We started the big decorate yesterday, but won’t be properly done until the 17th December when the real tree arrives. We just started early this year as we are hosting a Christmas party. I love a Christmas decoration and buying a new decoration is a lovely way to spend some time. Any reason to look at glitter and sparkle works for me!! I do also love putting up the Christmas decorations and starting the process of getting ready for the big day, but I must admit that it is the only part of Christmas that I feel would be better without lots of kids around. So how can a control freak like me manage the kids and their crazy decorating? Â
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The kids version
If I leave my little girls to get dressed by themselves it is at best fashion forward and at worst a fashion car crash. I mean they are only 3 so it’s pretty impressive they can get themselves dressed at all, but they can rarely go out in public in what they choose so it’s often quicker just to do it for them. See yesterday’s creation from our littlest twin:
I have now discovered that their approach to Christmas decorations is much the same as this outfit – just chuck it all on and hope something sticks!! I love Christmas decorations and I must admit that I have lots. The kids wanted to put every single one up. Now part of me feels their pain as I hate the decision between the angels and the elves myself, but it must be done to avoid being able to see our Christmas decorations from space! Another part of me just wants the house to look like one of those amazingly coordinated places you see on Instagram. Internally there is a highly coordinated, fastidious decorator battling with my love of glitter and all that sparkles….
Control Freak!
I want the kids to have fun with it though and not spend every Christmas being told ‘no’ when they want to put that loo roll angel with its head hanging off pride of place next to a creation from lolly sticks. So we now have two trees! One in the front room which the kids don’t really go into much anyway and one in the family room. That is their space really and so they do that tree.
Now, dear reader, if you have been with me a while you may have picked up on my slightly highly strung and controlling ways so let’s not pretend that I just give them carte Blanche to decorate as they wish. I do want the Christmas decorations to not all be on the same branch (why do kids always do that?) It makes me giggle. My son was actually getting upset yesterday because he couldn’t fit yet another bauble on a branch already straining under the weight of the 30 he had already added…. He was incensed and threatening to knock the whole thing over. At that point it was time for a glass of vino!! (For me not him you understand)
Anyway I digress… The point is that I totally rearranged the distribution of the baubles, but that tree is where they can hang their Star Wars themed decorations, all the things they have made at school and the tinsel. Well usually it is anyway. This year we are hosting parent drinks next Friday so we have done a grown up tree in the family room and I have promised the kids we can take off the more grown up theme and they can go wild!
The tinsel debate
How do you feel about tinsel? I absolutely hate the stuff, but my kids and my mother could bathe in it They love it! I wonder if it’s a generational thing so because my parents adored it and covered the bloody house in it during the 80s I now hate it. In turn perhaps my kids will grow up loving it as mean mummy won’t let them have any and so will drown their house in tinsel as grown ups? We will see…
The theme
This year I am going with gold, silver and red decorations and glass baubles for my tree and the kids have chosen carnage as their theme.
I do love the Christmas decorations that the kids make too so I have pulled out all the gold and silver salt dough and pine cones that they made last year to be included on my tree.
It was a bit like Christmas Day for me yesterday too as I was unwrapping decorations that I bought in the Cox and Cox sale last year. I didn’t even open them when they arrived and had forgotten which ones they were. It was like giving myself a gift!
Christmas Decorations as gifts
My mother is not known for her sentimentality. If I put down a keepsake near her for long enough it would surely end up in the bin (by the way I am now becoming her so realise this is just a response to the overwhelming amount of shit that kids want to keep) so I was surprised when she started the gorgeous tradition of buying my sister and I a silver decoration from Newbridge Silver each year that we could add to our tree and keep. They are all stunning and absolutely my prize Christmas decorations. Â
LightsÂ
Can there ever be too many lights at Christmas? I love a twinkly light… I personally stick to white or soft yellow light and don’t do colours. Recently I have been going with LED lights for my tree as part of my indoor Christmas decorations and my outdoor ones too.Â
I think that LED Christmas decorations indoors can be really lovely. When it is cold and dark having lights indoors makes it all feel happy and cosy somehow. Don’t forget the extension cords and plugs – honestly every year we don’t have enough and we are scrabbling around for extras.
