Early planning for 18 month old!

[Beenybobs]

Hi all
I'm after tips, tricks and ideas to make Christmas for my will-be 18 month old extra special! Obviously she will be more aware and into everything this year- and I want to do a "December box"/"Christmas Eve box" type thing for her
But have no idea what will be good for the festive season for an 18 month old?
I want to start buying small bits throughout the year to break up the cost.

I get wanting to do a bit more this year but honestly, at 18 months she still won't have a clue!!
Just do nice decorations, a few nice gifts, a cardboard box with some led lights in. She won't give a hoot about a Xmas eve box...

My son was 2 at Xmas and even then wasn't arsed about most of the stuff.
I've gone wrong in the past buying too much.
2-3 really good quality things is what I aim for now otherwise they just get overwhelmed

My DD was 18mo last Christmas and my biggest advice is to not go overboard. I got her way too much (and I thought I was being conservative!) and she was overwhelmed. Didn't manage to unwrap them all either! We got her a play kitchen which gets so much use and was by far the best gift. I did a Christmas Eve box but again she didn't really care 🤣. I can report though that she enjoyed her Easter basket and is way more interactive and responsive for these kinds of things now at 21months! I'd say simple is best.

Don’t buy clothes yet, it’s very difficult to gauge how much or how little they’ll grow at that age.

Thanks for your advice ☺️
I just wanted little festive things we could do throughout rainy December days like festive colouring books, some sort of crafts, particularly good Christmas books- that kind of thing.
I’m not bothered about expensive toys and all that kind of thing. Just ideas for fun festive activities which I could put into a box for us to do.

💯

We were pretty restrained (some wooden toy sets and a baby doll & buggy ) and it was still way too much.
I actually kept her stocking fillers (5 small bits) and a 1 of the bigger gifts back... stocking fillers were rainy day surprises and i gave the big gift to her for her 2nd birthday

If you do a christmas box give it on the 1st Dec and keep it small and simple.

Calendars - The shop bought advent calenders were a mess as they dont understand "one per day" at the age. The reusable calendars worked better as you just put one thing in they find it and thats it....

Christmas teddies (reuse yearly)
Christmas pjs
Light up ball
Santa hat and reindeer antlers

Activity wise you could make gingerbread, cinnamon salt dough tree decs, mint play dough,

Simple things like helping decorate the Christmas tree and seeing Christmas lights.
Making minced pies
Mixing a Christmas pudding
Bopping along to some Christmas music
Christmas Teddy

My DD was two last Christmas and we did an advent calendar that has a different figurine each day and it makes up a Christmas village. I had bought it mostly to avoid a chocolate advent calendar, but actually it was really lovely and DD really
liked setting up the village with a new item each day. I just checked and it’s on sale at the moment https://www.scandiborn.co.uk/products/little-dutch-christmas-advent-calendar?variant=39881949380679&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=Top+Products+-+Pmax&utm_content=&utm_term=&gad_source=1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIxdruqtujhQMVQZKDBx2U7QvDEAQYAiABEgJ8b_D_BwE

We have a fabric calendar so we can reuse and put it whatever we want.
books are important to me so always a new special new book for the season.

my toddler got a wooden nativity scene from relatives last year and absolutely loves it.
the Lidl Christmas raccoon was also a big hit.

This is lovely!

One for when she's a bit older but I made an advent box one year. I bought small inexpensive things over the months so had wrapped up things like a note pad one day, mini pencils the next, chocolates/sweets a few days, little water pistol, key ring, toy car etc. My boy loved it but it was a bit of effort so only did it the one year! This was before the elf on the shelf and Christmas boxes etc

During Covid we had to cancel a Xmas trip to London. I bought some cheap teepees on line. I decorated them with Xmas bunting and t fairy lights. I got little wooden trays and got cheap Xmas activity packs and little treats with Xmas decs on, Xmas face masks etc. I put mattresses in them for a Xmas sleepover. My two loved it and spent most the weekend in them! They were older than 2 but you can defo change bits for age 2)

I got mine and indoor slide. Endlessly entertaining for my toddler 🤣

I have 4 Dc and at about 18mths-2yrs they all loved posting stuff at that age. Every Christmas time I would get an old cardboard box, paint a tree on and punch holes in where baubles would go., colour them if you can (eg paint red around the hole). Give them a pot of Pom poms or balls and they ‘post’ one in each of that colour or any colour. I got this from the children’s centre as Dc1 was mesmerised by it back in 2016 at 2. The same worked with a picture of a Christmas tree and they had a sheet of dot stickers to decorate it with. Lots of ideas on Pinterest for simple stuff to do with them.
They never really got properly into Christmas until about 3.5-4yrs for stuff like advent calendar & activities.