On the last week of school, your toddler comes home with a bag full of ornaments. Some are so cute you immediately hang them on your Christmas tree, others will look lost there or may just not look well at all on your tree. At least you think so! But if you keep a color scheme such as an all white and silver tree, a pink shiny snow flake with a golden initial, may pop out too much! :)
In my house this guys accumulate and depending on how many kids you have, they may take over your whole 9 foot tree after a couple of years...
In my house this guys accumulate and depending on how many kids you have, they may take over your whole 9 foot tree after a couple of years...
For us, the collection keeps on growing each year, because I enjoy making ornaments with my children every year! Bellow are a few they have made when they were toddlers. Easy and fun: beads, pipe cleaners and a few ribbon scraps.
Others are more elaborate, might be part of a school fund raising or the result of very hard working and creative teachers! I enjoy seeing the smile on my children's face when their friends ask something about an ornament they have made... Or I get them checking one by one... "Look Mommy, I made this with Ms. Sherry when I was at Montessori House For Children!" (Which always follow with "I miss that school so much. When are we going to visit them?")
One thing I learned from a couple mistakes made with my first child: whenever they bring any art work or paper I want to save, I check to see if there is a date. If there isn't, I write it down. Trust me, in 3 years and one more baby, you will not remember!
I specially enjoy the ornaments with pictures and I find Nick and Julia also love to look for those! Looking at them and the ones they colored at 1 or 2, is one more reminder that life goes by very fast! And that spending time with my children must to be a priority! Organizing my closet (even more) can wait!
Of course, keeping all these ornaments out of view is not an option! So, where do I display them?
On my children's very own
little Christmas tree!
A few years ago I got them a little tree at Pottery Barn, which I keep in their craft room. They LOVE it! It has a very fun blinking light and they can hang whatever they want on it. The tree is small enough I can bend the top and keep it in a bag with the ornaments on it! It is amazing how they enjoy having a tree where all the ornaments are made by them, and where they can look back in time and see for themselves, how much they have developed and grown!
The big Christmas tree we keep in the family room still has some ornaments they make. Nick made the popsicle stick reindeer a couple years ago, while the paper frame art my daughter made yesterday at home, and the cute clear "fill-your-own" ornament she made at a birthday party last weekend. Great idea! Even she said when we were leaving the party: " it was much better then a goody bag full of candy or junk!" Ops, I better watch what I say!
Merry Crafting, Merry Organizing and Merry Christmas!
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