Ideas to make Christmas with a toddler less completely shit?

[Hardbackwriter]

Feeling quite despairing so trying to cheer myself up by finding some nice ideas - please help! I have a 2.5 year old, am 32 weeks pregnant and tbh DH and I are already really struggling to keep him entertained and to feel like life is anything other than drudgery. I was so looking forward to having some days at Christmas where he got to play with beloved family members and I got to sit down in comfort, drink tea and have a chat with an adult. That's now not happening - any ideas for how we can make it not just feel like another day of the same old drudgery? He won't tolerate sitting around and watching Christmassy films etc (and I also think that is very boring). Please don't suggest walks - I have SPD.

Choose an animal, make basic dress up outfits, then be that animal. DD loved being a puppy, spent many (way too many) hours playing “fetch” with her. I usually chose to be a chrysalis (sleeping bag, sofa, happy days).

[quote MessAllOver]@MissLucyEyelesbarrow.

I thought about suggesting that but not sure how cryogenic freezing would work with the OP's pregnancy.

Love your username, btw - is it 4.50 from Paddington?[/quote]
Correct! She is my role model in all things

We used to do a lot of long afternoon baths when I was heavily pg with my second.

I've never been deleted before.
How exciting.

I have a 3 year old and had a baby in the middle of the first lockdown. It was hard! I was heavily pregnant and on my own all day with her. I love her to bits and she's amazing, but I was huge and knackered with no energy.
She would spend a good amount of time at the kitchen sink, playing in the water, filling up and emptying bowls.
She loves a good treasure hunt, so in would hide some gold coins around the room and give her clues as to where they were. Or draw a treasure map.
Mug cakes are brilliant. Easy and quick.
We made play dough the other day and she played with that for ages.
I found it a lot easier when baby had arrived actually, and I wasn't the size of a house any more.

Morning/afternoon baths. Baths anytime.

Watering the plants

Sleepy drives at nap time, find a nice cafe that does take out and enjoy those blissful moments of silence.

Baking/crafting - doesn't need to be complicated, at that age mine just loved cutting pics out of my old magazines and sticking.

Big play (DH can do this, make dens/build camps, obstacle courses etc, the stuff that takes some big moving of stuff)

Have you tried the larger Hama beads? Might be a bit young but DD would spend ages doing these at around that age.

Scavenger hunts - go and find me three odd socks, two red things etc. You put your feet up and collect the scavenged items. Prize at the end.

Drive to see anything, local airport, train station, building site, forest etc...

Small errands, going to the post office etc - admittedly harder with Covid, but giving a walk purpose, 'must post nanny's Christmas card', makes them more engaged and cooperative.

Play doh. Not too messy. I can't bear messy play. Not with SPD.

I feel for you OP I really do. It is a trying age, and SPD is miserable.

Things to feel positive about;

By the time your baby arrives we should be on our way out of this and heading into a brighter spring.

IME SPD all but disappeared overnight after baby came.

As PPs have said, it will pass, you're in the thick of it now, but it will. Promise.

Don't forget he will be getting lots of new toys soon that will hopefully keep him busy for a few days.

This is a great thread!

Tire him out with dancing or get DH to take him out on balance bike. My dgs is 2 and my dd takes him out every day even if wet or drizzle to wear him out so he sleeps better. When your son takes his nap you should nap too. Hot bubble bath with plenty of water toys for him to play with.

Start the day with your favourite music. Take turns to have a long bath and a sit down with a cup of tea. Plan something fun for you and Dh to do together on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing day when your toddler naps or after they've fallen asleep at night.

The three of you together could make some decorations to hang on the tree - make your own bright red or green play dough in advance then help DC cut them into star and Christmas tree shapes etc with cutters and then bake them. (Make a hole in them first to thread ribbon through)

But just watching them open presents and helping set up anything for them to play with will be fun. They get so happy and excited.

Shaving foam painting can get messy but really fun. Baking sheet add layer of shaving foam and dots of food colouring then get a stick or handle of paintbrush and swirl, then lay paper on top and scrape off the excess. Then let toddler play with foam.

Get a tuff tray or big plant pot tray or any kind of tray really or plastic tub and some set up some simple activities.

Make fake snow from cornflour and shaving foam- give some trucks with it and it will keep your toddler entertained for hours.

Dye some rice and give some pots for him to scoop and sieve.

Bake cakes and let him decorate them.

Get a big roll of christmas stickers and some paper and let him stick them all over the paper (they love this kind of thing).

Put his toys put in new ways- pop diggers in rice, set a trainset in snow, make a postbox and get him to post letters that you've hidden around the house. Failing that- put cbeebies on (no as intense a film so more likely to engage).

@jumperweather

This is a great thread!

