Child friendly decorations

[Chickpearocker]

What ways do you decorate your home that is child friendly I.e isn't too heavy, won't injure them if knocked down. I have a 2 yr old and want fun decorations for him to enjoy, don't think I will put up a tree as he will be tempted to take off the decorations

[elQuintoConyo]

All our decorations were high up. My DM had made us a Knitivity (knitted nativity) which DS LOVED. We aren't religious but it is an adorable thing - the photos of DS hugging 8 little knitted sheep while he had a Christmas Day nap are priceless.

DS is now 5yo and the nativity is like day one, not a hole or stain anywhere.

He never 'went' for the tree, although we put felt and other soft unbreakable ornaments at child height so he could play with them and rearrange them if he wanted. More fragile ones wre on top and he never tipped it over.

There is a lovely idea tree idea i found on pinterest

[AmyAmoeba]

We had one of those hexagonal play pens that you can open up and stretch out ( no idea what they are called) and we used to put our Christmas tree behind it when the kids were small. They were quite put out when they were old enough to be careful and I didn't put the cage up as to them it was as much a part of the tradition as anything else

[Ilovenannyplum]

I have got DS one of these, he will be 2.4 at Christmas, hoping he can just fiddle with this and will leave the big tree alone. That's massively wishful thinking though I know

www.hobbycraft.co.uk/wall-hanging-felt-christmas-tree-90cm/609008-1000

[PenguinsandPebbles]

elQuinto that sounds AWESOME!!! I want knitivity for the children me, it's really for me

I'm building something similar as shown in the Pinterest link, relatively simple to do and is lots of fun, reminds me of my fuzzyfelt days.

Watching with intersest for more ideas.

[coffeismybestfriend]

I only put plastic bulbs on the tree. They look the same as glass ones but don't brake in a million pieces if dropped, they just bounce

[Wayfarersonbaby]

While DD was small we went for Scandi-style decorations - soft felt and gingham hearts and stars, paper baubles, straw and wooden figures, and hand-made woven felt baskets (check out how to make Danish woven paper or felt heart baskets on google) - nothing that DD could break or that would matter if it got squashed or hurt her/be a choking hazard.

The tree looked great by the way and very stylish! The paper tree decs we had were from Livingly, a Danish company, but we picked them up really inexpensively in the post-Christmas sales in John Lewis. Lots of places seem to have paper fold-out baubles at the moment which look similar (dotcomgiftshop have some), very cute and it doesn't matter if toddlers squish them! (I mean the decoration gets ruined, but no-one gets hurt )

[Wayfarersonbaby]

eg:
www.dotcomgiftshop.com/set-6-paper-bell-honeycomb-mini-decorations?ll=catprod&ctid=5637&pos=19

• so cheap it would hardly matter if they got squashed!
  

or, lots of Danish heart baskets and soft felt tree ornaments here:
www.pinterest.com/pin/75927943691873362/

[BiddyPop]

We had a couple of years with only the more robust decorations (plastic baubles down low, and fabric/wooden items. Glass and other delicates much reduced and kept high). Lots of "ah ah ah, don't touch" the first year, and she learned not to touch in general.

We have a fabric advent calendar that is a lovely Christmassy picture, which she can go at as much as she wants.

We have a fleece blanket with a santa and sleigh picture that she can cuddle under.

We have a few stuffed toys (a deer, a santa who has lost his sack in the past year - but it is 10 years old!, and a snowman) that are only taken out for December/January.

I am back to using candles again as DD is older now, but at least now there are battery operated candles and tealights as alternatives.

DD used to make various decorations in pre-school and school over the years, many were perfect to hang on trees or windows (lots involved paper plates in 101 different ways!).

And I used to give her a shoebox of paper strips in different colours and a roll of sellotape, to make paper chains for the hall, kitchen etc. Kept her happy for hours and gave us another thing to hang.

[Chickpearocker]

Thanks for the great suggestions do much googling to do now!

[elQuintoConyo]

Knitivity (photo not mine). We have 8 sheep. Baby Jesus can be placed in the frib or in the arms of Mary or Joseph.

Or DS hides him and we play 'hot or cold Baby Jesus'

[eyebrowsonfleek]

We put the Baby Dan around our Xmas tree. In my defence I was an anxious mother who thought pfb would electrocute himself on the fairy lights. (He liked to mouth things)

[Ladymoods]

I always still had a real tree when the kids were small, but stuck to non-breakable decorations. I also used to secure the tree by tying it to the curtain hook with garden wire so they couldn't pull it over. But to be honest they liked to just look at the tree and never really went near it, so don't always assume that toddlers will be climbing up it to get to the fairy.

[Notso]

I've always just used what we normally would. A real tree in a stand on the floor with various decorations in glass, wood and felt.
I've got four children and the only person to knock the tree over has been me when I was hoovering. DC3 was particularly climby and fiddley but apart from pulling a few bits off it was fine. They come across trees in loads of places toddler group, grandma's, shopping centres etc so I think it's good for them to be used to looking but not touching them.
I do have things out they can play with though, the ELC nativity set, Playmobil advent calendar, a snowman slide thing, window stickers and a singing Christmas frog!

[WiltingTulip]

My dcs have their own little tree that we have been adding to for about 10 years. Even the older dcs still love it. Hard to show on a photo but it's covered and we might have to get a bigger tree now.

When i only had 2 dcs I had a blow up Xmas tree. The dcs and I drew and coloured in decorations which I laminated at work and we decorated the tree by sticky taping them on. We haven't used that tree for awhile but I love looking at the decorations!

[Chickpearocker]

Aww that is such a cute tree, I love that idea!

[WiltingTulip]

Got most of them on eBay from a seller in Singapore. I buy about 5 from them each year. The round ones are cheapies with a movie that they've watched on them.