nice! Plus there’s always the opportunity for shopping… We get the whole family together and after Santa pictures we head to brunch – usually at Americano! Did you see this year’s Santa picture?!

Christmas Eve Service

One of our favorite Church services of the year is Christmas Eve service. The children are included in the service and we sing lots of worship songs and Christmas carols. There is always a candlelight song at the end and it really sets the tone for awaiting Jesus. Following Christmas Eve service we all head to my parents’ house for appetizers and dinner, followed by each of us getting to open one gift. Then it’s time for bed and waiting for Santa!

Cheers,

Stia, Jean and Katherine

Photographs by Audrie Dollins

christmas cookies

November 14, 2017

Henry is still too young to remember and William may not remember much about them yet, but in our opinion it’s never too early to start those Christmas traditions. Seeing Santa, decorating the tree, looking at Christmas lights – all traditions that we have celebrated since we can remember. Not to mention, believing in Santa for waayyy too long 🙂 One of our other traditions has been making and decorating Christmas cookies every year with Grammy. Now that I have my own family, I am so happy that my boys live close to their Gigi and we can start some of those same traditions!

Last week we woke up to a really chilly day (finally!) and we thought it wold be nice to stay in and keep the boys in their cozy pajamas all day. Even though it’s just November, we decided to make a batch of sugar cookie cutouts and decorate them for Christmas! William couldn’t get enough of the cookies at Henry’s Sip and See, so we thought it made for the perfect cold, rainy day activity. The boys stayed in their jammies and we got to work! William was such a help and we loved seeing how he decorated the cookies. He wanted to add each sprinkle one at a time- so sweet! Also, it is official: he is a cookie monster! He couldn’t get enough and even wanted Henry to try them. Yikes, haha!

We found the boys’ cozy, Christmas pajamas at Nordstrom. They are Burt’s Bees organic cotton and oh so soft! There are so many adorable pajama options at Nordstrom that it was hard to choose just one set. We’re pretty sure we’ll be adding a few more to the boys’ winter pajama wardrobe!

What are your favorite holiday traditions? We would love to hear!