First Avenue: PREPARING FOR THE HOLIDAYS {the christmas tree}

For the past five years our Christmas tree has been elegantly filled with glass ornaments ranging in a bronze, gold, & champagne color palette. We've added peach colored hollies & owls over the years. This year, however, our son turned two. With this new age, we feared the sound of shattered glass would be an every day occurrence if we didn't invest in some kid-friendly ornaments.

When I was a child, we had a tree filled with different characters (we are talking M&Ms, Turtles, Smurfs, you name it - we had it!) & handmade ornaments that my brother & I had crafted in school. As much as I would have loved to give my children a tree like this, it is unrealistic. My childhood ornaments are safely packed away under the stairs at my parents house, surrounded by boxes of other random goodies - in other words, it would take me at least six months to find them! These types of ornaments range from $5-$20 something a piece, so purchasing enough to fill the tree would max out anyone's credit card. (and probably a divorce for spending $500 on ornaments!)So, this year, there isn't any fancy star wars ornaments, nor any my little pony ones. However, we upped our color palette to brights & made sure they were all shatter-proof. We've decided to buy some fun ornaments at the after Christmas sales so that by Kindergarten our tree is as festive as the rest.

I wasn't quite sure if our $15 pack of shatter-proof balls from Target were going to be a hit, but Daycen sure seemed to not mind that we skimped on the ornaments. It was all Oohs & Ahhs. Even though he didn't quite understand the concept of hanging the ornaments on the tree, he sure didn't mind unpacking them & handing them to me as I put them on the branches. So, this year, our tree also looked very clean & put together. I'd have to say, I'm very impressed with what you can do with very little money.