There is nothing more special than seeing the look on your children’s faces on Christmas day, right? I’m so excited as this year we’ll have two little faces to celebrate this Christmas with! I’m sure at only five months old Pearl isn’t going to remember much but it’ll still be her very first Christmas! Violet on the other hand is coming up to two and is certainly showing an interest in Christmas and a bit more understanding which is going to be lovely. She’s been getting into Christmas songs and doing Christmas crafts at nursery, we are even off to meet Father Christmas next week – so hopefully when the big day comes she’ll have a little more idea what’s going on. If not, I’m pretty sure she’ll love the lights, delicious food and presents so we’ll be all good!
We don’t really like to give GIANT piles of presents, it all seems like Christmas has become so over the top these days, with it getting a bigger and bigger deal every year. What happened to quality time with family and thoughtful gifts that will last? This year I’ve tried to think of smaller gifts that the girls will use for hopefully a long time and get LOTS of play and use out of things, rather than faddy toys that will be forgotten about within a month after Christmas. We’ve also got these absolutely gorgeous personalised festive sacks from Harrow & Green (which are apparently the same as the Royal family have!) which we will use for years and years to come as a lovely keepsake. Robbie even has a stocking too!
Violet’s Christmas List
Violet’s very favourite thing to do is crafts and messy play, so her presents all revolve around that – with her main present being a Tuff Spot Tray with a stand. They are pricey for a tray but I know this will be a good investment and we’ll get so much use out of it and Pearl will use it eventually too. We are then going to get her things she can play with on her tray – I’ve been scouring Pinterest for ideas and the possibilities of Tuff Spot play scenes and messy play ideas are just endless! I can’t wait to give some of them a go. I’ve already got some ideas in mind to make farmyards with cocopops for mud and shredded wheat for bales of hay or sea animal scenes with blue kinetic sand for the ocean and plenty more. The Tuff Spot Tray is great for baby/toddler sensory, learning and developing those fine motor skills too. I’ve also included a puddle suit for Violet, either for messy play with water/shaving foam or for walks out in the rain where we jump in all the muddy puddles!
Here are a few of the ideas I’ve put together:
Tuff Spot Tray | National Geographic Kinetic Sand | Farm Animals | Sea Animals | Handy Tools | Playdoh Selection | Crayola Twistable Crayons | Puddle Suit
Pearl’s Christmas List
I actually found Pearl’s Christmas list a lot harder to put together – she’s so little she’s not really into anything in particular yet. We also have loads of lovely toys that are suitable for her age that were Violet’s. Now I look back, when Violet was this age I went a bit over the top buying her all the latest toys and now I know that they get played with for such a short amount of time I don’t want to make that mistake again. Plus, Violet’s toys are like new so I’m sure they still have loads of life still in them!
We still have Violet’s jumperoo, but it’s looking rather worse for wear after living in our garage for over a year, plus the thought of how much space they take up is just horrific, I’m not sure in our new living room we would have room! So, this time we thought we’d try a door bouncer, which look much more compact and just as fun. On her list is also a few soft toys, a teether and some baby sensory bits!
Bright Stars Door Jumper | Lamaze Soft Musical Touch Toy | 9 piece Fruit Basket | Baby O-Ball | Baby Sensory Scarves | Wooden Maracas | Sophie La Giraffe Teether
So, that’s our Christmas present plans so far – I better actually get shopping at some point or they’ll never get wrapped in time!
What are you buying your little ones this year?
