I am not proud to admit this, but I’ve really relaxed my standards lately. When my girls were super-little, their outfits and their shoes and their hair accessories were all perfectly coordinated and chosen with the kind of thought and attention that most people usually reserve for the big stuff, like new cars and new jobs.
For me, they were the big stuff. I spent hours poring over catalogs and studying sites to pick the outfit for the hayride, or the carousel, or the second Sunday in September. Because when you run out of holidays, you need to invent occasions to shop for… I hardly recognize that naive woman anymore.
Because, opinions. Opinions happen,. Opinions on the scratchiness of tags and the lengths of tops and the twirliness of skirts. Opinions abound in my home, even from the formerly easygoing child known as Lola, who is still relatively easygoing. Except when she isn’t.
Eva peppered her earliest conversations with charming phrases like “that not princess!!!!!!!!” if I attempted to put her in something unbecoming of a mini-royal. In other words, something not pink. Today she has broadened her horizons, but she still expresses her likes and dislikes with, ahem, fervor.
Fortunately, they do not do the shopping at our house. At least not for a few more years. I do. So I pick items that I love and that they will, hopefully, wear. And if they love them too, that’s totally a bonus, but I’m not holding my breath or anything. That’s one of the privileges of being the mama. And when I look around, I see that I am not alone. My preppy friends have kids who wear preppy clothes and my boho friends have kids who wear boho clothes, and so on. This isn’t a genetic thing. It’s a shopping thing. Moms buy what they love.
(Disclaimer: Please don’t misunderstand me. This doesn’t mean that I completely squelch their opinions. Occasionally, if I am feeling magnanimous, I will narrow my list down to a few favorites, and then let them choose. It’s called editing, and it works like a charm. I’m nice like that.)
Since moms do the shopping, I figured we should have more than a handful of options when it comes to picking those all-important Christmas card outfits. I think we should be able to pick outfits that we truly love, and not just the standard styles that pass for traditional kids’ Christmas attire. And the first step, in my opinion, is to discover your own style. Sure, you may already know it, but just for fun, take this Quiz anyway, so we can give it a name and move on with the fun (i.e. shopping). It takes 2 minutes. Trust me.
Now that you have a name (or, at least, a BeautyMommy-approved name) for your style, it’s time to get to work. We have a whole week of shopping ahead of us. To begin with, my first few picks for the darling-est, dreamiest, photo-shoot-worthy brother/sister outfits I’ve ever seen, by BeautyMommy Style Type, and I’m just getting warmed up. Much more to come. (And for these styles and more family photo shoot inspiration, just follow this board.)
Classic Brother/Sister Style
Preppy Brother/Sister Style
Relaxed Brother/Sister Style
Boho Brother/Sister Style
Chic Brother/Sister Style
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