Creabea London
I couldn’t possibly write about Christmas decorations without at least mentioning my sister and my mothers business making, amongst other things, handmade indoor Christmas Decorations. They are just stunning and of course make up a lot of my decorations. Some of my favourites from this years collection are below and you can see more at @creabeahandmade
I had to laugh when you said about everything hung on the same branch, my 2 year old did the exact same thing yesterday lol #blogmas2018
It is an odd thing that they do especially when they are actually making it hard for themselves 😉
love the idea of an adult and a children’s tree 🙂 – and i fully agree with you re the tinsel – not my thing and by far too much plastic. we had that debate in the office: some teams kitted out their entire area in tinsel, others not at all 🙂
There is alot of plastic around in decorations, but I guess at least they are reused every year… Thanks for commenting
I’m happy with anyone decorating the tree as long as they jsut get on with it and clear up the mess afterwards #blogmas18
GORGOUS DECORATIONS – I PARTICURLAY LIKE THE NAUGHTY AND NICE. SURE WON’T BE ABLE TO MISS THEM X #DREAMTEAM
She does make some fabulous things! Thanks for joining us on the #DreamTeam
I used to be a control freak with the Christmas decorations too. That was when my children were little. Now with grandchildren, it’s anything goes! 🙂
It is funny that isn’t it… my mum is way more relaxed with my kids than she was with us. Thanks for joining us on the #DreamTeam
Haha! I love that you are creating a more Adult look with your tree for a party Ours is up and every decoration known to mankind is on it, thanks to little button. Its a blur of silver and red with all sorts of Homemade creations dangerously dangling from bending branches! LOL – thanks for being a brilliant #dreamteam host xx
The question is can you see it from space? This is what my boys tell me that christmas decorations should be so gaudy that they can be seen from space! #DreamTeam
Any 3 year old girl will not have any theme except sparkles. I’ve accepted this is the way for a few more years! #DreamTeam
Sparkles is still kind of my theme really #DreamTeam
A carnage theme! Haha. Love that you have 2 trees -best solutionall round id say. #dreamteam
I think the carnage theme is for our whole family life 😉 Thanks for being on the #DreamTeam
I love the let it snow ornament.
That was made by my sister @creabeahandmade
The Christmas decoration tradition sounds good.
Our eldest 2 are surPrisingly good at DECORATING thE tree so can leave Them To it (!!!) but we hate tinsel too 🙂 #dreamteam
Thanks for being on the #DreamTeam
We started decorating on 1 december. my girls are busy making some reindeers and mini christmas trees out of pine cones for the table decorations #dreamteam
Oh Christmas trees from pine cones sound super cute. Thanks for joining the #DreamTeam
I think it’s hilarious when they dress themselves. no matter how hard he tries, my tot will always put his trousers on backwards and put both legs in one hole when he puts on his pants. We’ve put lots of decorations up around the flat and I’m loving the xmas feel #DREAMTEAM
My son is nearly 6 and still we often get half way to school and I notice his trousers are on back to front. Thanks for being on the #DreamTeam
Oh KIRSTY being irish i know the newbridge decorations very well. my sister has her tree covered in them and i too have a few on my tree that were given to me as gifts. they really are beautiful aren’t they? i have an eclectic mix on my tree of those very pretty and fancy ones and also hand-painted baubles that my daughters created at the kitchen table that are really just big sploshes of mad colours. So we have a mix of everything to take your fancy! (p.s. don’t hate me but i secretly like tinsel. my husband won’t hear of it in the house though!) #dreamteam
They really are gorgeous decorations. I won’t hate you but thank goodness sense prevails #DreamTeam
Hi, ihsve seen dome fab posts of Trees thst have been decorated by children often with lots of tinSEl. We kerp ours simple and i get a new dmall decoration for the tree every year #dreamteam
My kids will do their tree when the break up from school and it will for sure be full of colour and joy #DreamTeam
It’s hard toget tough with keeping to a controlled AESTHETICALLY pleasing theme when decorations hold so many memories #dreamteam
I know. That’s why I love having two trees although it’s clearly super extravagant. Thanks for being on the #DreamTeam
I would like to say, I loathe tinsel. Loathe it! It goes everywhere, and it as difficult to manage as glitter. Bane of my existence. #DreamTeam
And so say all of us!!
I love those decorations! We went for an all silver and blue theme this year, a serious break with tradition. I have to confess, although we don’t have any tinsel up this year, I do like it – it makes me feel nostalgic for the Christmases of my childhood! #dreamteam
Oh I like the sound of silver and blue. I have done purple and silver. Thanks for being on the #DreamTeam
Great reading! I always find it a challenge to pick up theme, there are so many wonderful possibilities to choose from.
Thanks for your comment x
We don’t have our decorations up but I do have the xmas lights up. They’re solar so currently not working well with all the smoke that blankets our sky at the moment from the bush fires – it’s truly disgusting. Anyway, there are some beautiful ones there! Lovely! #Dreamteam (it’s funny the affection we have for xmas decorations – that moment of joy when you unwrap them for another year!)
My kids have always had carte blanche with the decor for Christmas. Thankfully, their taste improved over the years!
Fab post, We recently moved house and yes, our decorations are missing! So I’ve got a great excuse to opt out of the tinsel decorations this year as Santa can’t afford to help us replace it. Nod Nod Wink Wink x x
Good work!! #DreamTeam
Dana, A Mamanista Life # DreamTeam
I was thinking as we were doing our tree how funny it used to be to step back and see that only the bottom half of the tree was being decorated. Its the same now but only one side gets done #DREAMTEAM
We could all measure our kids growth based on where the decorations are on the tree lol! #DreamTeam
Of wow! Do you still have the 2 trees? We used to have things colour themed but now it’s whatever goes… just throw it all on. #DreamTeam
Yep we alwways have two although the kids now want to help decorate mine too 😉
I hate tinsel too & we don’t have it, although I can’t deny the smell of it does bring back childhood memories! #DreamTeam
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