How to Create a Magical Life: For Yourself & Your Babies
When I was a kid, certain days, events, or times of year felt like magic…
The transition from summer to fall. Christmas Eve. My Birthday. New Year’s Eve. Weddings. Snow Days. Weekend breakfast dates…
I remember the giddy feeling I got in my stomach every time there was something special, something nostalgic, something cozy, or just something fun.
Somewhere along the way as I grew up, I lost most of the magic. I’m sure it happened when I finally realized Santa Clause wasn’t a real magical being who brought us presents…that it was my mom who always found an excuse to read our letters to Santa.
That’s probably when most kids start to lose the magic of childhood: when they realize certain fantasy beings or ideas they believed in as young children aren’t real. It’s probably a right of passage in childhood that parents dread. It’s almost like when kids stop believing in magical things, they cross from babies to young adults…is any parent ever ready for that?!
But what I don’t think a lot of parents realize is that kids don’t need to believe in magical beings (Santa, the tooth fairy, the Easter bunny, fairies, wizards and witches) to feel magical about their lives.
Think back to when you were a child…what were the most magical feeling days, times, or events for you?
For me, the most magical days were snow days. I’m old enough to remember when the only way we knew school would be closed was by staying up late to watch the bottom ticker of the local TV stations to see if our school name was on there. I always felt such a rush of excitement when school was cancelled and we could sleep in and spend the day at home. We would sometimes eat a yummy breakfast my mom made for us, go out and play in the snow, warm up by the fireplace, watch TV or play with toys we usually only had time to play with on the weekends, or just sit inside and watch the snow fall.
Even now as an adult, I get that same rush of excitement whenever we have a big snowstorm. I also feel the rush of excitement when holidays or events I attend every year are coming up. Whether it is a work event, an appointment, or weather that causes something to be rescheduled or a special holiday tradition coming up, anything that is unexpected or traditional that gives me the gift of time to relax at home, sleep a little extra, or enjoy a hot cup of coffee by the fireplace while a blizzard swirls around outside feels so magical to me.
It’s the joy of unexpected or the anticipation of traditional delights that give me a little dose of magic.
It’s November now, and I’m in my second trimester with my first baby…a sweet baby boy.
As the weather turns colder and I’m thinking about our holiday traditions and plans, I’m thinking a little extra about how magical I want my life to feel as a mom and how much magic I want my baby boy to feel in his life.
I see a lot of posts lately about ways to romanticize your life, and I feel like this is a similar concept. I want to make my life magical again.
Here are ways I am working on creating a magical life and cultivating magic for my baby boy.
Seasonal Magic
The changing seasons bring magic on their own…crisp fall air brings giddy feelings for the coming holidays, warm summer nights bring the magic of chasing fireflies and sitting by the campfire. How can you lean into the magic of the changing seasons? I love to make little shifts in my home decor, my wardrobe, and even my daily beverages with the changing seasons. Here are some ways I lean into seasonal magic:
Seasonal Blankets and Decor
I have seasonal designed and colored throw blankets that I put out on our living room couches with each season: I have a fuzzy blanket with pumpkins that comes out the first day of fall, a buffalo plaid blanket and a Christmas tree Sherpa blanket that we use after Thanksgiving, and an evergreen blanket we use in the fall. Spring brings out the light blue and sage green blankets (and since I tend to run hot and like to keep the AC cold throughout the summer, the blankets stay out the whole summer season as well).
I also have a bin of Spring decor (fabric tulips and fake green plants, decor with butterflies or bunnies), one for Fall decor (lots of LED candles, pumpkins, fall-colored fake floral arrangements), and multiple bins of Winter/Christmas decor (all the lights, garlands, pine cones, glitter, and tree decorations).
We’ve collected bits and pieces of decor throughout the years. We didn’t go all-out to buy a house-full of decor. For example, this year for Halloween, we purchased purple LED lights for outside and I made some Ghost decorations for our front window. We spent about $40 total on Halloween decorations, and we can reuse the decor every year.
Special Seasonal Menus
Another way I love to lean into seasonal magic is with special seasonal food that I make at certain times of year. My husband and I both love all things sweet, but I don’t make all our favorites all the time. Some of our favorite recipes are from our childhoods, like the Snickers Apple “Salad” dessert that we both grew up loving with our Dutch family members. My husband’s birthday is on Christmas Eve, so I make his favorites for his birthday dinner that are also very seasonal: Ham, mashed potatoes, and an apple pie or crisp for dessert. I’ve been leaning into the seasonal menus more and more, and I can’t wait for our baby boy to get excited for our “special Thanksgiving dessert” or our “special Fourth of July lunch.”
Food and drink can be magical. I make the switch from iced coffee in the summer to hot coffee in the fall, and I love to buy or make peppermint mocha creamer for fall and winter. Peppermint Mocha creamer adds a dash of seasonal magic to my mornings.
