Happy holidays, cuties! While large holiday parties and much of holiday travel are both going to be on hold this year, for safety’s sake, the tradition of holiday decor is still very much on for me and my family! I love decorating my the apartment with my children…and of course playing Santa to them (even though my oldest is starting to doubt the magic of old St. Nick)–sob!).
To help all my fellow parents out there get into the holiday decorating spirit (trust me, I know it’s not always easy!), I’m sharing my favorite tips, tricks, and traditions, along with some of my absolute favorite kids’ gift items from our KKH Holiday Gift Shop!
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How I Decorate for the Holidays with My Kids
The first thing to remember when your little ones join you in putting up holiday decor is to remember that they are going to give you maybe an hour where they’re actually being helpful with decorating. The vast majority of the time, they aren’t going to be helpful and if you’re like me, and you want it to look perfect, you have to allocate what they actually do on the tree.
Usually I have two trees–a pretty tree and a fun tree. In certain years we’ve combined the two, if we have a really big tree. The fun tree–I love decorating this one with my kids so much–features souvenir ornaments from any vacation or trip we go on. When I travel, if I see souvenir ornaments, or any little thing that could be turned into an ornament, I buy it. I’m the person who goes right to the cheesy gift shop and buys the ornament with a crab on it that says “Rehoboth Beach.”
I like to allocate specific areas for the kids to decorate, and then any special hand-blown glass ornaments, expensive collectibles, and heirlooms get tucked away way up high where the kids can’t reach. But the kids get to place the fun souvenir ornaments, or the stuffed animals and plush taxi cab ornaments, and they really love those things.
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How We Create Traditions
Crafting special holiday traditions with my children is such a joy! Traditionally, we go to Connecticut and cut down our tree at a tree farm. And we bring it home and have hot cocoa. Of course, the unsexy part is hauling it into the building and getting it hoisted up into the stand without it killing someone or wrecking the furniture on the way in!
Once the tree is secure, we pull out all of our other Christmas stuff–we have these little figurines that are plush and they’re skiing and snowshoeing. The kids get those out, they pull out the sled, and the light up holiday village buildings–and we do the decorating together. It’s really wonderful. They also write notes to Santa–in years past they’ve done two notes, one in English and one in Chinese. They also stamp the letters and give them to me to mail–though, of course I save them away in a drawer so that when they’re older we can go back and look at them.
I think the best part about decorating is creating the tradition and repeating every single year. So, whatever you choose to do, make sure you can repeat in years to come–whether that’s having hot chocolate and singing carols or watching a special Christmas movie. Whatever the line up is, make sure it’s something you can easily repeat the next year so the kids can get excited about it and feel comforted by the consistency.
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My Fave Kids’ Holiday Gift Picks
Finally, once the tree is trimmed and all of your holiday decor is in place, you know your kiddos are going to expect to see some fun presents under it before long! If you’re playing Santa for your littles this year and aren’t sure what to get–I have good news: KKH Baby & Kids has you covered. I honestly think that our assortment for kids gifts is bananas-good!
My kids are out of this age range but I think the Milton & Goose play kitchen is ridiculously nice. I’ll also take any one of our Steiff teddy bears–they make lovely gifts and can be passed down through generations. In terms of practical gifts: I love our Stokke Tripp Trapp chairs and the lucite clear cribs from Nursery Works, especially if you’re willing to splurge a little!
And finally–just humor me, here–I think for anyone gifting to new moms, to do a whole nursery ceiling of our hot air balloon mobiles would be amazing! They’re so cute–just order 4-5 more than you think you need!
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