Christmas with toddlers

[Tootiedee]

I have 2.5 year old twins, I'm so excited for Christmas this year but I'm struggling for ideas of festive things to do with them.

I usually go to Christmas markets, ice skating etc but they are rather bonkers high energy so those things aren't going to work.

I've got plenty of crafty ideas and a visit to santa booked. I've bought some Christmas books for them.

What else can I do to make the next few weeks special?

Oh and elf on the shelf yay or nay!?

Oh we will be in Chester at Christmas. Will look into the lanterns

My little girl loves going to the church Christingle and nativity crib services... I think it's the candles :-)

We go see the Santa express at our local steam railway.

Started when DS was 2.5. He talks about it every year and it's when Xmas starts for us.

Other than that just buying and putting up the tree and going on a special shopping trip for DHs present.

I think too many traditions and by Xmas day everyone has peaked already.

But I get annoyed that Xmas seems to start on Black Friday these days.

Advent calendars, not the chocolate ones but those fabby old fashioned German ones with glitter. One each.

Be Icelandic on Christmas Eve, new pyjamas, books, carols on the CD player.

Wraps up their presents in boxes. Unwrapping and boxes are far far far more fun than the actual presents. Depending on size, the boxes can be space rockets. Stables, train sheds, caves for monsters, Noah’s Ark,

Making calendars. Hand prints or whatever, with those tiny calendars you can get from any reasonable stationery/ post office.

Learning a poem or verse,

Learning a carol. I hate Away in a Manger but one verse isn’t too hard to learn

Reading The Night Before Christmas

WatchingThe Snowman, ok they’re too young but so what

Putting out the mince pie and sherry for Father Christmas and the carrot for the reindeer. Don’t be all grown up and wash them up after he’s had them, there need to be crumbs and tooth marks as evidence.

Reindeer headbands, all reindeer need at least two walks a day and to run pulling a pretend sled...or a real sled on which they can be pulled along when tired...

I started mine making Xmas gifts for friends and relatives at that age. It can be a simple as a ppaint handprint on paper that they then cut out and put a ribbon through, but thinking about giving as well as getting was something I wanted to teach them about Christmas

Last year DD was 2 and a bit, we did

a few handprint christmas cards but her attention span wasn't enough to do more than for her grandparents and aunties/uncles...

Visited santa's grotto - she screamed bloody murder and hated the big man but loved seeing the real reindeer that were there

I put some printer paper around different size toilet / kitchen paper rolls and added noses and mouths and a bit of fabric around for a scarf and some innocent smoothie wooly hats to make snowmen, she played with them for about 5 minutes a day for about a week til DH recycled them

She liked looking in the boxes of tree decorations, she liked decorating the tree for about 5 mins but most decorations were put on one branch so it got redone after she went to bed

She liked a few german decorations we had like a tree with a music box on the bottom and those tiny wooden angels etc on hooks

We made biscuits and she cut them out for me but got frustrated that she wasn't strong enough to roll the dough

Had a non chocolate advent calendar and enjoyed opening the doors

Went to the christmas glow / lantern thing at Wisley (gardens near us) but she was too tired and got really grumpy.

We read a few christmas books, my favourite and the one she asked for most was "Lucy and Tom's Christmas" and she loves the two Mog Christmas books too.

She absolutely LOVED christmas but we didn't do much specific with her. Their attention span is just too short still at that age. And no way was I starting any new traditions like elf on the shelf or Christmas eve box that I have to do every year for the next 18 or however... very glad with this decision as this year I will be 35 weeks pregnant with twins so it is going to be minimal again this year probably with a few extra christmas films to watch in the afternoons. I think she'll also enjoy a bit of Christmas shopping, we'll go on a day where I don't have any to do and she can choose some small presents for her grandparents, cousins etc.

We do an advent calendar, lots of outdoor walks when it's not raining, baking, cozy film afternoons.

I'm going to make cards this year - spread out over a few days because of short attention spans and the number of cards they will make.

You could get a gingerbread house kit and let them decorate that.

For outdoor walks - have a look on Facebook and see if your area has a version of County/Town name Rocks - where people show photos of rocks they have painted and hidden around local woodland areas/walks and people share the rocks they've found to give you ideas of where to go on a rock hunt with them.

