One holiday activity (and chance to go overboard) is no longer available to me.  That’s dressing up my daughter in a Christmas costume and photographing her endlessly.  Over the years, my mother had outfitted most of my dolls with Christmas dresses, coats, capes, and sometimes special hats.  She was eager to transfer her efforts to our real-life baby doll when my daughter came along.  For her first Christmas, Mama made her an elf outfit out of soft fleece.  While D was, like many babies, often the contrarian, from the very beginning she was pleased to play dress-up and pose for the camera.  Here, then, some photos from fifteen years ago, of our little Christmas elf, not quite twelve months old.   

 December 1999

To new parents, nothing says “Merry Christmas” like their baby decked out in holiday gear.