Comments on: The Simple Dollar Weekly Roundup: Christmas Decorating Edition

By: vh

vh — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 10:58:19 +0000

LOL! One of the joys of having your kids grown up is the privilege of enjoying other people’s whirling dervishes. Toddlers get a lot cuter when you can think, “We’ll never have to do that again!”

The outdoor Bird Tree is a terrific idea! Do they have birds in Iowa in the wintertime?

Another way to dispense with the breakable ornaments is to make your own ornaments — some of them can be made with the help of even fairly young children. And some last a long time, so they get to be pretty sentimental and warm and Christmasy after a while.

One memorable DIY ornament was a Santa made by wrapping a styrofoam ball with sheet beeswax and then pressing yarn into the stuff–pink for his face, white to build his hair and beard. Make him a little hat out of red felt, with a white yarn pom-pom at the top, and glue on a couple of sequins for his eyes. You can make lots of less elaborate ball-shaped ornaments with this technique, too. If the kidlet pulls them apart, at least she won’t get hurt.

Also you can take sheets of clear acrylic, cut them into shapes, and paint them with transparent craft paints for a “stained glass” effect. Unbreakable!

My parents never put presents under the tree until after I had gone to sleep Christmas Eve. And here I thought all these years it was because they were trying to trick me into thinking Santa Claus brought all that stuff….

By: Ali

Ali — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 04:11:44 +0000

This is the first year we have DARED put presents under the tree because my youngest is 3 1/2 — hopefully they will all stay wrapped! We make different popsicle stick ornaments every year with the kids and they are so proud of them that they are much more careful with the popsicle “Rudolphs” and “snowflakes” than they are with the nicer ornaments. It is a little hodgepodge looking, but the kids think it is beautiful. What else matters? :)

By: STL Mom

STL Mom — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 02:14:57 +0000

When my son was little, we put the tree on top of a table, and didn’t put out any presents until Christmas Eve. I have friends who put their tree out on the porch the year their son was two. They could see it through the sliding door in their kitchen. They still used lights, but replaced the indoor ornaments with treats for the birds.
After Christmas, I strongly suggest packing breakable ornaments separate from the sturdy ornaments. Next year the little one can help decorate without a parent yelping, “Oh, honey let me get that one – ooops, I’ll get the broom.”
And there’s always the upside-down Christmas tree that hangs from the ceiling!

By: Jen

Jen — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 23:46:43 +0000

I too am dealing with a toddler this year. My little boy just turned 2 and we have 2 very curious cats. Because of our cats, our tree was “baby-proofed” long before we had a baby. :) Popcorn strings were replaced with stings of red wooden beads. Very simple, but bright and festive. All the sentimental and/or breakable ornaments are at the top of the tree. I was able to find some ornaments that look like the brightly colored glass balls, but they’re plastic. Those stay near the bottom of the tree. With the unbreakable stuff near the bottom and nothing edible our tree looks great and is safe for our family. However, I don’t put presents under the tree until right before christmas. My son is fine with them but my cats try to eat the paper and ribbon and that is always messy.

By: d. gasa

d. gasa — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 21:04:38 +0000

We used to put the Christmas tree inside a playpen when we had kittens or toddlers in the house. It worked SOME of the time!What happy memories!

By: sunshine

sunshine — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 16:24:57 +0000

“Whirling dervishes” *cue music* Love that!

By: Katy Raymond

Katy Raymond — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 15:55:46 +0000

About Christmas decorating with toddlers: Back in the day, parents were big fans of the play pen. I don’t know if that’s still the case or not. At any rate, one year my poor mother got so frustrated with my little sister tearing into the gifts and dismantling the tree that Mom put the entire tree and all the gifts–instead of my sister– INTO the playpen. Not a Martha Stewart moment, but it did save Mom’s sanity!

By: guinness416

guinness416 — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 14:40:07 +0000

Oh and I understadn the hometown pride but the NYT isn’t recommending Iowa as a travel destination dude … Nagourney specifically says “I’m not sure I would go so far as to say that Des Moines has become a vacation destination”!

By: Stephen

Stephen — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 14:37:54 +0000

Well yeah, that is kinda the point of it. Not that I want to know everything he thinks, just wondering if there was anything going on with all of them he finds relevant to TSD.

By: guinness416

guinness416 — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 14:37:14 +0000

Yeah, for the love of all that is holy, no politics please. There is plenty of space for that elsewhere online.

By: The Saving Freak

The Saving Freak — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 14:24:57 +0000

Wow, Stephen, that was way off topic. Personally, I don’t really care what Trent thinks of the candidates and I hope he doesn’t care what I think of them. I will be voting for the one that most represents my ideals (which may be none of them at this rate!). I think we should all keep politics on the political blogs and focus on finances in our financial blogs.

By: Stephen

Stephen — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 14:10:28 +0000

As a disclaimer I am sorry if this has been asked 50x already and answered also.

By: Stephen

Stephen — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 14:09:39 +0000

Yo Trent, as a regular reader and a big fan I was kinda curious as to what your reaction of all the hoopla around the candidates tromping around your state.

I am not sure if you are partial to sharing any political beliefs but I was just curious as to any insight you might offer us on any issues you find to be personal to you.

Obviously I would understand if you choose not to answer this as politics in my personal experience is a slippery slope that tends to descend into people just getting pissed off at each other.