If you have longed for a simpler Christmas in years past, 2020 has provided you with the opportunity. For us at Sol Homestead, it is our first Christmas in our home and also our daughter’s first Christmas. Due to the pandemic, we are not traveling to spend the holiday with either of our families and we are trying our hardest to make things merry, despite the circumstances. To do so, we are focusing on starting traditions with our daughter that we plan to continue through her childhood. In short, the joy of this Christmas, if we manage it, comes not from bustle and merriment, but from designing what Christmas will feel like in our home for the first time.

We are trying to keep things simple and cozy in the traditions we establish, focusing on togetherness and simple pleasures. It has been on our hearts how much of a struggle it will be for some families to celebrate this year, not only because of a pandemic advisement against travel, but also because of economic hardship. We look at our newborn, who won’t really “get” Christmas this year (beyond lights—she loves those) and our hearts hurt for parents who may struggle to get gifts for their children. In that spirit, we think it is best to keep our celebration modest—for the most part, making due with what we have, even though the tree skirt is too small and some of our lights burned out, etc. (Of course, we got each other alpacas for Christmas, so that feels pretty big!) We did get a real, tall tree, and Kasey invested in the supplies to make the JOY garland on the railing, an idea her mom found on Pinterest.

The additional benefit for the long-term is that trying to keep things simple this year will hopefully set a foundation for Christmases that don’t get super commercialized every year. One of our hopes for our girl is that she does not get stuck on the consumer hamster wheel and we want to do our part to keep the holidays feeling homey and special without them feeling too much about stuff. So, here is what we’re doing.

Advent We are Catholic, so Advent is a special part of our preparation for Christmas. It feels like the verse on our advent wreath really hits home this year: “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; Upon those who lived in a land of gloom a light has shone” (Isaiah 9:1). We use two advent wreathes, even though it is awkward to find a place for them both, because the first Christmas we were married, Kasey’s dad sent us one, not knowing that we already had one. He has since passed away, so it feels extra special to put out the one he sent. We also use our nativity set, just like the Fontanini one Kasey grew up with. Baby Jesus arrives for Christmas night and then the three wise men start their journey from across the living room to the nativity for the Feast of the Epiphany. This year, we also have a felt advent calendar where we will put up a different character in the nativity each night before bed. We imagine these things will only get to be more fun as the baby grows.

Pajamas for St. Nicholas Day We love the idea of giving Christmas jammies but wanted our growing girl to get to wear them all month (especially since zippy jammies are the easiest thing to dress her in), so we’ve decided that we will give her new Christmas pajamas on St. Nicholas Day each year. We will also continue our tradition of listening to David Sedaris’s hilarious story “Six to Eight Black Men” that morning over coffee (Caution: it is not safe for little ears).

Jólabókaflóð A couple of years ago, we went on a trip to Iceland, which was amazing, and Kasey was really drawn to the Icelandic tradition of giving books for Christmas, Jólabókaflóð. That year, she gave everyone on her list a book and made bookmarks to go along with them. The leftovers have become her very favorite bookmarks. Starting this year, we are making it a tradition in our little family to exchange books and hot cocoa on Christmas Eve and getting snuggly with them before bed.

In the meantime, we checked out several Christmas books from the library to enjoy for a few weeks. So far, our favorite has been Tonight You Are My Baby, which focuses on Christmas night from Mary’s perspective and, we think does a better job than The Christmas Baby. We will also enjoy some of the wintry books that we were given at baby showers, including The Mitten and The Snowy Day.

Christmas Eve Dinner Christmas Eve is the day when our family traditions will be most blended. A big meal and celebration is traditional in Julio’s family. We already feel so grateful that his mom brought us two bottles of coquito when they visited in October. In Kasey’s family, her dad also made a meal of soup and a big salad (and also usually a roast for the carnivores). This year, we will enjoy coquito, Kasey’s dad’s Hungarian Mushroom Soup, and either a drive-in Mass or streaming Mass, hopefully at Midnight.

Gingerbread Alpacas Kasey loves making Smitten Kitchen’s spicy gingerbread and will miss making sugar cookies with her mom this year. We were gifted a couple of alpaca cookie cutters and a llama cookie cutter last year, so the perfect combination of all of these things will be making alpaca and llama Christmas cookies for friends and neighbors this season.

Lights Finally, we are putting up lights as much as we can. We found 500 feet of Christmas lights when we were cleaning out the barn, so that will go a long way. (Metaphorically. Literally, it will go 500 feet.)

We hope that you all have ways to make this Christmas season cozy and special. What are your traditions? Let us know in the comments.