Christmas is coming!!! Traditions/ideas

[rosehip]

I'm getting all excited and will have overdosed on Christmas by the time it arrives, kn......d and in a bad mood! But hey, thought I'd set up this thread for us to swap ideas. For the past few years on Christmas Eve after I've read 'The Night Before Christmas'my husband goes outside with bells (ELC £2) and jingles them so we can hear them from the bedroom, my dd jumps up and says 'santa is coming I can hear him' we both then look out onto the rooftops to try and see him. She loves it and it makes it so real - we only have a couple more years left before 'she knows ....' SO I'm making the most of it!

Hi rosehip, at least three of my near neighbours have their christmas decs festooned inside and out.

I won't put our decs up till after the fireman's strike - if then. We are usually late anyway, but this year I am also worried about the fire risks posed by christmas lights.

Have decided to wait until 14/15 December weekend to get the tree because I insist on a real one and the needles do start to drop. But will get a wreath for the door and the mantlepiece garland etc out before that...

Noooooo!!! It's far too early!!! It isn't even advent yet. And the thougth of dusting all those baubles and tinsel every week. We don't put our (real) tree up until the weekend before Xmas or four days before. I think it gets to look tatty and tawdry if it's up any longer than two weeks or so, with the choc decos eaten, the lametta falling off, the broken ornaments from the cat using it as a climbing frame. There's been more than one year when I've had to secure the entire thing to the curtain rail with cotton cos it's got so rickety!!

I,m dreading putting my tree up, not because I,m a bah humbug or anything but because of my 10 mth demon,I just know it,s going to be pulled over or battered to within an inch of its life!!
Any ideas on how I can keep him away from it?

Leander - how about putting it (not him) in a playpen?!

DD and I are making our advent wreath today. Then on Sunday and the next 3 Sundays and Christmas Eve we will all get together, light the candle for the day, have some readings about the theme of the week and then sing a carol. The Five candles are Hope, Faith, Peace, Joy and Love.
A wonderful book about this, if anyone is looking for a CHristmas idea, is 'Waiting For Noel - An Advent Story' by Anne Dixon. It tells the story of a baby's birth at Christmas interspersed with the family lighting their advent candles and it makes me cry! Dd is only 2 3/4 and she loves it, though I think it is for an older age group really.

leander, last year we put ours in an alcove with a pressure mounted stairgate in front of it during the day.

We've just visited a local garden centre which does a rather fabulous, completely over the top Christmas display every year where Dd1 gets to choose one decoration to go on the tree. Despite being pushed in the direction of the lovely Victorian style plain glass baubles, she plumped for a huge fat plastic robin. Still, she absolutely loved the whole thing and its definitely something we'll be doing every year.

Enid - I love that idea think I'll steal it, if you don't mind!!

ooh help I haven't got a playpen or an alcove!!

Have you got a sofa you could manoever in front of it so it's not quite so tempting for little hands?

Alternatively you could just get a small fibre optic type tree this year and put it on a shelf out of reach and promise yourself a spectacular tree for next year to make up for it!

LOL, Enid - you can't force children to have good taste can you?! Still, I bet the robin brings you many years of smiles and at least it can't get broken.

SueDonim: Dusting? I struggle to understand the concept at all but dusting tinsel??

Leander: Get a small tree and hang it from the ceiling? We put ours on a small table with a very large chest in front of it last year and this kept it safe. However, DS2 is a nightmare (found him half way up the tallest Ivar shelf unit yesterday - eek!) so I'm not sure what we'll do. Unbreakable decorations for at lesat the bottom 2 feet is essential!

I'm so trying to force my dd to have good taste that I won't have tinsel,etc in the house. I have a real tree with a strange collection of decorations that I've kept over the years from various sources (mostly baubles from presents,etc as I'm too mean to spend money on naffery). Also I have lots of balloons on top of the dresser (sounds weird but looks great),I have some holly from the garden, lots of fresh flowers, bowls of exotic fruits, nuts, and candles everywhere. dd puts up her nativity cutouts every year in a prominent position. I don't do any of this until the day before Christmas Eve because I hate Christmas being extended backwards.

Anyone got any bright ideas on how to stop the cat climbing the Xmas tree - he laughs at stair-gates and would relish the challenge of a suspended tree - strong jumping ability. My stress levels rise as DH insists on putting the tree up in early Dec.

Jave, we simply didn't let our cats in the tree room alone. At night/work time, we shut them out and wathced them like hawks the rest of the time.

My brother in law did replace their cat's favourite playtime bauble with a chilli pepper once - that stopped him playing with it very quickly!!

Oh Soupdragon, its the stress of watching him like a hawk that's the problem - I have a toddler who is almost as agile as the cat and a pre-schooler who is good at leaving doors open. It's the contant battle of wits between us all that tires me out!!!

Joke, Soupdragon, I was joking!!

15yr old dd has just told me I'm a style freak when it comes to Xmas. But I'm not, honest. I just like to coordinate as much as poss (and don't like tinsel, either). And I must do the tree myself because I have to make sure the lights are evenly distributed and the baubles just so and the chocs in places where the dog can't eat them. Pah, my family just don't appreciate me!

As to cats, one of ours likes to crunch on the lights. Her mouth glows all pretty and pink inside when she's about to demolish a bulb.

We got round this by moving house and leaving the cats behind... It's a bit drastic but it worked! I hasten to add that we actually left them with a neighbour who adored them. They were pre-children rescue cats and didn't get on with the boys I think of them everytime I read Slinky Malinki to DS2.

I don't think there's a real solution to this problem other than no tree. Cats are harder to train than toddlers aren't they? Could you get a little tree especially for the cat to play with? Cover it with catnip to attract him towards it rather than the proper tree.

SueDonim - phew! I was feeling even more inadequate about my houseproudness than usual

I couldn't possibly get rid of my cat - I love him despite his little ways, and he's a complete star with the kids, even the 14 month old. Will try and persuade DH not to put the tree up too early (or maybe we should lock it in the conservatory and just admire it through the patio door)

Oooo now that's a good idea - I bet a christmas tree in a conservatory would look lovely at night.

Java, I wasn't serious about getting rid of the cat. I miss ours terribly but one of them refused to come in at all if the boys were awake. They spent all their time next door anyway and it would have been cruel to take them away from their bolt hole.

The conservatory is a great idea! It will look lovely.

Soupdragon - get more cats at once - ones that like children (my first cat - prekids - used to bolt out of the cat flap as soon as he heard a child's voice)

I couldn't! It would seem disloyal to Baloo & Bagheera!