Decorating for Christmas

I love decorating for Christmas!  Most of my boxes of Christmas things have been in storage for the last seven years so I was really excited to unpack them and make our house really shine for the season.  Unfortunately, it's still a bit of a construction zone around here so I couldn't go all-out, but it was still nice to bring a little Christmas cheer to the house.

 We put up our Christmas tree right after Thanksgiving.  D put up the lights and then we let Sky and Fire put the ornaments up one night before bed time.  We only put up the durable ones and as you can see, only the lower two-thirds of the tree have ornaments.  I was going to rearrange them after the kids went to bed but he thought it was cute so we've left it this way.  The stockings are on the wall just like they were on Kwaj- no fireplace here either!

The couch and chair have holiday-themed pillows that I got on sale last year

 and the coffee table has all our Christmas-themed kids books.  The kids love to sit out by the tree and read them every night before bed.

 Also on the table is our nativity set and our advent calendar.  The nativity set was an after-Christmas-sale purchase and is perfect for the kids.  Since we don't have an emotional attachment to it, the kids can touch the pieces and rearrange it without me worrying about it getting broken.  While we read our advent stories, I ask the kids to find the people as they come up and having something physical is making the story more real to them.

 The dining room table is decorated with a basket of Christmas trees

and there are glittery pine cones on the dining area light .

Since this is where we spend most of our time as a family, I kept the decorations minimal and kid-friendly.  I didn't want to spend the entire season yelling, "No touching!" so everything in this part of the house is either out of reach or very durable.  The window behind the dining table is decorated with a small sign and a growing collection of Christmas crafts.

The peninsula has a candy dish and an ornament-filled globe

 (update on the candy dish- since this picture was taken, all the candy has been moved up out of Earth's reach.  He just couldn't keep out of it!  I think I'm going to use it to hold Christmas cards this year instead.)

I still have this sign in my kitchen window and now it's lit with a peppermint scented candle.

  When do you start decorating for Christmas?  How do you handle little ones and seasonal decor?

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