Photo by Denisse Leon on Unsplash
My kids are at the age where they really want to decorate our big Christmas tree, which is displayed in our living room. I have great memories of helping out with the Christmas decorations when I was a child and I definitely want my kids to also have these kinds of memories.
However, if you’re like me then you struggle with not wanting your house to look like a playhouse. There are certain areas of my home that are kid-zones and others that are grown-up zones. In the kid-zones, the decor definitely reflects the fact that 3 young children live, flourish and have fun there. You can tell by the hundreds of toys everywhere, bright colors, etc. In the grown-up zones, the decor is lot more toned down, cohesive, relaxing, and well, grown-up. To add on to this, I have to be honest here — I am a Christmas decoration warden. Every year I have a color scheme, trying not to repeat the same one every year. (Yes, I’m one of those types of people. What can I say? I take Christmas Time very seriously!) So do you feel my struggle here?
This year I thought of the most amazing idea and solution to my dilemma! Honestly, I believe you will also love this idea so much that you will do this for Christmas 2021 and every Christmas thereafter because it is so absolutely genius! (Trying not to toot my own horn, but I’m so excited and I cannot believe I didn’t think of this before!) Ready for it?
I bought mini Christmas trees for $10 each at Target — 3 of them to be exact! I know, it sounds so simple, right? I’m telling you, these 3 mini Christmas trees saved the day. Instead of having a multicolored, all-over-the-place tree for Christmas this year and to avoid sibling bickering over what should go on the tree, I bought a mini, tabletop Christmas tree for each child. I allowed them to pick out their Christmas lights and I bought them mini bulbs. Then as a pre-Christmas family activity, when we all decorating the rest of the house together, the kids sat at the dining table and decorated their own Christmas trees.
They were so excited to add their own flair to their Christmas trees, which were kept in their bedrooms to bring them some Holiday Cheer while playing or going to bed. We made it a WHOLE THING! We had a tree lighting countdown for each child, where we all gathered in their bedrooms and watched their trees being lit. I also gave them all musical snow globes to add to the decor.
I know what you’re thinking. Why not just let the kids decorate the big tree? One day, they will definitely be able to do that (maybe even next year!), but this year I really wanted calmer, classy Christmas decor in our main living spaces because this is our first Christmas in our new home. Besides, 2020 has been quite a whirlwind of craziness that I did not want the inside of our home to also reflect that this Christmas. Besides, what Mama wants, Mama gets, right?
If you want to do this with your kids, you can totally go all in and get mini tree toppers, mini ornaments, mini garland, mini tree skirts, etc. They literally make the same decorations for a regular tree in miniature size! You could probably even find many of these things at your local dollar store too. Are you going to try this out next Christmas? Let me know what you think!
