It is aparent in our home that those of us responsible for the safety of our children are not exactly excited about bringing a large toppling evergreen into our home and adorning it with projectiles...
So here sits the spot for our tree, empty.
I tried to convince the children that we opted for the invisible variety of Christmas tree.
"It is all the rage," I said.
"Mom!"
"Really, Santa prefers them...not so hard on the eyes!"
"Mom."
"Seriously, they have linked Christmas lights to a rare form of ADD and suggest that people don't put up trees this year in an attempt to remedy the problem."
"Mom."
OK. I would feel like a horrible mom for my older children if we had no tree this year but I am trying to be creative so they have a SANE mom after the Holidays are over.
Small tree on dining room table?
Tree suspended from the ceiling?
Mini-tree on the mantle?
In the laundry room?
The garage?
In my minivan?
After each thought I hear the echo of their voices saying,"Mom" in my head accompanied by the disapproving looks and fustrated huffs.
I just can't imagine living the next two weeks watching my Christmas ornament collection dwindle down to a sucked-on Candy Cane and a clothespin reindeer stipped of this pipe-cleaner antlers.
HELP!
What can ya give me?
17 comments:
Hmmm....Two words are coming to mind.
1. Baby
2. Gate
Maybe if you gated them out of the corner where the tree stands your ornaments will have a fighting chance?? We had to do that to one of our dogs when I was growing up. It was a huge game for him to try to pull the tree over by hooking his nose under the garland rope, wait for someone to see him, and then gleefully bound toward said someone when they called him away from the tree. :-)
Granted, the kids aren't an 80 pound Weimariner, but if it worked for one.... ???
I don't know if you watch the show on TLC called Jon and Kate Plus Eight but they have to be creative as parents of twins and sextuplets (that's six right?) and they showed their tree and there was the tree, presents, and this huge circle of plastic baby gates wrapped around the entire thing. It might not be the most attractive thing in the world but it will please your older children and save the reindeers antlers.
I mean, come on, they decapated some of the manger people. Save the reindeer!
I've got tons of play yards because of the day care that you can hook together to make different sizes. I "wrapped" them with Christmas material to make them look like presents so I could put them around the tree to keep my daughter out. Of course, if you've been to my blog lately, you'll know my tree stands undecorated still. So there's nothing to entice Peanut. I got lights today and we put ornaments on tonight. We'll see how that all goes!
Those upside down trees are very trendy. My mom put hers on her covered porch so it could be seen inside of the house from the bay window. It was very pretty.
I have a large steamer trunk that we got at an antique store. Our tree is only 6 ft tall, so I put a board across the top of the trunk, set the tree on top. To make it look a little more festive, I put our Christmas train on the floor, encircling the trunk. (Sometimes you have to work with what you've got on hand, right?) I'll put a pic on my blog if you want to check it out.
Gotta run, my two year old is trying desperately to zip my throat up in my sweater.
I have put away all of my breakable ornaments indefinitely. Instead I bought wrapping paper (not neccessarily Christmas) with my 5 kids' favorite cartoon characters on it and let them cut them out, glue them on small pieces of posterboard and attach a loop of yarn. We also glued ribbon to pine cones and made salt dough ornaments. This way I can teach the little ones not to touch the tree without being frantic because if they destroy an ornament it's not a big deal.
Come over and see mine, small 3 footer on the piano. Pic on my blog.
my dog knocked my tree over a few years back and broke every delicate ornament. i say either tie it to the wall or gate it off like the others suggested. you could even loop lights or ribbon thru the gate to make it festive.
I say just have them paint one on those big rolls of paper they have at elementary schools... they can even glue on real branches! I think my kids would like that much better. My two year old twins don't just call it a Christmas tree around here, it is a "Christmas tree-- DON'T TOUCH!" Poor kids get scolded if they even come within 2 feet of it. Nice Christmas spirit, huh? :)
Put the tree back up and cut out paper snowflakes as the ornaments. We did that when Luke was little so that he wouldn't fiddle with any ornaments. It was a pretty tree too. Also, we always decorate our tree with the photograph Christmas cards we receive from friends. That way we can look at their pretty pic's too and some paper snowflakes. Does this help?
I vote for a tree with homemade ornaments. Buy construction paper and have the kids go to town making ornaments. One of my magazines suggests photocopying pictures,framing with "stuff" and hanging on tree. YOU are creative (spa b-day) I have faith - :) Karrie
Michele--If you don't mind hopping on over to read my blog post for today and passing it along to anyone you know who would be willing to help this dear family out. Thanks.
We are not even attempting to set up the tree until late this year. I think we are going to actually wait until Christmas Eve, and then we will have to take it down the 26th (movers come the 27th). So thats my solution, either that or baby gates, lots of baby gates.
i put away all the good stuff and mostly decorate the top.
What super ideas!
Once when we moved and were in a small temporary apt over the holidays - i made salt dough ornaments for the kids to cut out w/ cookie cutters and paint and glitter.
It was fun!
I will post a picture of what we do....ugh.
We had garlands one year around the ceiling. Another year we got a small fiber optic tree on sale after Christmas and just put it up without ornaments. The following year I used the same tree and hung cheapo slinkies and bouncy balls on elastic strings all over it. They took the ornaments off of course, but it was a lot of fun. I sympathize with your wise men. If you look at about 3 0r 4 posts down or so on my blog, you can see what mine has been through.
Michelle, you can't put gates around your tree or make paper ornaments for it. What would you have to blog about??? The headless wisemen need someone to keep them company!
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