Advice About Celebrating the Holidays

Get a huge piece of paper from a paper or craft store, tape it to the wall and let the kids paint a tree. That way you can still have a tree, it's a fun activity for the kids and it only takes a few seconds to clean up. We're in an apartment and can't have much of a tree - we did this one year and it was fun. We actually had 2 painted trees in a corner and had all the presents right in front of the tree. It worked for us.

We moved the week before Christmas one year with 3 kids. Yikes. I'd suggest having a Christmas "corner" or room. Get a fake small tree (like 4' high) or a similar size live one in a pot, and either make ornaments, or go ahead and get out the "important" decorations. For us, this meant the family tree-topper, 2 specific nativity sets, etc. Christmas is memorable because of the same decorations year after year, so picking a few to get out is good. Decorating with edible ornaments will aid in later clean up, too--like strinking fruit loops for a garland (eat at will), hanging a few mini candy canes, etc. Maybe pick some decorations that would fill one (or 2) boxes for clean up, then go for it. Good luck with the move!

When I was 5 we moved (my dad was Navy) over Christmas. But it wasn't just a normal move -- my dad had to stop in San Diego for training for 6 weeks from Thanksgiving to just after New Years. So we were in temporary housing over Christmas. My parents told us that they had written a special letter to Santa explaing that we weren't going to be somewhere that we could get Christmas presents that year. "Santa" wrote back and said what a relief -- that his load would be lighter on Christmas and then he would be able to deliver our presents to our new house after new years. That solved the problem of presents. Since we were limited to just one suitcase each (our new home was overseas) there were no Christmas decorations in temporary housing either. We did listen to Christmas carol A LOT, and went to look at the decorations that were up in neighborhoods around us. And that year was one of my most memorable Christmas times.
Other easy decoration ideas: Crayola has new window crayons and since you probably have to wash the windows when you go anyway -- decorate the windows in a festive way. "Draw" your christmas tree and decorations. You can use them on any glass surface, so you could write notes from Santa, the elves and the reindeer on different days and let your kids find them.
Put the little stick on bows on boxes as they are completely packed.
Use festive paper plates and cups (the kind with the holiday prints on them) after you pack up your dishes)
Hope you and your kids have a fun holiday time (and a smooth move).
Hugs

S. - Here is an idea that I used when my youngest was 1(old enough to be into things that could cause problems). I think it might work for your situation, too. We used the old-fashioned "fluffy" green garland to form the outline of a tree on a wall (high enough to be out of reach of the little one) and allowed the kids to make paper ornaments and garland to decorate it. You can make a foil star for the top, too. We had this in one corner of the room and on Christmas morning, all the presents were on the floor under this "tree". You could make this corner/room the "Christmas room" and keep all moving items in other areas/rooms to make it special. You can make this as simple or as "involved" as you want, depending on what you have going on and how much you want to get into it.
I hope your packing and moving is peaceful and smooth!

My sister-in-law marks lines on a candle to burn/melt down to count down days until Christmas, and then they read Christmas stories by the candlelight every night.
Little advent calendars are fun and easy to pack up. There are great ones at www.chinaberry.com, including some that have a small ornament every day--you could use those for easy decor.
Going on a couple of excursions to appreciate someone else's decor is also fun and festive. You could go see some lights and then drink hot cocoa at home, and that would be plenty festive. You could even draw pictures of your favorite lights and put up your pictures as decorations.
If you are Christian, you can have fun with the Nativity scene--we often let Mary and Joseph move around the house and appear in different places (kitchen counter, bookshelf, mantle) as they "travel" to Bethlehem. Then, they settle down in the stable with the Christ child on Christmas Eve. . . .perhaps their packing up and traveling is a part of the Christmas story your kids can relate to this year!
But really, don't use up your happy mom energy stressing out about decorations too much. Remember, you're the mom, so however you do it will be "right" to your boys.
Have a great holiday season!

