Christmas is just around the corner! Yes it is and yes I know it’s so hard to believe! Christmas is a very special and magical time of the year …. It becomes even more incredible and special once you have the baby….and a bit more hectic and difficult …. and a bit more dangerous … and a bit more stressful!!!!
Chloe was only 2 months old when she celebrated her first Christmas and she could not have been less bothered by it; now she is a very curious and WALKING baby (still can’t bring myself to call her a toddler) and that means a very different Christmas for us😊
I started thinking about what I will need to do differently this time not to make my house a health and safety hazard !
You see I love Christmas decorations! Usually we have them everywhere ! Big Christmas tree, Reindeers and Santa on the floor, Christmas cloths on the tables, lights everywhere and pretty much the whole house gets decorated, you get the gist. From now on I will have to do things differently, why? Because I have a walking baby who keeps getting taller every day (I swear that she is able to reach higher and higher every day! ); a baby who chooses to ignore NO whenever she feels like it and a baby who LOVES lights and glitter.
CHRISTMAS TREE
I am having a proper, big Christmas tree. I know that a lot of people choose not to have the Christmas tree when they have a baby/toddler or have a tiny tree on top of the highest furniture in the room; not me.
I will be putting the Christmas tree up and I will try to decorate it with Chloe ( I might change my mind 10 minutes in to the decorating 😂). (It’s all done now. Chloe was helping … to get all of the decorations out of the boxes, but I must say it was lots of fun and I am happy that I have done it with her)
I will decorate the tree with bigger decorations only (hooking hazard) and keep the most precious decorations in the box for the next 2 years just in case.(I have ended up putting out all of my decorations, with the most precious ones very high)
I will keep the bottom half of the tree (up to where Chloe can reach) with minimum decorations on, and try to use mostly plastic/wooden decorations. ( I didn’t manage to have only a few decorations on the bottom of the tree but I made sure there is no glass decorations there . Chloe loves to touch all of her decorations, and Chloe loves talking to them. Very good advice if you have an artificial Christmas tree: hang decorations and then bend the tip of the tree branch, it will stop your baby from pulling all of the decorations. I have also given Chloe a small box of her own plastic decorations which she is allowed to play with, which seems to keep her away from the real deal 😁).
The Christmas tree will be attached to the ceiling on a hook by see through cord. This is to make sure that Chloe won’t be able to tip the tree over. That’s exactly what my mum use to do for years (her tree was perfect each year and she had 4 kids)
CHRISTMAS TABLE/ TABLE DECORATIONS
I love table cloths! I would have one on the table all the time; unfortunately they aren’t child-friendly 😁
We cannot have a table cloth because Chloe would pull it (with everything that is on it) off the table. This year I will purchase an amazing and over the top table runner and put out some gorgeous placemats to complement the table runner.
When it comes to decorating hallway, stairways etc I will do what I normally do which is go crazy and over the top 😊
And it’s all done !!!!
This is the end result of my weekend filled with decorating
Fireplace is the perfect home fixture for Christmas decorations and obviously Christmas stockings. But if you don’t have a fireplace (which lets be honest looks amazing but is a hazard with the baby for the first 4 years if not more – yes I am saying it to make myself feel better) like me that doesn’t mean that you can’t have a Christmas stockings.
After having Christmas Tree and decorations up for a few days it seems that the novelty wears off. I also think that if you get your little one involved in the process and let them touch all of the decorations he or she will be less tempted to be misbehave (we know that they want what then cannot have 😁).
We have also bought Chloe’s own little Christmas tree which she has in her room. We have decorated it together in small plastic decorations which has made the novelty of the Christmas tree even less of : uh what are you ? I want to pull everything off you and eat you and I want all of those shiny things 😂
I hope that you will love decorating your house with your baby as much as I did 🎄
NEW YUMMY MUMMY 