It really is - thank you everyone! When I got a few snippy replies at the beginning I thought making the thread was a horrible mistake because it was just going to make me feel worse but it's turned out really nice and supportive. Thank you and good luck to everyone else toddler wrangling at Christmas!

If you have Disney+ I highly recommend the shorts - my toddler can't sit through movies but can watch the 5-8 minute shorts. Knick Knack is about a snowman so especially Christmassy.

@Magicbabywaves

Might not be helpful, but it’s true. My youngest is 2.5 so I get it. Your DH is going to have to take him out so you can get a rest. I honestly can’t think of much else.

Well loads of other people have come up with some good ideas so maybe you just need to use your imagination a bit.

Op I feel for you, its such a hard age! They have no rational, just want to do their own thing, sometimes everything can feel like a battle.

I'm sure it's already been mentioned but break down the day into slots and try and make each slot last as long as you can.

Wilkinson has loads of canvas, cheap, painting paper, simple Xmas crafts...craft packs... Try and do one creative thing each day.

Make snow flakes.

Get the child outside I'm sure play parks are still open.

Have another time slot of tv... Not long things but short stuff? Or a game on tablet?..

Another slot for the den building and toys..... And another slot for simple treasure hunt, long bath slot...

Put faces on food etc.

Repeat .. It was hard enough in winter without covid its can be grinding with a child this age.

Forgot.. One thing that was a huge hit was large box.. Have you got any large boxes they can get in and out of, make a den in? One year places like aldi had very cheap cardboard houses... One of those could buy you some peace for a bit!

I had a smaller gap, (18 months) but what worked well for us was to create a secure play area, and spend time in there with a pillow and duvet. The toddler played, climbed over and under me (who needs Gymboree?) and snuggled in for naps. Toddlers need to play close by people but don’t always need to be played with. You can read a book, or doze if you need to, and let toddler get on with stuff.

Anything sensory (water/play doughs and/rice) tends to keep dc entertained longer, and quietly but needs to be sandwiched with a higher energy activity. The trick with high energy activity is to make sure they use energy rather than you - so running about looking for particular items, timing how fast they go up a d down the garden etc.

If you do messy play or crafts, do them naked in the bath. It’s not quite how it’s done in preschool but it saves a ton of extra work afterwards.

By the way - and this isn't meant to sound ungrateful, but some of these posts make it sound like I was handed DS yesterday! - I wasn't really looking for basic tips on how to live with a toddler in general, but more ideas specifically for anything that would make Christmas (and, if I'm being really spoilt, Christmas Eve and boxing day) itself feel less like an ordinary day. It's not that we're unhappy with our normal weekends and days with him (maybe running a bit low on creative juices in general!), more that just doing the same thing as we do every day feels like a bit of a rubbish Christmas, in the same way as before him I'd have spent a weekend pottering about, catching up on some work and reading a book but that wouldn't have been how I wanted to spend Christmas day... So all the new and creative ideas are really appreciated (some of you are very clever/imaginative!) and I think having something new to do will make it feel more special but I already know things like that he needs to go out, we've (more recently DH) have been taking him on daily walks since March and I spend plenty of time with him in drizzly playgrounds!

We used to do Christmas treasure hunt with my dc. Just wrap up small stuff(in my dc's case it was mini toy cars), and place them everywhere for the dc to find. That was great fun.

Hopefully at this age he still goes to bed relatively early?? I would make sure you get to spend the evenings relaxing, nice food, wine, good TV. So try if you can to get sort of organised through the day so you don't have loads of tidying up to do in the evening.

I think post kids, I've enjoyed that part of the day more and more!

We're having a train weekend. Did a Christmas train track yesterday with our wooden train set, trees and houses, fake snow and "snow balls" (cotton balls), some mini presents and reindeer and Santa figures. Then we watched all the Christmas episodes of Thomas and Friends and DS has been reenacting them since - lots of trees and snow on the line, diesels stealing Christmas trees and runaway fat controllers. We also stopped by the train bridge on our walk and DS spent 15 mins counting all the trains while I had hot chocolate.

MistletoeandGin

Magicbabywaves
Might not be helpful, but it’s true. My youngest is 2.5 so I get it. Your DH is going to have to take him out so you can get a rest. I honestly can’t think of much else.
Well loads of other people have come up with some good ideas so maybe you just need to use your imagination a bit.

Err. No I don’t. I didn’t ask for suggestions.

Similar boat here @Hardbackwriter

Glo Sticks off Amazon and doing a "light show" before bed.

Bath bombs with hidden animals inside also Amazon.

Treasure hunt - Create a list of things they have to find on a walk; Dog, Cat, Christmas Tree etc and tick them off: prize when they get home.