Christmas with toddlers A repost with additions . . .

Christmas with toddlers A repost with additions . . . 

 

I originally posted the following back 2009.  Today I'm adding more thoughts that I hope might be relevant to any young moms that might get the opportunity to read this post.   Today I'll be linking my post at all the regular Monday and Tuesday linky parties . . . 

2009 . . . We are enjoying our grandson so much. Last night we let him decorate the Christmas tree with a little help.  He is 2 1/2. 

2015 . . . The help he received was basically just helping him put the ornaments on when he got stuck.  Some of the hooks or hangers are difficult for little fingers to manage.  

At the time I/we didn't realize the importance of allowing him to decorate the tree all by himself. 

2009 . . . This was just after the afternoon nap I didn't notice I should have combed his hair.
Rachel Anne over at Home Sanctuary got me to thinking about Christmas traditions and decorating. I remember when I was a young mother and actually not so young mom I was a little festidious about how things needed to look. 

2015 I was alot Fistidious.  Or OCD as we label it now adays.  
2009 . . . Actually that is why the kids had trees in their own rooms. That was when we moved to our dream house and we had a tree in every room. The trees in the living areas needed to look "just right". 
Actually I think the whole idea of the children having their own trees is a good idea if it is done for the right reasons. 

2015 I didn't have the children's trees for the right reasons.  I wanted the living room, den and actually the entire house to look 'just right'.  I wanted my home to look like a magazine.  If we had been 'blessed to have the internet and blogging back then I would have. . . well I hate to think how I would have been.  
2009. . . Mine weren't. And that is just one of those things I wish I could do over. I wish I had been a little more relaxed in some areas. 

2015. . . I do wish I could do it over again.  And many other things. 

I still like the idea of trees in the children's rooms.  I am a grandmother now and my reasons for trees in children's rooms has changed a lot!   

A tree in their rooms is the perfect place to start a collection that they can take with them when their married.  (Read more about collection trees in part two)

2009 . . . This is the tree that the toddler decorated.

2009. . . And by the way remember the ornaments that weren't used on the trees in the family and living room well this is part of them. Somehow or another when I went to get ornaments out the only box I could find was my son's box. Hence cats. There were a few random ornaments mixed in with greenery and candles they made their way onto the tree too.  

And if you look really closely some are clumped together. And some spots are empty but that is what happens when a toddler decorates the tree.

2015 . . . If I could go back I'd have to say that I'd have to do things differently. 

Would I still have an over the top tree in the living room?  Yes.  But,  I would have 

special trees for each child.  And, a family tree.  A special tree that holds family memories.  

Would I still have a tree in every room.  Yes . . . 

you can never have too many Christmas Trees!

Linking with:

Jess at The Art Of Homemaking