It’s the most wonderful time of the year… but for new moms it can also be the most exhausting. Hey, we’re Alix and Ileana, Mom.com editors who just had babies. We are not only parenting experts with years of experience in the industry, we’re also moms with recent hands-on experience!
This Christmas, figuring out what gifts to ask for has felt challenging. It’s easy to think of gifts for the baby — but for us? It’s a little more difficult to make a Christmas list of things like “for my baby to sleep through the night” and “for my house to magically clean itself.”
So here’s a totally honest list of what we, as new moms, actually want for Christmas. And don’t worry, we’ve included some alternatives that you can actually buy at the store as well.
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What We Want: A Full Night's Sleep
What We Want: Clothes That Actually Fit
Pregnancy and childbirth change your body, so wearing our pre-pregnancy clothes isn’t always an option. Sure, the oversize sweatpants and ratty college T-shirts still fit, but when it’s time to actually leave the house, those aren’t great options. It’s not even that we want to fit into our old clothes again — we created life, our bodies don’t need to “bounce back” — but it would be nice to have *any* clothes that fit properly. Ask any new mom, and they’ll probably tell you that they just want clothes that fit on their ever-changing breasts, clothes that aren’t covered in spit-up, clothes that look OK with nursing bras, clothes that are easy to breastfeed in (but don’t look like our grandmother’s nightgown)… you get it.
A Good Alternative: A Gift Card to Our Favorite Store
Buying a whole new wardrobe might not be a possibility, especially because most new moms don’t even know what size they wear. Instead, a gift card to our favorite store is a much better option. Then we can spend an afternoon looking for, browsing, and trying on new outfits that fit our new bodies.
What We Want: A Vacation
A weeklong tropical vacation would do wonders for any new mom’s mental health, but unfortunately it’s not always in the budget… and traveling with an infant isn’t exactly relaxing. But how nice would it be to lounge on a beach, read a book, and sip a cocktail? Well, a girl can dream, right?
A Good Alternative: A Spa Day
Give the new mom in your life the gift of relaxation with a luxurious spa day. A full-on vacation might not be in the cards, but a spa day is more than doable. A massage, a facial, and a mani-pedi can do wonders for a new mom, both physically and mentally.
What We Want: A House That Cleans Itself
When you have a baby at home, everything else in the house seems to get put on the back burner. Dishes pile up, laundry sits in the hamper, and no matter how much you try to stay on top of all the chores, there always seems to be more to do. Plus, with bottles to wash and sterilize, toys and books to put away, and soiled baby clothes to wash, there are just more chores to begin with. What we really want for Christmas is a house that’s just magically clean — without us having to be the one who cleans it. Of course, that’s not possible with the technology we currently have.
A Good Alternative: A Cleaning Service
OK, so you can’t exactly buy a smart house that cleans itself, but a cleaning service is a viable option. Household tasks can feel completely overwhelming for new moms, especially because the never-ending list of things that needs to get done adds to our mental load. Take some of the pressure off by hiring a cleaning service. Whether you hire a team to do a one-day deep clean of the entire house or you hire a person to come on a biweekly basis, having a clean house will help any mom feel a little more at peace.
