Christmas Decorating Tips with Kids

Hi Friends! I hope you had a great Thanksgiving! Last week we finished the last of the installation of our new floors (I’ll have a post just on the process) just in time for Thanksgiving. We did a deep cleaning (there was saw dust everywhere) and moved the furniture back so I could decorate the tree.

ENTRY DECOR

So our house went from construction zone to Christmas heaven! I am so excited to be participating in my first ever Christmas Tour! If you are visiting from the tour- welcome! I am so excited to show you around my home. It is so cozy in here, I can’t even tell you! I did a little decorating in the entry (mostly because I didn’t want that glass tree broken ;))
The majority of the decorating is in the living room.

LIVING ROOM DECOR

I remember last year being beyond happy to take down the tree because I was sick of Don messing with it. This year I figured out a few techniques so we’d both be happier.

TIPS FOR KID PROOFING YOUR TREE

I headed to Target and bought some felt ornaments that I knew he would love. I let him play with them before the tree was up so they felt like his. As I was getting the tree up, I walked out of the room and he started decorating on his own. It was pretty adorable!

And I use the term decorating loosely- he was shoving ornaments on branches. I helped him a bit- we put the unbreakable ornaments on the bottom. He pretty much only plays with the felt ornaments which feels like a major win!

He loves saying hi and moving around the penguin and deer. The top has breakable ornaments so it is a little more decorated than the bottom. Don has more or less left the tree alone, so that’s nice. And if he does mess with it, he can’t break anything.
deer ornament (no longer available)

penguin ornament (no longer available)

top from Fresh Market Threads

ornament details

I got this Airstream ornament from Down East Home. I am obsessed with Air Stream trailers and figure if we can’t own one yet, I can at least have one on my tree!

The little house ornament is from Micheals from last year (as is most of my Christmas decor). I like how it ties in nicely with my little Christmas village:

I made the village last year and did a whole tutorial on it how to make a Christmas Village on a budget here. Next to the Christmas village, I have a tray with cute framed Christmas art.

I added a bunch of greenary to my house from Trader Joe’s to liven it up a bit. I love this holly in a vase- isn’t it so sculptural?!

We just sent out our Christmas cards. I worked with Minted on these cuties. They are letterpress and the thick paper is just gorgeous. My favorite part of Minted is that they will print your addresses on your envelopes for you. So when they arrive, you just have to assemble and throw in the mail. It was so painless! p.s. look close for a custom stamp with Don on it. Let’s face it, he’s the star of this show 🙂

The desk got a little decorated too with an advent calendar (it was from Target last year), nativity, and festive letterboard.

The sofa has a Noel pillow and some decor on the side table (can you spy the elf of the shelf?).

Last, the dining table has more greenary, some bottlebrush trees from Target (no longer available) and a little elk (another piece of decoration Don loves to play with). We tied our stockings to the backs of our chairs since we don’t have a mantle. They are customized and from Etsy here.

That wraps up the tour section of this blog post! The next stop is Salt and Life blog. These girls always have the prettiest DIY tutorials so I can’t wait to see what they have up their sleeves for Christmas!

gift giving

I love to get a head start on gift buying so that December can be more about enjoying the holidays and less about stressing about buying stuff (see all of my tips for having a perfect Christmas here).For Christmas, I ordered Don the cutest whale cruiser- called a Bon toy. (no longer available)

I let him take it for a ride and play with it when it arrived (but it’ll be hidden until Christmas morning). I’m all about beautiful toys so that if they’re left out they aren’t an eyesore- this totally fits that criteria.

The whale has an adjustable height so it can grow with Don. Usually Don is too short for these types of toys, but he can easily use this one. The wheels are super quiet and don’t scratch up our floors. I also like that the edges are rounded so it’s super safe and doesn’t damage the furniture.

I love this little toy and thought I would pass it on to you in case you need a gift for your little one. To get 15% off your bon toy, just use the code BONTOY15 🙂 (no longer available)

To finish off this post, I thought I would share a video of Don riding his new toy. Enjoy!

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