Decorating for Christmas with a Toddler
Decorating for Christmas with a Toddler | Outfit Details
Sweater: Target // Pants: H&M // Slippers: UGGS // Necklace: Kendra Scott // Earrings: Kate Spade New York // Bracelet: Kendra Scott // Rings: Kendra Scott // Jackie's Dress: Hanna Andersson
Decorating for Christmas with a Toddler | Why It Was A Concern
For those of you that don't know, I have a giant toddler. Jackie isn't even 20 months old yet and she is the size of a 3 year old. Literally. She wears a size 4T clothes and a size 6 shoe. As I am writing this, she is laying next to me on the couch (poor thing is sick) and takes up more than half the couch! Why does this factor into my Christmas decorating, you ask? Jackie is tall for her age and very strong. She shut the car door all by herself the other day (locking the keys in the car in the process). I knew that if we did our usual Christmas decorating, she would likely try to take down the Christmas tree out of pure curiosity. So I had to come up with a new plan on how we were going o decorate this year. I reached out to all of you and got some really great tips! So I am going to share how we changed things up and how it's going so far.
Decorating for Christmas with a Toddler | Changing Our Tree
Like I said, I knew we couldn't do our usual 6 foot tree. Jackie would try to pull ornaments off of it or just knock it over to see what happens (she does this with other things). A good friend suggested getting several smaller trees and putting them up on tables. So I bought 2, 4 foot trees at Walmart (at $25 each!) and put them up. One is in our family room and the other is on the desk in the office area. While Jackie can still reach the base of the trees, she hasn't tried to pull them down and is just interested in turning them on and off. I am actually loving having two trees this year. I go into any room and see a tree! I wasn't sure what to do about tree skirts but the 18" tree skirts from Target were perfect!
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Decorating for Christmas with a Toddler | Creating a Mantle
I have always wanted to decorate a mantle, but living in fireplace-less apartments has made that hard. I have improvised before but I really like how it turned out this year! We don't have the space to buy a fake fireplace so using the top of the bookshelf worked perfectly. The biggest and smallest snowmen I already had but I added this guy to the mix and i love how it turned out. I added fairy lights to the garland and I think it was just the right touch. Most of the pieces on the mantel are from Vienna so I can't link them but the company is Thun!
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Decorating for Christmas with a Toddler | Toys for Jackie
I put away a lot of Jackie's usual toys and put out some Christmas toys for her. This changed up what she was playing with, which is always good with a toddler, and also let me stick to my Christmas decor. My mom bought Jackie this Nativity last year. She was a little young for it then but this year she has been loving it. I often find her carrying the stable around and she hides the manger on a daily basis. It is perfect for little hands but won't break!
I also have a small collection of Christmas books for Jackie that we have collected over the last year. Instead of keeping them in her book baskets, I have them out on the TV stand. She can see them and read them whenever she feels like it. I do have to make sure she doesn't rip the flaps off of some of them. She thinks they are more toys to play with...
My sister in law sent Jackie this felt tree for Christmas this year. It was a stroke of genius. The ornaments are all velcro and Jackie has a lot of fun carrying them around. I used command strips to attach it to the wall. A normal toddler would be content with just taking off and putting the ornaments back on. Jackie likes to take the entire tree off the wall. But she loves it so who am I to judge?
Decorating for Christmas with a Toddler | Jackie's Christmas Corner
When I was getting the trees set up, I felt bad that I was going to be telling Jackie not to play with them and didn't have something for her to play with. I had this smaller tree that my mom sent me my first year of college to decorate my dorm. I don't know how it's lasted this long but it has! I had originally put it on a bookshelf in Jackie's room but decided it could be used for the better elsewhere.
There is a space between one of our couches and the wall where I put some of Jackie's toys. I decided to buy some cute, squishy ornaments to put on the little tree and put it on the floor in that corner. I added this darling reindeer and Snowman from Target and Jackie was instantly in love with the entire concept. The Minnie Mouses are from years of going to Disney World around the holidays.
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Decorating for Christmas with a Toddler | How It's Going So Far
I decorated the apartment in the beginning of November. I wanted to give Jackie time to adjust to all of the new stuff and see if I needed to add or take anything away. The first week with the new trees was a lot of "No, Jackie". She was testing o see how much she could get away with. But she never tried to pull the trees down. After that week, she has completely left the two bigger trees alone. She plays with the tree and ornaments in her corner and is happy with that!
Decorating for Christmas with a Toddler | Shop the Post
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