Yay for you, planning ahead!

First, you need to make sure you and you husband are on the same page about any decisions you make, and you also need to have a plan in place to deal with the inevitable guilt trips you will be getting, not only from his family, but possibly from yours as well. For some reason, some grandparents don't like to share, and forget that you, husband and baby are a stand-alone family unit, not an extension of theirs.

Some of my family's favorite traditions are:

• Pillsbury Orange Danish rolls around the fire while we open presents
• Everyone has their own hand-knitted Christmas stocking with their name worked into the cuff (thanks to crafty people in the family!)
• Clues on the gift tags (drove us NUTS as kids)
• Kids get to open presents from Santa and parents at home in their PJs, then after breakfast, go to whoever is hosting dinner. So, core family time first, then extended family
• NOT letting my mom make the gravy (sorry, mom, but that lumpy flour-tasting mess wasn't the best ...)
• Church on Christmas Eve (not for everyone, I get that)
• Watching certain holiday movies in the run-up to Christmas (especially Charlie Brown and the original Grinch cartoon)

I'm sure you and your husband will find many beautiful traditions to begin or bring into your new, nuclear family. Many blessings!

Do Christmas Eve with your side. Do Christmas morning and afternoon with immediate family and Christmas night with the inlaws. It’s your turn to create new traditions with your kids and that should be in your own home or if you decide it could be a destination like Disney.

OP, leave it as close as possible to Christmas, even the day before if possible to advise MIL what your plans are. The more notice you give her, the more time she has to try and change your or DH mind.

Ignore her comments for the time being and keep it simple by send a message to state, thanks for the invite (treat it as though she is inviting rather than a demand) now that we have started a family we look forward to spending Christmas day as a family at home. We will catch up with you all on x day. If she pushes back with messages, don't engage as that empowers her. If she rings repeat what the message stated and thanks for the invite however these are our plans. If she continues on with a guilt trip then you need to step up and say, I'm sorry to hear you are disappointed, I'm sure you'll still have a great Christmas but we are not changing our plans so unless you want something else I am going to hang up as I am busy.

Spend Christmas in your house as a nuclear family, visit extended family a day or teo before or after, establish dominance over both sets of inlaws.

So oddly enough, one of our traditions came from advice my jnsmil gave us during my first pregnancy. Every first holiday for our three kids we have stayed home, especially over the Christmas holidays. We didn't mind family & friends coming to visit close to the time, but not on the days, as that was our family time. Then after that first year, we kind of played it by ear (as certain holidays meant a lot to some, but nothing to the others) & we learned when one of us was put on the spot to say, "I'll have to check with spouse & let you know". Then some on both sides wised up & started accosting us as a couple with guilt trips to give in, so we quickly learned to not give in (never give in!) & instead say, "we will have to double check a few things/several commitments/check out calendars for anything we missed & if we can, we will let you know."

-Watching Christmas movies (Elf, The Grinch, A Charlie Brown Christmas, A Christmas Carol, Home Alone, A Christmas Story)

-Making gingerbread cookies and drinking seasonal beverages (eggnog, hot chocolate, cinnamon apple cider)

-Decorating gingerbread houses

-This is religious in origin, but growing up my mom would always make Advent calendars with a piece of candy a day leading up until Christmas.

Watching Christmas movies. Their favorites are Santa Buddies, Santa Paws, Elf, Home Alone, The Grinch, and Charlie Brown Christmas. Making cookies! They love sugar and gingerbread cookies and drinking egg nog, hot chocolate, and apple cider. We also decorate Gingerbread houses and do Advent calendars. Traditionally, it’s a piece of chocolate every day, but there are also different advent calendars out now like Lego, American Doll, Sauishmallow, LOL Doll, Sephora, all sorts. We always go to our city’s tree lighting and drive around looking at Christmas lights and make a night out of it. Specific to Chicago, but the Christkindlmarket.

-Christmas Eve movie (Polar Express is my choice).

