With the right camera  (or maybe even with portrait modes on the phone) you can get nice blurred out lights if you put the tree in the distance. Or if the little one is close to the tree than you can get the branches and lights. Both are great parts of Christmas!

I tried to take one in front of the Christmas tree with the dog and the baby. It wasn’t what I was hoping for, and I had to Photoshop two images together. A baby and dog are too hard to pose together perfectly!

This is a newer Pinterest shot idea, but I do think it is a good one. It shows some of the amazement when babies see those magical lights.  You just want it to be pretty dark in the house and turn on the Christmas lights. I think it looks great on wooden floors and a simple backdrop. This is the Baby Santa Hat pictured here.  We purchased the 6-24 month size even though he was only 5 months.

Santa’s hat screams Christmas, and no one looks cuter with it on than your little one! You don’t even need much other decoration than the hat and everyone will know it’s for Christmas! We just put Leo in a red Primary.com onesie.

It’s fun remembering that this is your child on that magical Christmas day. There’s something about knowing it was the official day and not just the month of December.

There’s usually a lot of family around on the holidays, and while that is always hectic, it can be an amazing opportunity to take pictures of your baby with important family members when they are this small. You will be happy you have them later! This is my little one with his great grandfather, who my mother in law always said Leo looks like because they both always have a big smile on their face. ️

These were all taken when Leo was able to prop himself up, so that does help with most of these ideas. In the sitting pictures, my husband was nearby out of the camera frame since he still wasn’t a strong sitter.