I was also going to suggest a big handmade tree, with paper ornaments on the wall somewhere. I am thinking about doing this myself this year because I will have an 11 month old, and I don't want to have to stress about her breaking the ornaments and hurting herself. Or if I do a real tree I am going to decorate it with ribbon and bows. Then throw it away after Christmas.
You could also have them make a nativity scene using a small box (with only three sides) popsicle sticks for figures and manger, scrap clothe and glue to give them clothes, pipecleaner for shepherd staffs, paper, glue, crayons and maybe some glitter. I had a lot of fun doing this when I was little.
Paper stars and snowflakes are good, or they could paint pictures of christmas and put them up.
You could make an advent calendar poster and they can put something on each day to count down the days. My mom has one that is a Christmas tree one and each day we would take a bulb off the calendar and decorate the tree. This could easily be done with paper and thrown away later.
maybe pick a couple of your favorite decorations that could easily be packed up and put those out and do the rest with paper and stuff.
In my experience not all boys get into crafts so pick things that will be fun for your boys. You will probably have lots of moving boxes. I'm sure your boys would love making a Christmas town out of some of them. You could even stack boxes (even packed ones) in a pyramid for a Christmas tree and put decorations on the boxes. Maybe they could go on "sleigh" rides in the boxes through the house or outside.
Make sugar cookies together or bake goods to give away. PLay lots of holiday music.
Moving is a big job and a lot of stress, don't do anything that will make your stress worse, because then it won't be fun.
I will bet that if you treat it like an adventure rather than that they are missing out then they will be more likely to find the difference of this year a bit more exciting.
Good luck.

Hi S. - from an adults point of view, decorating for Christmas is just too inconvenient. I totally understand. From a kids point of view, they might feel like you "stole" christmas from them by not giving them a focal point to come around on Christmas day. How about purchasing a small live tree that you can decorate and then you can all plant it as a family at your new home on New Years Day. It might make a good object lesson for your kids in new beginnings too.

Get a charlie brown twiggy tree, 1 strand of lights and make the ornaments. :)

Christmas only takes one day to pack up. Seriously. Even if you are taking down pictures, and old summer clothes, you can put up Christmas, ornaments, greenery, and have it all back in the box the day after. That leaves you 4 days of additional dishpack...

Well not being sure of your exact situation... maybe you could have a tree, but not use your ornaments. I mean, maybe you could make the paper chains and things like that as craft projects, and potentially throw it all away in one package after christmas? (So I wouldn't make any keepsakes - tell the children it is for this purpose before doing it) Also I would think any soft items like table cloths, or runners could be picked up at the last minute and packed away even in a suitcase for a cross country move.
Certainly songs can bring sparkle to any celebration season, and require no packing.
If money is not a problem, there are services that will decorate for you and will come and take it down. You can limit it to a tree and maybe just one area of the home that you can work around like the fireplace, and they will come get it after christmas.

We, too, are in the same boat, only out anticipated move in day is Christams Eve. We usually spend Black Friday putting out all of our Christams Decor, and I am at a loss for what to do, especially since we will be painting the house we are living while we are moving out!

How bout a living tree? We got one from the Boy Scouts last year and it was cool. It was about 18 inches tall. When you move, you can take it with you and have a special memory of your last Christmas at "the old house."

Wow! Been there, done that this last year, only we got into our new house at 10:30 p.m. Christmas eve, and thanks to the massive snowstorm that locked down the northwest last year, our stuff didn't reach us until a week later. Don't know if this will work for you, but here's what I did.

"Santa" brought each child one small (portable, easily hidden in the car) gift on Christmas Day, and wrote both of my kids a letter and explained that they hadn't been forgotten, but because of the move we were going to join our Mexican neighbors in their Christmas tradition. Presents would be arriving on January 6th, Three Kings Day. The old traditional Christmas season is 12 days, from Christmas to Three Kings Day. Since we are Christians, we spent Christmas day more focused on the reason for the season, then moved on to the fluffy stuff. My husband did manage to get a tree up right off the bat, and we decorated it with whatever we could find (and since we'd taken the pressure off ourselves, it was fun, plus we had the advantage of being able to buy the things we didn't make ourselves at a really deep discount). And we left our decorations, such as they were, in place until after the 6th.

Good luck with your move.

I don't know if you have a fake tree or not. Why not buy a small live tree from a lot or cut one of your own. That way you can throw it away and not move it. You could buy rafia or ribbon and tie simple bows and let your kids make simple decorations. You could simply throw the entire tree away and not worry about moving a live tree or keeping out any decorations. I know my kids would be heartbroken if we didn't have a tree. Sometimes we get so caught up in the tree and house looking great that we forget the simple things. Let this Christmas be one that your kids could be in charge of. Tell them that you have to pack up the decorations and you will be busy but that you would like their help to decorate. Paper chains and snowflakes are cheap and fun. You could not only make the countdown chain but they could make a chain to wrap around your tree.

