6 Ideas for Your First Christmas Together as a Married Couple

Start new traditions. Every family has its own Christmas traditions. Since you and your spouse are a family now, you can start your own traditions for years to come. You can take your respective families' traditions and tweak them a bit or come up with something completely new – it's up to you to decide. It can be decorating your home in a unique way, visiting a Christmas market, marathoning Christmas films, making a gingerbread house together etc.

Make your holiday unique. Think of something that will make your first Christmas as a family unusual and unique. You don't have to go traditional if you don't want to, as you have a lot of old-fashioned holidays ahead of you. Do something fun and unexpected instead: take a cruise, cook or order exotic food instead of traditional Christmas dishes, or decorate a palm tree instead of a spruce.

Host a Christmas dinner for both of your families. If you don't want to go anywhere for Christmas, but still want to see both of your families, you can host a Christmas dinner and invite everyone over to your home. Preparing a Christmas dinner might be quite stressful and exhausting, especially if it's your first time as hosts, so we recommend you opt for a potluck buffet. Such a dinner will help bring your families closer together.

Invite your friends over. A lot of newlywed couples start hanging out with their friends less after the wedding, too caught up in each other. A Christmas party for all of your friends is a good way to let them know that you still care about them and want to spend time in their company. Mind that a lot of people won't be able to attend a party on Christmas Eve/Christmas Day due to family obligations, so you'd better schedule it some other day around Christmas.

Have a date night. Some married couples quickly forget what it is like to be on a romantic date. Don't become one of those boring couples! Christmas is a very romantic holiday, and you have a chance to prove it. There are a lot of winter date ideas, from ice skating to a carriage ride around a winter park. If you're not fans of cold weather, you can just go out for dinner or have some hot chocolate at your favorite coffee shop.

Book a photo shoot. The point of your first Christmas as a married couple is to make memories together, and nice photos are a great way to capture these memories. A holiday-themed photo shoot can be very fun if you find a photographer you click with. If you liked your wedding photographer, you can ask them if they do Christmas-themed photo shoots too (maybe you'll even get a discount). If you don't want to have a full-fledged photo shoot, at least have your first family portrait done.