My girls are now officially preschoolers according to the regular emails I receive from Babycenter and Pampers. However, I still remember the earliest years and a few things that worked to make them feel included in holiday celebrations.
One year old babies don’t see the world like we do so it takes a lot of simplification to make the holiday season and especially Christmas day special for them. Here are some things I’ve implemented in the past that worked really well for us:
- Remove their toy gifts from the packaging before wrapping. Looking at the packaging some toys come in, you would think they contained the nuclear codes or something. You know what I’m talking about right? The hard plastic tied to cardboard with rubber coated wire packaging. Takes a full grown, fairly dexterous adult 5 long minutes to unravel. 5 minutes of a baby whining, screaming and trying to push the buttons on the toy while you’re trying to remove screws and tape and Styrofoam. If you have twins, make that 2 babies. Save yourself, unpackage before they unwrap
- Speaking of wrapping, wrap in shiny wrapping paper that rumples but does not rip easily. Babies/toddlers love shiny wrapping paper and it will sooner or later find its way into their mouth. It’s a good idea to have paper that does not dissolve in the acidic saliva of a teething baby
- Go easy on the wrapping tape or skip the tape. That way, the baby can grab and “unwrap” the present without help. The way I “wrapped” presents, the babies could shake them loose from the paper without much effort
- Remember them in the menu – dice or puree the foods, dilute the “safe” drinks and give in sippy cups.
Not a whole lot, but it can make a big difference for the little ones.
How do you do mix little ones and holidays? Any special tips you would want to add?
Yetunde is the proud mom of twin girls, affectionately nicknamed Sugar and Spice. She blogs at mytwintopia and will be channeling her inner Scrooge this Christmas and letting the kids discover new joys in their old toys.
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I would also say, let them take their time in doing things. The Christmas just before our girls turned two, they were ENAMORED with their new kitchen. They played with it ALL DAY LONG. I finally pulled them away to open their stockings mid-afternoon on Christmas day (because I wanted pictures ON Christmas), but they didn’t open any other gifts until the following day. Yes, I really wanted them to see a couple more presents, but they were having SUCH fun with their kitchen…why spoil it???