Christmas provides a lot of fun opportunities to decorate with traditional holiday pieces, family heirlooms, and of course plenty of breakables. Today I want to share a few things that have helped me make my house a home during the Christmas season while working around the inquisitive hands of a baby and now toddler.
Though I expected to fully enjoy decorating for Christmas with a little one for the first time, I found that I was quite hesitant to jump in last year for his first Christmas. Instead of seeing the joy of special colors and textures throughout our home, I saw the potential for danger, broken glass, and plenty of messes. The freedom I had enjoyed while decorating in previous years was suddenly chained by the realization that almost every single decoration I owned presented child-proofing challenges in one way or another.
As I am sure every young parent figures out, I would need to do things differently during the younger years to keep my home child-friendly yet fun and festive as we build on our Christmas memories. Here are FIVE ways I?ve adjusted my decorating to make this happen:
1. I got a smaller tree and I put it on a table.
A small tree means less space to fill with breakable ornaments, less need for multiple strings of lights, and less weight to come down should it happen to be pulled down by a mischievous little guy.
Raising it up onto the table puts more of the tree out of reach, and keeps it out of the line of fire of something being thrown or an energetic boy tripping and stumbling.
The parts of the tree that are in reach for him have less breakable ornaments and are very securely fastened. When he approaches it, I remind him to look but not touch the ornaments, and show him how to gently touch the tips of the branches. He has done well with this so far.
2. Breakables stay either out of sight, or they are set up out of reach.
I know this is basic child-proofing, but I also know that some people may choose to ?train? their children to simply not touch. I am of the mind that it is good to set my child up for success in this area by reducing opportunity as much as possible, and also realistic that there is always a high risk that accidents will happen. While I want some opportunities to ?train? him not to touch, he is still small enough that safety is too much of an issue in many cases to leave lingering opportunities to disobey.
I have several items that have been passed down to me from my mother and grandparents that bring up special memories from my childhood, and many of them are ceramic. Until we are passed the stage of curious but clumsy little hands, many of these things will remain in storage during the holiday season, including a large number of tree ornaments. While I will enjoy sharing the memories that go with them as I show them to my children in future years, for now I find it wise to just let them stay wrapped in their tissue paper and tucked safely on the shelf in the basement.
One special item is a nativity set that was painted by my grandmother with a stable built by my grandfather. As a child growing up in a non-Christian home, this nativity set was the source of my first and only bible story lessons from my parents. Through this old manger scene, I learned about the birth of Jesus Christ at least once a year.
Because it holds these sentiments, I chose to set it up this year. I cleared the very top shelf of our book-case and made it fit snuggly above the heads of little children.
3. I reduce my use of electrical decorations.
From ceramic villages, to strings of lights, to glowing figurines ? I do my best to diminish access to electrical outlets and cords. If it has a cord, it?s probably not going to be used to decorate around here for a few years. My son is far too fascinated by things he can plug in, and the cause and effect power of electricity.
As much as I like lights, I enjoy the peace of mind much more in knowing I can leave a room without fear that my toddler will have easy access to electricity. The only exception I make is the Christmas tree, which has only one electrical plug hanging from it. I place it far in the back, behind furniture, and I plug it into an extension cord that runs several feet behind our couch. It?s not a 100% child-proof set up, but it has worked well for us so far.
4. I make child-friendly decorations reachable.
As a child, I used to get very excited when my mother would pull out the Christmas decorations. My favorite part of the whole process was being reunited with a few plush toys that sat on the floor near the tree: A snowman pillow, a Santa teddy bear, and a little bear with a red t-shirt. They were nothing special, but they were the one part of the holiday decor that I could touch and play with as much as I wanted.
Now that I have a little one, I try to empathize with his excitement toward the new look around here and provide as many options as I can for him to touch and play. I have a few plush toys that I?ve collected over the years, as well as some non-breakable ornaments.
This wooden nativity scene has held his interest quite well, and though it is not a toy, I do not mind keeping it within reach for him to take and look at as he pleases. It is very sturdy, and made of all natural materials. The other morning, I returned from the kitchen to find he had taken it from the shelf and set it on the trunk with his Cheerios, and he was pointing at each person one at a time. It?s not mom?s special ceramic set, but it?s something kid friendly that suits his curiosity all the same.
5. I wrap gifts simply & securely, and I tuck them tightly under the tree.
When it comes to gift wrapping, I try to use strong & durable boxes and strong paper. If I use bags or tissue paper, I keep those gifts out of reach. I limit the excess bows and tags on the outside of the gifts to reduce his temptation to pull and peal things off, and I try to keep seams turned down or to the back of the gift. I also place them tightly together under the tree, so that he is not able to easily push and pull loose gifts around the room.
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Source: http://lamponastand.com/2012/11/26/holiday-decorating-in-the-baby-toddler-years/
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