Christmas Giveaway -- Scentsicles

Christmas is coming. I know, I know, not even Thanksgiving yet, and not everyone is like me, listening to Christmas Pandora on repeat. But, but but! You don't have to be baking cookies, or buying presents, or decorating trees yet to prepare. And next week, it IS Thanksgiving, and we'll be putting up our tree!

We have a fake tree, here. It started because my kids used to be little, and I didn't want them eating it or poking themselves with it, or getting sticky or any of the other issues with a real tree. Now we keep it around because it's easy. I don't have the wherewithal to take care of a living thing, even for a month right now. And environmentally, I feel like my fake tree that's lasted several years is doing a great job being its fake self.

But that doesn't mean I don't want my house to smell like I have a real Christmas tree in here. For me, that means spruce. I know others like fir trees, pine trees and the like, and they're all fantastic, but for me, it's spruce.

And what my house has lacked in these years is the scent of Christmas. Last year I bought a candle. And that worked for a spell, when I remembered to light it. Then I had to remember to put it out again. But this year, I managed to grab some Scentsicles from Tree Classics.

My tree isn't up yet, but I had to try them out. They come six to a canister, and opening it up felt just like Christmas at home (even though I'm in Florida now).

I took just one out to test it for the past few days.

Just about the size of my hand, they come with hangers so you can hide them in your tree, but if you lose yours (like I will), you can use regular bulb hangers, too.

So, I just hung this little guy up on my wall, where my kids' stockings usually go. I wanted to see if I could smell it, just all by itself.

It's been three days now, and you know what, sitting here on my couch, 10 feet away, I can smell it, and it is giving me the perfect whiff of Christmas.

So when I put six of them around my tree, I'm going to breathe in Christmas all season long, I just know it.

And I'm lucky enough to be able to give some away to readers, too. Want some of these amazing little smelly sticks? Of course you do. It is Tree Classics' 40th anniversary, so they're giving some of their products away in celebration.

If you'd like to sign up for some of these amazing things, go ahead and put your name in. I'll do the drawing the weekend after Thanksgiving.

Woot!

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Moment of the Week - It Starts

The Christmas Season begins!

 

Christmas Tree: Kid Style

Well, I've always admired those classy, themed Christmas trees, with color schemes and expensive ornaments. Too bad for me, since I'll not see one of those for, oh, thirty years.

All our ornaments are plastic (now...we had a dicey year there, when they were two. Never again, glass bulbs, never again.)

Anyway, now that they're in preschool, I've got these adorable, child-made ornaments that you know I'll never get rid of, ever. So Pottery Barn tree is basically out forever.

But before they started making the cuteness, we set up the tree and this is what happened:

First, this is what "spacing the ornaments out equally" means to four year olds:





Good job, kids.

Secondly, when you have a fake Christmas tree (which I must for two reasons: 1) I'm sure my kids would find some way to injure themselves on the sharp needles of the tree, or maybe try to climb it or some other ridiculous little-kid thing to do, and 2) I remember hunting for a Christmas tree to be a very warm, fuzzy event. I'd like to keep it that way. I'll not let their irritating ways shout over my memories. We'll wait until they're six and could possibly appreciate the outing without making me want to pull  my hair out. OH! And 3) I have a Honda Civic.), but anyway, when you have a fake Christmas tree, and you try to put a star on top, this is the result:





Haha, okay, so we needed to try again. I put the star on the branch just below that and fortified it against the rest of the tree.

All in all, not so bad. Not Pottery Barn, and not perfect, but everyone is happy.



 

Toddler Tricks - 69: Don't Break Christmas

Problem: It's time to break out the holiday spirit, by which I mean decorations, but your young children will obviously break every single item that can be broken. And this will take just minutes, not weeks. Christmas is a dangerous holiday. Trust me, I know. Pine needles prick, glass bulbs shatter, and that creche your grandmother handed down to you that's been in the family for ages is missing the Baby Jesus. Dear God, why, Christmas, why?

Solution: Lots of them. First, fake tree. Seriously. No eyes being poked out is key this holiday season. No crying toddlers with needles sticking out of their curious palms is important to everyone's sanity. Second, and most importantly, plastic bulbs. Keep everything that is glass packed up. Seriously, don't even take them out. Don't do it. I know your hands are itching. I can just put this way up here, you think. Surely nothing will happen to it, and it's tradition. Fight the urge, it will only end in tears. Plastic everything. I know from experience. My first Christmas with the kids, I thought the few glass bulbs I had from family would be okay. Three shattered bulbs and two babies with (thankfully) no cuts or glass swallowed later, I took them off. Don't be like me. You can even use string instead of hooks if you're super worried. I just used the hooks. They're covered in that green rubbery stuff these days, so I figure they're safe enough for three year olds. If yours are two, you might want to consider string.

Now, have the kids help. Have them hang up some of the safest ornaments while you go through and baby check everything else. Of course, at the end of that phase, the tree will look like this:

But you can easily rehang. By the end, you'll have a good-looking tree that's toddler safe. And don't worry. You'll get your Christmas back. Just wait a few years.

Of course, the next morning, my kids woke me up utterly ticked that there were no presents under there, even though I thought I thoroughly explained it to them last night. Be prepared for a few days of that, too.