Holiday Parenting Tips

Throughout this past Christmas season, my husband and I discovered a few things that have made the holidays a bit easier and I thought I'd share them with you guys in case they might be helpful for you also.

1) Tree ornaments: When you put away the Christmas tree ornaments, have 2 separate sections: one for the fragile ornaments and one for the kid-friendly ornaments. Then next year when it's time to decorate the tree, you can let the kids work with the kid-ornament box while you focus on the more delicate items. (Also, put the fragile items at the top of the tree and the kid-friendly items at the bottom of the tree.) I think this was my husband's genius idea last year and it worked wonderfully this year. The boys were able to happily participate in decorating without us being on pins and needles every time they grabbed something from the ornament box.

2) Gifts: If you want to know what your son wants for Christmas, take him shopping for his brother (or same-sex, similarly aged cousin or friend). Chances are pretty good that whatever he picks out for his brother will be exactly what he would like for himself, and he'll probably tell you this as well.

3) Gifts: If you have a lot of family, several different Christmas celebrations scattered over several days is a good idea. My husband originally wanted to be a traditionalist and only open presents on Christmas day, but this year we had a separate celebration with my family the Sat before, a celebration with his parents Tues before, and then our family (along with Santa's gifts and some gifts from aunts and uncles that came in the mail) on Christmas morning. Of course it was fun for the kids to open some presents early, but we also think it helped prevent "present overload" on Christmas day. I know some families even open their gifts on Christmas eve and save Christmas morning for Santa gifts, but since Santa only leaves us stockings and one gift each, it still works best for us to open presents Christmas morning.

4) Gifts: Yes, Santa only gives us one gift each (it's usually a pretty good gift) because we don't want Santa to get all the joy of giving on Christmas morning. Plus I think it may have curbed the greediness from Coulson because he only wanted one main thing for Christmas instead of a long list of toys. (I don't know if this will last as he gets older, but we can hope!)

5) Eco-tip: Years ago in misguided hopes of being thrifty and crafty, I bought a few yards of Christmas fabric after Christmas for very cheap, figuring I would make something out of them someday. Years later, the fabric was still nicely folded and stashed away. So last year I tried to use them as "reuseable" wrapping paper, just using tape to keep it together. The tape didn't stick so well to the fabric, so it wasn't a very practical idea, but my husband got a big laugh out of my wrapped packages. This year I tied the fabric with ribbons and it actually worked very well and was a lot faster than dealing with scissors and wrapping paper and tape. My method is for practicality, not presentation -the wrapped presents didn't look nice enough to give to others as gifts, but they worked great for my own family. (Besides, if I give away the re-useable wrapping paper, then I can't use it next year.) Now if I can make it to the fabric store before the after-Christmas sales go away, then I can wrap even more gifts this way next year. Maybe some year I'll take it that one extra step and sew the sides together to make a bag and thus wrapping will be one bit easier...

6) Cookies: Decorating sugar cookies is messy and if you want your kids to have fun, just prepare yourself for the mess and don't fool yourself by thinking that you can re-use any sprinkles or jimmies that are left in the jar for other projects, because chances are that whatever doesn't get dumped out will probably be tainted when they lick the jar or pour the sugar crystals directly into their mouths. Same with the icing. Resistance is futile - if you are decorating with more than one child, you can't possibly watch each one closely enough to prevent this behavior from happening in the first place, so your best bet is to make sure that either A) you don't invite any sick kids to help you decorate or, more practically in winter, B) all of the kids are already sick.

7) Cookies: You can sort of limit the mess that an older child makes while decorating cookies by having them decorate their cookies over a plate. For a preschooler, a plate doesn't really contain any of the mess, although a rimmed baking sheet worked pretty well. Even still, there will be plenty of sprinkles and icing for the dog to lick from the floor.


I'd love to include any of your holiday parenting tips, so please leave some comments to share your words of wisdom!