Be Merry

I have a three-step process for putting up my Christmas tree so that babies don’t destroy it (more on that below) and I’m only on step two, so I’ve been putting up my other decorations to fill the void (not really but yeah really).

My silver glitter “Be Merry & Bright” banner is new this year. I was actually inspired by a customer who ordered a gold “Be Merry” banner, but since I can have banners as long as I want I expanded on the original idea. The lights are clear globes that I’ve had for a few years but never used. Originally I was going to do something with them in the kitchen, and then the bedroom, but they ended up just collecting dust on top of the bookcase until last night.

pro tip: unscrew the bulbs and stash them in empty egg cartons so you don’t break any when you’re hanging up the cord!

I also put up my Playmobil nativity scene. Actually, I set up the stable and Sym arranged the characters. She’s also promised to loan me some extra animals from her vast Playmobil collection. There were guinea pigs at the nativity, right? I mean, Santa was there:

I have an unofficial tradition of adding something new to my wreath every year. The first year I made it I took a plain wreath and added tiny gold leaves, red berries and small white globe ornaments. Last year I added two little birds, and this year a string of tiny lights (battery operated). Next year maybe I’ll add a bow? WHO CAN SAY.

How To Put Up Baby’s First Christmas Tree

This is actually Gwen’s second Christmas but last year she wasn’t the force of destruction she is this year, and I had no idea how she’d react to a lighted, ornament-covered tree suddenly appearing in our living room. I’ve honed this three-step technique over the past seven years of being a childcare provider, where every year was SOMEONE’S first Christmas, and I’ve never had a tree incident (knock on wood). Doing it this way gives baby the opportunity to get used to the tree being there, and gives you the opportunity to see how they’ll react to it, and also to teach them to leave it alone.

Step 1: Put up the tree with no lights or decorations, and then leave it for three days to one week.

Step 2: Add the lights on the tree and the leave it for three days to one week.

Step 3: Add all your ornaments. By now baby is so used to the tree it doesn’t even register on their radar. I hope!

I put our tree up on Sunday and originally I was planning on adding the lights this Friday and the decorations next Friday, but tbh the lightless tree was starting to depress me and Gwen was doing really well with it, so I decided to do the lights last night and we’re adding the ornaments tomorrow night, so fingers crossed it goes well! When I first put it up Gwen crawled over and gave some of the branches an experimental poke, but they’re quick prickly so she quickly moved on. This morning she tugged on one light cord but I just distracted her by saying “Gwennie! No!” and is silly shocked voice, and when she’d moved on to some toys I tucked the offending cord deeper into the branches. So far so good!