How to keep kids away from the Christmas tree

Some people may be putting their trees up today. Some may already have their decorations up. I am going to try and hold off just one more week.

Not least because we have so many decorations, it may take me a week to prepare and then get it all up.

With young children though, it can be a problem stopping them from messing with the tree and your other treasured ornaments that, before kids, you has pride of place in your home.

In our house we do still have the treasured stuff although, after mouse-gate last year, there are not as many.

I have come up with a way of allowing your children to still have fun bit without breaking anything.

Boo (and hopefully, eventually, her baby brother or sister) will have their own range of decorations, dotted around the house that they can actually play with.

I began at Boo’s first Christmas. She was 11 months and I wanted a child friendly nativity set. I ended up with the Fisher Price Little People version and I am so pleased with it.

Unfortunately, baby Jesus has gone AWOL. I believe he may be floating in the decorations s box (how irresponsible of me). Likewise his mother and father have actually left him alone all year and played with the non-festive little people. What can I say? It’s a sign of our times.

Anyway, she loves playing with it and if you press the angel down on top, it plays Silent Night and the star lights up. So cute.

We also have Chilli toys, collected from Tesco over the years which I use as cushions on the sofas.

I have a couple of retro Fisher Price toys which I found at car boot sales. They have been washed and the best thing? They still play music.

We have an ELC Happyland Christmas set and an ELC Rosebud Christmas set.

The thing is, if that wasn’t enough, I feel like I have to get something new every year. So this year?

I’ve gone for an ELC Toybox Christmas set. It is so cute and I can’t wait to see Boo’s face when she sees it.

This is quite obviously my sneaky way of keeping Boo away from my pride and joy, the tree.
Does it work every time? No.

I do believe, apart from the religious aspect, Christmas is all about kids and if they can’t play with things at Christmas, when can they?

Are your decorations up yet?