Good luck! We are in the middle of installing a new floor and painting and I know it makes things harder and throws of holiday plans.

After I read this I found this blog idea. This might help, and you can always make your own ideas... Check it out. http://bluecricketdesign.blogspot.com/2009/11/25-days-of-...

good ideas so far. how about edible decorations? like popcorn and cranberry garlands, cookies on ribbons, candy canes. then you can either take them with you on the trip for snacks, give them to your neighbors before you leave, or throw them away. you can decorate in paper snowflakes and kids' drawings. get some window clings from the dollar store. if you're willing to spend a little, you could actually get a lot of decor for under $10 at a dollar store, then give them away to neighbors when you leave.

Make some sugar cookies and let the boys decorate them. We used to bake them with ornament hooks in them and hang them on the tree. Find a place you can put some string in the corner and let them hang the cookies on the string and they can also cut out shapes from construction paper and color on them to hang with the cookies. Just make it a Christmas corner.

Gingerbread houses!

Honestly, I'd just buy decorations from the dollar store and throw them away after christmas.

Hi S.,
No matter what you do, it's going to be kind of strange for everyone. For our family, we go to Santa Fe at least every other Xmas season - we try to go every year but finances make that difficult sometimes. We go in mid-December and see Las Posadas (an outdoor Xmas play), drink hot chocolate, go see the millions of Xmas lights and the luminarias all over town, smell the pinon smoke, eat great food. . . well, you get the idea. It is what makes the Xmas season for us.

What I'm suggesting is instead of spending alot of time decorating your house, how about take an out-of-town trip to a fun place? Or, if that doesn't work into time and budget constraints, maybe go and do Parade of Lights or Zoo Light on Xmas eve or day then go out to dinner? You can just get a small tree for the house, put some lights on it, and call it a day. I think your kids will love your new tradition and remember this Christmas as one that was really fun!

Can you put up a few very simple decorations. We ended up with our house being set on the foundation on Dec 1 of last year and since it was supposed to only take 3 weeks was in the same predicament ourselves last year.

I put up a few decorations on the entertainment center such as a musical nativity, fiber optic angel, a couple of special gold pine cone candle holders which happened to be the last gift I ever got from my granddad, the gingerbread house my 3 year old daughter made. Christmas eve I hung the stocking on the wall, and placed a small (21-24" tree on a small stand and put the presents on the floor next to the stand. (Not only were we not sure exactly when we would be moving but I had a two small children ages 3.5 and 14 months in a 850 sq ft house)

All my oldest cared about was the stockings and the tree. The nice thing with a small artificial tree is that you can later place it in a bedroom or even a bathroom if your vanity counter is large enough. Stockings on the wall shouldn't be too hard to do especially if you declare that they will be taken down the night of the 28th.

So I would say decorate but just choose one area such as the entertainment center or the fireplace to decorate and keep it simple only using a few very special items that your family particularly enjoys.

T.

Oh, that's rough timing! Perhaps this year you can try to focus on fun events outside the home. Go to a tree-lighting ceremony for your local downtown district, or volunteer to help decorate a retirement home or hospital ward. You can also sign up for a special event - a sleigh ride, trip to see Santa, a play or concert, etc.

For Christmas morning, perhaps you can buy a miniature tabletop tree, and add one string of colored lights for a Charlie Brown Christmas Tree effect. Good luck!

Hello,
You might consider getting a small Norfork Pine tree from walmart, put a 10 or 20 light strand on it & it could take the place of a big Christmas tree. Plus it is small it wouldn't be hard to take with you & then plant it at your new place as a reminder of your last Christmas at the old place.

A small set of lights on your front porch & a wreath on the front door, would not be that hard to just through into a trash bag & into the car when you move.

And of course you can't forget the kids stocking's hung by the chimney with care.

Hope this give you an idea & good luck on your move.

C.

We moved two years ago right after Christmas. That meant no decorations for us too. My daughter was only 3, but this is what we did. We made our decorations. I made a paper tree, paper stockings and I think a wreath. I just hung them on the wall, and then could take them off and toss them for the move. My daughter enjoyed making them with me and it was cute. We spent the actual day at my mom's so that covered us for Christmas morning. Those are my thoughts. Dollar tree has green poster board, get a couple sheets and cut out a tree shape. I am sure even a 6 year old could enjoy this and you will still have Christmas. (Dollar Tree also has window clings and stuff you could use as decorations and then toss or give to a neighbor. For a buck, it might be worth it.)
M.