"I put the Angel on the tree!"

Our little guy is celebrating his second Christmas with us. The first one was fun but confusing for him. Every tradition was new and he was a bit taken aback by everything. This year is different. He’s well and truly taken charge! He knows what we do and he’s making sure it happens. 

We are firm believers in keeping things simple for our children. Not that we don’t celebrate, but we do try to keep overwhelm to the minimum. Not all of our children enjoy the excitement of Christmas and some of them struggle with the noise and the busyness of some of the bigger Christmas events. We have to adapt what Christmas will look like to the needs of our children. If you want to eat nuggets for Christmas dinner that’s fine. If you’d rather not have your stocking in your room, that’s fine too. We can definitely find another way of doing things. 

Our little guy is telling everyone he meets that he put the angel on the top of the tree! He got involved in the arguments before hand over who was going to do it, and he’s proud he got chosen. If you ask him what he did this week he’ll tell you about the angel, and if you’re walking past him in the supermarket he’ll tell you as well. He knows this is a big deal in our house. He remembered from last year. 

I’m being asked every day when we are going to decorate gingerbread houses. That makes me laugh because I remember his gingerbread house didn’t get decorated last year. He ate all the sweets and most of the icing! Half of the roof had a bite out of it. He had fun! 

We’ve been to visit a garden centre to look at the decorations, choosing a quiet day. Having chosen a busy day by accident and having to leave due to overwhelm. You see, we get it wrong sometimes! We’ve been rotating through the Christmas outfits and the santa hats are available at all times. I’ve got Christmas crafts ready to go. The paper chains are going up soon. I’m also mapping out all the local streets that have Christmas lights up. We will definitely be driving around looking at lights every time we have to go out after dark. 

We’re building our traditions for the children; traditions that they expect and can look forward to. This is important for all of us because it builds belonging. We don’t know where our little guy will be next year, but we do know he’ll be fighting to put that angel on the tree. I bet he’ll win as well!!