-Christmas Eve box: Set of pajamas, candy, hot cocoa mix to enjoy while watching the movie

-The Pickle: We have a green pickle ornament we put up once the kids are asleep. The first kid to find it is first to open a present.

-And of course The Night Before Christmas is read to them right before lights out :)

I have an almost 2 year old and the traditions I've started with him are...

1. We buy him an ornament each year that represents what the last year was like. For example, his first ornament was a Baby's First Christmas, and his second is a Bluey ornament because he loves Bluey. When he's 18 and goes away to college, we will give them to him so he carries that in with him.

2. We read a holiday/winter book each day until Christmas. We either borrow from the library or we have a bit of a collection.

3. We usually sponsor a family who is struggling around this time of year.

4. Grocery shopping spree for local food pantry.

Every Christmas morning my dad would make me, my brother and sister wait at the top of the stairs whilst he got ready Christmas morning. He'd have a shower, shave etc etc and we'd all be waiting with such anticipation. Then he'd come out and say ok, let me go downstairs and see if Santa's been. We'd literally be about to burst with excitement. Then he'd poke his head round the corner of the stairway and yell "he's been!!!!" And then we would all come barreling down the stairs. It was awesome and one of my most favourite Christmas memories. Now I make my husband do it for our daughter!

We used to get new PJs every year to open on Christmas Eve. Traditional early gift that has continued into my own family :)

I grew up with all sisters and every year before the school year started, we had a 'back to school tea party.' We'd make sandwiches and scones and everyone would pick a dessert from the bakery. It was Southern California in August so we were sweltering drinking our hot tea but we always looked forward to having a special ritual to reflect on our summers and talk about our goals for the school year.

Getting to open one gift on Christmas Eve 

Special birthday day out with both parents 

Friday night movie night 

In my husband’s family, his grandma made Christmas ornaments for all the grandchildren every year and only stopped once the youngest hit 25. Maybe you could start that tradition for your own kids.

We made up a bunch of our own growing up. I'm doing the same with my family. My husband just invented Reader Rabbit - he sneaks into your room on Sundays with books you haven't read in awhile and puts them under your pillow. Weird, but they love it.

My grandma always had a special dinner she’d make on my birthday - stuffed shells. Thinking back on it it was so simple but every year I was excited to have them

Dropping one last surprise present for the kids to open on Boxing Day.

Every year in December going to actual forest and choose a Christmas tree there! I believe there are still special "reserves" in many countries where it is totally legal (usually for a fee).

Maybe giving my kids their allowance divided into spending/savings/charity?

I would get $5, but $1 went into savings and $1 went to the church so I had $3 to decide what to spend it on. Usually saved that separate for food or clothes

I just awkward about giving my kids money then immediately taking 40% away

Tinned seafood in stockings. No idea when it got started but my mom’s side of the family has always put a can or jar of sardines, herring, mussels, sprats, oysters or similar in stockings.

A new ornament on the tree every year

We normally make a homemade Mexican food feast on Christmas eve: enchiladas, tamales, maybe tacos, queso, frijoles, rice, margaritas, the works--all from scratch. Okay, so sometimes we buy the tamales--they're a lot of work and take two days to make.

When we lived in Ohio we'd tell people about our food and they'd look at us like we have three eyes. I'm like, have you never heard of Christmas Tamales? Nope, they never have.

We didn't do it this year. Instead we had stadium food and beer, watching the niners beat the commanders yesterday. Never gone to a Christmas eve NFL game before. It was a lot of fun.

Snowmobile jousting.

My mom started making pigs in a blanket on Christmas day when I was about 2 yo (Christmas 1970). She was tired of trying to deal with a proper breakfast with everything else going on.

So she always made them on Christmas morning. When I was old enough she and I would get up and make them. Eventually my little brother joined in.

We always had them on Christmas morning.

This morning, my son (he's 15) got up and made them himself. He just brought me a plate of them.

That was pretty great.

