All I Want for Christmas

Christmas has always been a very big deal to me. My wife, on the other hand, wouldn't mind if it went away... (She's born the day after Christmas.), but I'm hoping she'll tone down the Mrs. Scrooge attitude this season now that we're parents. It is a magical time of the year to spend with friends and family, exchange gifts and, for some of us-I am not saying who-to wear a very bright red "Joe Cool Christmas" sweatshirt. But the holiday season is not just about gifts and rocking fashionable Christmas sweaters. It is also about tradition. Now that I am a father, all I want for Christmas is to start new traditions with my daughter, Little D, who will be having her first. The holiday stocking: A couple of weeks ago, we started with hanging up her stocking together above the fireplace. And I couldn't just get her any old holiday stocking. I wanted one that she'd treasure for life, so I got one that could literally grow with her for years to come: It's about four feet long and two feet wide. Yeah, it's pretty awesome; it's like a stocking sleeping bag. Imagine the photo series of her in the stocking from age 0 to 20! Priceless. Decorating the tree, baby style: Next was picking up the tree and decorating it with D. At 6 ½ months, she's pretty skilled now at picking up and dropping things-another way of saying she knows how to make a lot of noise with things. So using the crane method (you know, that game where you lower a crane with a claw, and try to pick up a prize, but instead your baby becomes the crane and her hands the claw?), I got D to choose what ornaments she wanted to put on the tree. She dug the shiny bells, by the way. And with her adept hands, it was beginning to look a lot like Christmas. The holiday movie that never gets old: No Christmas father-child tradition is complete without the viewing of the same holiday movie every year.  For Little D and me, it's going to be A Charlie Brown Christmas, which she seems cool with. Too bad our Snoopy in a Santa hat with battery-powered flapping ears makes her cry. As long as she's into "Joe Cool Christmas" and A Charlie Brown Christmas, I'm okay with that.

What holiday traditions do you share with your children?

Are they like mine? Is there something you do that is generations old or did you start something really unique? I'm always looking for ideas to make D's holiday even more special. Every holiday season is more special when your baby is more chill than shrill. Try the Father Four Pack to make that a reality.