Buying holiday outfits for my kids is not a tradition I’ve embraced so far in my parenting career. Well, not totally true. I do buy holiday jammies every year. What I mean is a fancy party dress with patent leather shoes or a little man-style outfit that is specially selected for holiday parties. When I have considered this tradition, I always think, “The kids can wear what they already have — the nicest version.”
Buying dress shoes for a boy who just wants to wear his “sprinting shoes” every other day of the year seems like a terrible waste.
This year, I’m stepping it up a half-notch. Tea Collection sent me a code to share with you guys (ROOKIEMOMS15) and a couple of days after that, I received their catalog in the mail. I liked the dresses for girls, and they’re not fancy at all. They’re festive, but mostly still made out of t-shirt material. They could be worn to school or to the park, meaning they’ll get more wear than just Thanksgiving Dinner and my dad’s synagogue’s Hanukkah Party.
I passed the catalog around in the car today and let my sister, my brother, and Scarlett all vote on their three favorite dresses. These were the finalists.
Tea Collection Swedish Lark Tiered Dress |  Tea Collection Juniper Wrap Dress |
Tea Collection Flower and Berry Smocked Dress | Tea Collection Akvarell Party Bubble Dress |
I just ordered the one in the upper right. I know it doesn’t have a tulle skirt or a bow of any kind, but I think it will get more use than one that does. I could tell Scarlett liked it the most.
What do you think? Is it important to you to have a special dress-up outfit for your child for the holidays? How fancy must it be?
If you like my strategy, feel free to use code ROOKIEMOMS15 (until 11/20) as I did to save 15% at Tea Collection. They have boys clothes, too. Dress-up clothes for boys at Carters.com also look pretty good and reusable, while several fancier dresses for girls at Children’s Place are less than $30.
We are celebrating my daughter’s second holiday season. So far, we don’t dress her up in anything particularly fancy for Thanksgiving, but I have already bought a fancy party dress for Christmas. Both this year and last year I bought a dress in my local children’s consignment store, each one was between $10-15; totally reasonable in my opinion.
I never thought of myself as the kind of mom who would buy “dress-up” outfits for my 1-year old son, but we were taking him to a wedding and something came over me: I just *had to* have a blazer and tie. After much internet-searching, I found the most adorable black corduroy blazer and tie at RuggedButts.com (my new fave place for hip boy’s clothes). He was a total hit. Now I can’t wait to put him in it for Thanksgiving!
p.s. Love all your picks above, but the bubble dress is my fave.
@Jill, I’m into your consignment store idea. I’ve done that in the past as well. I feel much better about spending $15 on a dress than $75 or more — and in the case of a special occasion outfit, the kid who owned it first probably only wore it once or twice, too.
@Lidia, I totally relate to getting excited about putting your boy in a cute little blazer for a wedding. Sometimes the things we want surprise us!
I have 2 girls…and never was a froofy dress lover as a kid…but my girls love them. I have been exceedingly lucky that I have found great deals on dresses and have never spent more than about $15 on any one between consignment, mom to mom sales, and being a total procrastinator, buying 2 days before the holiday gets you a great bargin. I also try for not buy anything too holiday specific so they can wear them to any nice event all winter.
Someone gave us a tuxedo t-shirt onesie for our baby, and when I got it I thought “oh, haha, I will never use this.” But for the first 6 months of his life, he got A LOT of use out of it for every fancy occasion – 2 50th bday parties, graduation party, etc. He was super comfy, but looked dressed up, and of course, kind of funny. A great gift. I see it here for $7. http://6dollarshirts.com/product.php?productid=12091&gclid=CJqn0Jr5ybMCFUjZQgod0HkArw
Now that he’s 8 months, I’m not sure about Xmas – I’m tempted to get him a super cute outfit but he’ll probably just throw up on it right away… 😉 I have a hunch my mother will buy him something holiday-esque and that will mean I don’t have to decide.
I love the wrap dress for party or every day (Does it come in my size?) but also the bubble party dress. So cute!
And, I’m with you, my kids don’t do dress up outfits. Unless they get a request for a specific uniform for a family photo… and I have my own issues with that.
@Lidia, I too will make my baby dress up for a wedding. Though, honestly I prefer to leave the baby at home… if he’s invited, he’s dressing fancy!
As the kids get older I think it depends on the kid a bit. My eldest daughter is really into frilly dresses and insists on party dresses, etc for special parties and family get togethers.
My middle girl, she sometimes will only wear stretch pants and rain boots! Sometimes she surprises me though and will pull out some of her nice hand me downs from her sister.
My baby? Pajama jumpers. She will be sleeping or socializing with her new family. I want her to be comfy.
Totally agree, Jen. They have their own personalities and some kids will WANT clothes and some will not ever think of clothes.
Thankfully my husband’s aunt likes to buy our little one frilly dresses, so I just pull those out for the holidays. Last year I really only had to buy the shoes, and I got some at Target for a reasonable price (which she loved and wanted to wear all the time).
Otherwise, I’ve tried to buy dresses that will work for parties and playtime. So far, so good!
My son had the most adorable outfit for our company holiday party last year, when he was 18 months or so. I lucked out finding all the pieces of the outfit (button down plaid shirt, sweater vest, and corduroy pants) the evening before the party. I don’t know who enjoyed it more, us at the parents or our daycare ladies who got him dressed so he’d be ready when we picked him up. He even smelled like they’d splashed a bit of aftershave on him, it was hilarious. We got a great family photo out of it that we used for our holiday card.
I don’t know about this year… he’s developed very strong feelings about what he’ll wear. Halloween was a total bust. Maybe I can find some holiday shorts?
Oh, I should say I found the outfit at the consignment store, which was why it was a miracle that I found everything in his size that would coordinate together. Not sure that I would buy a special outfit at full retail price… especially now when it’s more likely that he’ll throw a fit and refuse to wear it.
Bit of a touchy subject. One year I was making fun of the dumb holiday outfits I saw at Target to my friend and she admitted that she had bought one for her son…whoops! Seriously, they were ugly though. We consider a collared, button-up shirt to be dressy enough for holiday parties. I would NEVER buy fancy shoes for my sons, what a waste of time and money. I don’t have a girl but something tells me if I did I’d probably feel differently about the whole party dress-up situation! Tights and tappy shoes are irresistable!
My mother-in-law gasped when I told her that I would not be buying my daughter a Christmas dress this year. She almost fell over when I proceeded to say I would not be taking both kids for a Christmas photo. My daughter is 2 1/2 and my son is 1. I want to start teaching them that the holidays don’t mean spending an exorbitant amount of money, plus I have a stash of photos that haven’t even made it into a frame 🙂
@Sara, I think it’s a very sensible approach. Cut out the things that don’t mean a lot to ,and save your money and attention for the part of the holidays you care about!
In the past my MIL has bought the kids Christmas outfits. It is important to HER that the kids are well dressed and cute. I go along with it because I don’t really care and I’m not spending the money or going shopping. I always brought an extra comfy outfit for them to change into.
Now that we live across the country and spend Christmas alone, we can do it our own way–all day in jammies. I used to love getting dressed up for holidays before I had kids. Now those clothes gather dust in my closet and I hope to wear them again someday. Now, though, I choose comfort.