When I was a kid we used to do candle night, we'd order a pizza and light a bunch of candles and eat dinner in basically the dark, then we'd end up playing bingo or some board games together. We did it for a few years then we got older and I was involved with soccer. My dad used to go all out for Halloween, that was a blast.

Now with my own family ours are Halloween or movie based. Spooky movies every Saturday in October, we go to my brothers house downtown to trick r treat, pumpkin patch and farm days, and we have other things but they usually revolved around Halloween LOL

We do a family night every Friday night, and it rotates between each family member. The person whose night it is gets to pick what we do, which is usually what movie we watch together, but sometimes it is a game or other activity. We get popcorn, candy, and other snacks to eat, and the kids really look forward to their turn to pick each month. And since they tend to take over the tv most of the time, it's nice for us as parents to have a turn picking a movie, maybe a classic they haven't seen or some other family friendly movie that maybe isn't animated. My husband likes D&D, so sometimes it's that. It's a nice way to spend time together, and because it rotates, the kids are okay with trying something new because they know they'll get a turn another week

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My parents had very little money (and honestly I kinda feel the best traditions come from poverty) and my mom worked a ton. I loved cookies as a kid and my mom and I would pick a day to not work or go to school (her work always involved working holidays so couldn’t do it during standard days off) and we would make SO MANY COOKIES. In all forms, fresh from the oven, frozen cookie dough for the future, frozen cookie dough balls for ice cream toppings, homemade graham crackers to crumble up for future pie crusts, seed cookies to hang for the birds outside, cookiessssssss. It was my favorite day of the year every year

Tickle torture before bedtime. Have a safe-word (tomato). You’d think it riles them up but it releases nervous energy and makes them tired and happy.

Growing up we always received a family board game from “Santa” to take on our family ski trip. As I got older I was the only one who got into modern board gaming and took over the tradition of buying the family Christmas gift.

Despite my love for heavy games my family has never had an interest in anything too rule heavy so I keep it to gateway/light weight or party games and those have been a hit year after year to the point that I now get a family board-game gift for my closest aunt and cousins as well. Examples of games from past years include Ticket To Ride, Codenames, Decrypto, Letter Jam, Azul, The Crew and One Night Ultimate Werewolf. This year I’m gifting Monikers and Scout :)

That's awesome :)

I live in Israel and once a year we have Yom Kippur (which is pretty cool - no cars are allowed on the road so everyone rides their bicycles on the road). Anyways, when I was a kid 30 years ago we played monopoly every Yom Kippur. I loved that so much that I'm making sure to always have one familiar board game and one new game to play with my wife every Yom Kippur, and our 3 year old also has a board game just for him. When he grows a little, he will join us with the heavier games.

My husband and I are avid gamers so typically we get something on the table every weekend regardless. So I'm not sure if I can consider gaming on Christmas as a holiday tradition so much as us just taking advantage of a day off work. BUT, we do get each other a lot of games each year, and I like to bling up the games he loves with upgraded tokens and whatnot. They make great stocking stuffers!

My brother and I stay the night at our parents house every year and play XIA and drink strong beer while the wives and kids watch Christmas movies.

My family's board game tradition is that I bring board games appropriate for the holiday, they listen to me explain the board game, then they all unanimously decide that they'd rather just to sit around and watch TV. It's not a tradition I enjoy, mind you, but it is a tradition.

When I was young, my family all gathered in the living room under the one big blanket, watching the TV show on Sunday. That was our lazy morning routine, lol. I really liked that as a kid though, my mom brought out fruits and cut them for us, and waiting for them in the cozy blanket with big mouth laying my head on her tighs just like the baby bird would do was the best feeling 😂

My first baby is due in October (the day before my birthday!) and for my first Christmas my parents got me this mechanical Santa Mickey Mouse that just moves a little when plugged in. It’s adorable and has been a staple in my parents house at Christmas every year since. Because of my due date, my parents told me the other day that it’s time for Mickey to be gifted for my baby’s first Christmas 😭 it’s not really a big tradition, but it’s such a sweet memory I have of growing up that now my kiddo gets to have too ❤️