The Magic of Traditions
My husband and I talk a lot about traditions we want to create as a soon-to-be family of three (four with our fur baby!).
Here are some of the traditions we are going to build with our family:
Decorating Days
On certain days of the year, we put out all of our decor for the upcoming holiday seasons. I like to make the same foods for us to snack on during those special days day and we put on our favorite movies in the background while we decorate.
We like to decorate for Christmas the Saturday after Thanksgiving. I make us some Pumpkin pancakes for breakfast, put together a board with meat, cheese and crackers for us to snack on for lunch, and I make a Thanksgiving Meal that night, including a turkey breast, mashed potatoes, Mac and cheese, and Apple crisp with homemade ice cream for dessert.
Birthday Traditions
We love to celebrate birthdays in whatever way we each want to celebrate. For my husband, I make his birthday dinner and then we play board games. For my birthday, I enjoy going to Texas Roadhouse. Whatever little things we each enjoy, we try to do the same thing every year for our birthdays. These yearly traditions add a little more magic beyond receiving gifts.
Movie Nights
We try to do a pizza and movie night once a month or so, but we have traditions around certain holidays that involve movies and pizza. For Halloween, we make a homemade pizza shaped like a pumpkin and watch The Addams Family or other favorite Halloween movies.
Theme Baskets
When our baby is a few years old, I am planning to put together theme baskets for him to open the morning of the special day. Valentines Day, St. Patrick’s Day, Easter, Fourth of July, Halloween…I want to put together fun activity and candy baskets for him so he gets to have something fun to get him into the spirit of the holiday.
Daily Sprinkles of Magic
I believe you can make magic daily with simple gestures, habits, or practices and even in routines. If you can find magic in the daily living that others dread, you’ll have a truly magical life. Here are some ways I like to sprinkle magic into my everyday life with my family.
Family Dinners
Sitting down together to eat dinner as a family is so important to me as a mom and a wife. Having that end-of-the-day moment to slow down and eat a meal together helps us feel connected to one another.
Eating a family dinner together is one way my husband and I stay connected during a time of so much change and transition in our lives. With our baby on the way, we have so much to talk about and figure out, but sitting down to eat a meal together almost every night gives us a chance to talk about each of our days at work and reconnect.
Bedtime routines
Sleep experts always suggest creating a bedtime routine to help you sleep better at night, and this goes for adults and children. I’m already looking forward to creating our bedtime routine with our little boy. I want to read him the same stories, sing a lullaby, and tuck him in so he can drift off to sleep feeling cozy and loved.
Doing the same routine every single night like this doesn’t feel boring to me…it feels magical. It makes me feel safe, cared for, and calm. It’s probably the same idea as re-watching the same TV shows or movies: to me, watching those same shows is calming. I know what to expect. I know how things work out in the end. I feel safe and secure and I get a sense of happy, cozy, nostalgic calm.
That’s how bedtime routines feel to me and it’s how I hope to make my baby boy feel.
Brag about your babies “behind their backs”
This is another thing I’m excited to do daily. I’ve seen this tip on mom-blogs before and I just love it. When your babies are little, when you know they are within earshot, brag about them to their stuffed animals.
“Oh my goodness, Mr. Bear, I had the best day with baby boy. He was so kind and he helped me do the laundry! He is such a funny, sweet and kind boy and I love him so much!”
Then, as they get older, brag about them to other people. Say things to your spouse when you know your older children can hear you: “He was so fun to be around. He's such a funny and smart kid!”
I know how magical and affirming that will feel to my boy.
Gratitude
We’ve all heard the research and personal anecdotes about how having a gratitude practice can change your life. By bringing your attention to all the good things that happen in your daily life, you come to believe that good things naturally happen for you and that you have an amazing life. When you tune into the good things in your life, you start to have a positive “confirmation bias,” which means your brain starts to see all these good things as affirming your belief that your life is amazing and magical.
Writing down 3 little things that you are grateful for that happened throughout your day is a simple way to start training your brain to look for the good things. Before you know it, you'll see so many magical things happening in your life.
The Magic of Slowing Down
One final note about how you can rediscover magic in your life…I encourage you to pause, take a deep breath, and slow down. Try it right now. As moms, we can so easily get caught up in all the to-do lists, the events, the meals, the errands, and the appointments.
We spend so much time worrying about giving our babies a good life that we forget to give them a good day.
When I think back on my own childhood, I don’t really remember all the times my parents bought me things. The moments I remember as being the most magical are the moments when my mom or dad just spent time with me. I remember the snow days when we made cookies and laughed together in the kitchen. I remember the cuddles and the slow days at home. I remember going to the hardware store with my dad or going to a craft fair with my mom and grandma. Those little moments were the most meaningful. They are what I look back on now as an adult and want to recreate for my babies.
Don’t forget the magic of slowing down, soaking in the moment, and making simple memories.
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