Kid-Friendly Tips for Holiday Decorating

When it comes time for various holidays throughout the year, decorating is a fundamental way in which you can celebrate. The ornamentation and associated colors are cheerful and fun. They also help to visually distinguish these special days from ordinary ones for everyone, especially children. What would Christmas be like without its string lights, red Santa hats, and evergreen trees or Easter without its pastels, bunnies, chicks, and eggs? These images cement holidays in kids’ minds as memorable occasions and are instrumental in the forming of positive memories surrounding them. For this reason, you want to find the best ways to include your children in the festivities. These kid-friendly tips for holiday decorating can help you to plan activities that are both amusing and safe for them.

Choose a Simple Color Palette

As alluded to, color is one of the main components that people identify with each holiday. However, it can quickly become a bit overwhelming when you try to put up a large amount of eclectic decorations in different colors around the house. You might have a certain image in your mind, but your kids won’t be so concerned with making the décor as controlled and balanced as an image from a magazine or Pinterest. Simplify the colors you work with so that you can include your children in the decorating without having to be too picky about where each item must go. This is easy for some holidays, such as St. Patrick’s Day, where the singular green dominates all else. On the other hand, you might limit your colors on Easter to a selection of three light hues rather than using the whole rainbow.

Make Decorating a Family Tradition

To make decorating something to look forward to for your kids, present it as a family tradition. More specifically, you can set aside time where the whole family can get together to decorate. You can turn on some holiday music and have it play in the background to set the cheerful tone. Making some cookies or other little treats that your kids can snack on at the same time will make the decorating even more enjoyable. Not only will these efforts make some of the duller parts of decorating more fun, but they will also form an atmosphere where the family can bond, and the children can make those very memories that they will carry with them to adulthood. It may also be a nice moment to instill in them the meaning behind the holiday you are observing. You can talk about how the holiday started and what meaning it may hold for people.

Lessen the Use of Fragile Items

Some accidents happen quite unexpectedly, but others can be prevented (for the most part). Diminish the likelihood that young kids will break any decorations and possibly hurt themselves by instead using items that can withstand dropping and that don’t have any sharp points or tiny pieces. Materials such as cloth and plastic are just about indestructible, so you won’t need to be anxious about the children handling decorations constructed with those materials. Paper and wood are also fairly harmless and may have the added benefit of customizability. Conversely, materials like glass should be kept off-limits, since it can easily shatter and possibly lead to cuts. You don’t have to get rid of all your fragile decorations, though. Just keep them out of the reach of the kids. To illustrate, you could reserve the top of the Christmas tree for delicate baubles and other ornaments.

Craft Some Decorations Together

Not all your decorations need be store-bought. Customize your home with decorations that you and your kids make together. This is yet another way to further involve them in the process and let them find enjoyment in it. You can make such crafting a part of your established annual traditions for each holiday that you celebrate, again providing an opportunity to spend quality time together. Think of small, engaging projects like carving pumpkins into jack-o’-lanterns on Halloween, making a gingerbread house for Christmas, or painting eggs on Easter. A type of DIY decoration that your kids can make for any holiday are paper ornaments, which they can cut into relevant shapes to hang up around the home. Set out glue, markers, and other supplies so they can let their creativity run free. In the end, you will have some unique items to decorate with that reflect your kids’ personalities.

Make Your Decorations Upbeat

Rather than trying to fill each room with dignified elegance, you should seek to include more lighthearted icons of each holiday to make it interesting for your kids. Instead of plain ribbons and objects that look inanimate, bring in some characters like ghosts, turkeys, reindeer, personified hearts, leprechauns, and more, depending on the precise holiday you’re decorating for. Children will appreciate these lively personalities and the stories that go along with them. In addition to this, when selecting your simplified color palette, go with a few hues that are bright and exciting to mirror the excitement of the holiday.

Occupy Kids With Side Activities

Not all aspects of decorating are appropriate for small children. For those tasks that necessitate more care and coordination, such as hanging up banners near the ceiling, you may want to put out side activities that they can do while you keep an eye on them. If they’re still a bit too young to decorate unsupervised, you can still let them feel included by letting them create their own miniature setup or contributing in some other way. Put them in charge of drawing a picture for the holiday or placing some safe ornaments on a little tree of their own for Christmas.

A decoration that will always come in handy is lighting, as its illumination instills a sense of wonder in children. You can get regular string lights for multiple purposes or find lights that are explicitly made for one holiday. As Easter season comes closer, you may want Easter lights and decorations to top off your kid-friendly home arrangement. Contact Action Lighting today for lights that will stunningly complete your décor.