I know many of you are going to think I'm absolutely crazy for thinking about Christmas already but believe me when I say that I need this long. Even starting in the middle of October, my husband and I won't be done shopping until December 30th guaranteed.
What's on my mind Christmas-wise? Well, for starters, decorations. Currently I have my Halloween decorations up. The thing is, I have a toddler who notices ANYTHING that is different or out of the ordinary. For example, I have these really great silhouette rats. You stick them on the wall and it looks like there are rats running all over the place. I love them... so does Linus and Peabody (the cat). If Linus isn't yanking them off the wall to bring them to me, Peabody is de-tailing them. I have tried to be proactive in deterring Linus from them by teaching him how to "pat, pat, pat" them. It worked for a while which is why I still have maybe 2 of the 12 still attached to the wall. On the positive side, he has been good about staying away from the lighted pumpkins in the fireplace. I just gave him his own pumpkin that isn't lighted and anytime he starts messing around the fireplace, I redirect him with "his" pumpkin. Of course, anything even remotely breakable is placed up high. Difficulty with that is he's a climber. These new things are only a temptation to climb onto the dining table, piano bench, or sofa back. That brings me back to my conundrum- what to do about Christmas decorations.
For the first time EVER, we will be spending Christmas here at home. I definitely don't want to skimp on the decorations this year, but I do want to ensure both an injury-free (Linus) and headache-free (Mommy) holiday. I just don't know what to do. I mean a Christmas tree just seems like an accident waiting to happen. However, we don't have the resources to purchase all new decorations, none the less have anywhere to store them.
One idea I had was to decorate with candy- candy canes, gumdrops, ribbon candy, etc. It's a great idea except for one problem... my munchie, sugar-addicted husband. If it's in the house, he'll eat it. Not good.
So, I guess what I'm seeking here are ideas. I know there are many readers out there who have been there before and others who are just plain creative, so leave me ideas PLEASE!!
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Two things we've done in the past include using baby gates to partition off the room containing the Christmas tree. Not very efficient for the living quarters, but very good at keeping a child safe from the tree toppling over on them, glass ornaments breaking, etc. Also, we've used soft, pillow type ornaments on the bottom of the tree with the more delicate ones up top and out of reach. Both worked well. The other problem we faced was keeping the little ones out of the presents. One year we waited until Christmas Eve before we placed even one present under the tree. Very depressing to say the least. Good luck in your endeavors. Jeannie
You know we've got 2 December babies, and mama didn't feel like decorating much those years. :-) One year, we made bunches of paper chains, and the other time, we put glitter and ribbons on pine cones that we had collected from the back yard. We still can't put gifts under the tree until last minute, and if you do ornaments, the breakables go high, and the plastics go low. Do I have to put up a tree this year?
~Susan
So here is my two cents on the topic. When Jeremy was mobile for Christmas, we put only the non-breakable ornaments low on the tree, and some breakable ones up high. As he grew, the breakable ones moved up which worked well with his sisters getting mobile also. Now the best fun is to let the kids put their own decorations on the tree and only a few of "our" items even make the tree anymore. The breakables haven't been out of the boxes in several years. As they say, one day again it will be ONLY the fragile ornaments, and we will pine for "the good old days" when the kids were little. I'm sure you will find some balance with the decorating. Hang in there.
strands of popcorn! and I'm a sucker for glass ball ornaments.
Christmas at home--that's a nice thought.
cute little bows -- maybe all one color or maybe all different colors, and sizes adding cute handmade ornaments from Linus as he grows older and wants to help decorate the tree -- I mean who is Christmas for? It's the kids right? (this is a gramma thing) My kids are all gone this year probably won't even put one up! Just go to their house and enjoy their trees! You will figure it out I am sure and it will be very creative too.(it always is at your house--just don't obsess too much! Gramma B.
One thing we did when we had a house where the layout allowed was to keep all the decorations in one room that could be gated off. The other thing that helps is to put the tree up on the coffee table and in a corner - making it just a little higher. Last year, between the toddler and the dog, our tree had nothing on the bottom half.
No kiddos in our house (yet) but I can speak from the experience of having 2 large Labs! Definitely no breakable ornaments toward the bottom. I'm a big fan of ribbon. Classy and elegant, yet soft and unbreakable! In fact, just lights and ribbon alone can be very decorative. Your fancier/breakable stuff can be up high (mantle, bookshelves, etc.)
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