Christmas | Decorations & Craft Ideas

1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 I'm well and truly in the Christmas spirit now, which means I can only get more and more excited as each day passes! Since living together we've not really gone mad on decorations, usually just some fairy ligths and the tree with some baubles! But this year we wanted to go a step further and actually make the living room look a lot more Christmassy, we want to keep it pretty traditional and simple but with a really sweet and cosy feel when you walk in! There's a misconception that decorations are pricey, which yes, if you go to the high end places, they will be, but one of my favorite gift websites DotComGiftShop have everything you need with amazing prices too, so if you're looking for some unique and special items, hop on over and have a browse at their Christmas section (and everything else for that matter), I promise you won't be disappointed! I wanted to share with you my favorite picks from the website that we will hopefully be getting too, which is your favourite? TREE DECORATIONS Probably my favorite thing to decorate, being the main centrepiece of the whole room, and me being pretty OCD, the tree has to be perfect, we tried tinsel one year and it just didn't go to plan, so we try and keep it simple and easy really, this year we've gone for traditional red and gold for the tree, we have lots of baubles and will be purchasing the mini polka dot ones above for Abbie to put on too, I think it's important that she has something that is just hers now she's old enough to kinda understand what's going on! We will also be making our  very own star to go on the top of the tree this year, it was a tradition in my family so I will be using my Dad's method to create an aluminum star and Abbie will be putting it on the top every year from now on!  ROOM DECORATIONS Last year we didn't have much else other than some fairy lights wrapped around the staircase, but we will be adding lots more this year, starting with the fireplace, we will be using the garland from above to sit across the top, it has battery powered lights too which will add that adorable cosy look at nighttime! I am in love with these gorgeous chapel tea light holders, there are about 5 or 6 on the website, all in different shapes and sizes, they are so much cuter than the regular holders you can get, they give a really sweet pattern against the wall and really make it feel a lot more christmassy! As I said before, we have fairy lights wrapped around the staircase, pretty pink ones that brighten up the whole room, I think we might use some warm yellow ones this year to keep with the color theme but they really transform the living room and make it look more magical! HOMEMADE IDEAS Adding that personal touch is always a cute way to keep your home looking unique! No matter what age your little one's are, there is something they can do to help too! Something that can be done for all ages, including newborns, is making special christmas cards! Even if you make one each for the grandparents, they'll really love the personalised touch! One of my favorite ideas is to paint their little feet in brown paint and help them to push their feet against the card to create the face of a reindeer, then just paint on the antlers, eyes and nose and you'll have an adorable reindeer card! Hand them the pen and let them scribble inside too, or hold the pen with them and let them sign their name, it'll definitely give that awww factor! 

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If they're just too wriggly or just not wanting to co-operate with this one, maybe draw out a Christmas scene and just let them color everything in, inside the lines, outside the lines, add glitter, stars, cotton wool for snow etc, grab a load of crafting materials and let their imagination run wild! I have found a few crafting ideas online you might be interested in, click the links below to see more :) Thumbprint Reindeer Stripy Christmas Tree Handprint Santa Snowman Milk Bottles Footprint Penguins
*full credit to DotComGiftShop & Jill Dubien for the images
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