DD is 2.5 (well, slightly older, 3 in March) and she loves the idea of Christmas but I really don't want to go overboard - it can very easily be overwhelming for them. DS really struggles to deal with the excitement (age 5) so we're trying to have it nice, but not Buddy the Elf levels of excitement through the whole month.

Thank you all so much for the brilliant ideas, I want to do all of them but that would definitely be overwhelming!

So our list is

Salt dough decorations
Christmas cards- they love painting their hands and feet
Drive around our neighbouring villages to look at the lights
Visit to santa-just a local/cheap one
Decorating a gingerbread house
One "big day out" either to the local farm park that are having a festive day or nearest big city

Will be doing a 1st of December box which the elf will come with.

A word to the wise: get gingerbread glue for the house, get them to decorate some, do something else eg send them for a nap or put them to bed, then work on it yourself. I expect one becomes expert but my first two attempts were more like the Leaning Tower of Pisa meets Jackson Pollock. And DS broke bits, so really it became more like the Colosseum meets Jackson Pollock. In fact, you might even want a secret back up set...

We use melted sugar, but don't let the toddlers touch OBVIOUSLY.

Yup, but it’s hot, so glue is easier...

What is gingerbread glue?

Try Dr Oetker Baking glue

Stained glass biscuits - once dough rolled out, cut out a shape in middle (star is obviously great at Christmas) and pop a plain fruit boiled sweet in the cut out space before putting in oven, it melts and spreads then hardens once cooked and cooked and look lovely with tree lights shining through.

If feeling adventurous you can paint you windows as stained glass, mix powder / poster paint with pva glue, then paint scenes on windows. Pva means you can easily peel if off when had enough of it, used to do this to nursery windows I worked at years ago

It helps to have traditions that can expand and contract with your energy levels. My memories of toddler Decembers are a season of colds, flus and vomiting bugs. So for that reason I just wouldn't take on anything that requires me to do something every day/evening like elf on the shelf.

I also think it's easier to sustain belief in a distant and mysterious santa than in a toy you can see sitting in your living room but once they see through any part of the illusion the whole house of cards collapse.

Naked in the bath is a perfect location for messy glue and paint activities otherwise keep a pack of baby wipes on hand to catch them before they get bored and accidentally finger paint the couch and wallpaper on the way to the bathroom to wash hands.

Be prepared for them to love some random aspect of an activity and then wander off (Christmas DVDs are your friend) mine loved putting spoonfuls of icing sugar slowly into the mixer for the gingerbread house glue, and making clouds of sugar in the kitchen but were a bit meh about decorating it. (
A small plastic Tupperware inside the house helps to stabilise it btw as it's a very tricky activity for little hands)

I loved crafts and activities that could be taken up and put down multiple times as the mood took them. Even now that they are older we do things in stages. Cookie dough can be made and then wrapped and refrigerated. The rolling out and cutting can be a new activity, icing another, gift boxes might have been made a week before. But the key thing is not to be over invested in them taking part. If you can be easy going about this it will all be much more fun for everyone.

If you're going out remember that the journey is just as important as the destination. Look at Christmas lights on the drive there, play Christmas music in the car. Sometimes the boredom of the drive and the endless search for parking kills the Christmas spirit before you've even got started.

Mine still love building igloos with the sofa cushions or reading by torchlight under a blanket pretending to be arctic explorers. Or turning off the lights except the Christmas tree and lying underneath it looking up and chatting about what we might get for Christmas. We have a collection of Christmas books that we add to every year for bedtime stories .... all very ordinary things that would happen anyway but are made Christmassy and a little bit special.

Having a 2 year old son, I'm loving the ideas on this thread.

The only one we've done that's not been mentioned is making mugs for grandparents. I got some cheap plain mugs and he's done fingerprint Robins in ceramic paint. I've then got plain gift bags which he's painted one side of with glitter paint. He's going to do the other side with Christmas stickers, and then make gift tags too. I'll then help him pack them with tissue paper and he can give them to his grandparents himself when we visit them. I want him to learn about the giving side too as he's very definitely understanding the getting side already!