The Christmas expectations are high.  Now that your toddler is more interactive and talkative, you find yourself feeling the pressure of the upcoming holiday and doing all those memory-making traditions that made growing up in your house so great.  Don’t fall into the trap.  While Nana and Grandpa

• Wait to get the Christmas tree.  Once it goes up, the fight begins.  How can you expect your toddler to stay away from all the shiny ornaments, flashing lights and heirloom ornaments that your Grandma gave you?  Unless you can put your tree where your child can’t touch it, this is going to be a constant battle.  The longer you wait to get the tree, the less drama.  And do yourself a favor.  Put away all those breakable ornaments.  Because somehow, someway, your little angel will break the one that means the most to you.  It won’t be intentional, but that doesn’t mean it won’t happen.

• Buy the pre-made cookie dough for Christmas cookies and let your toddler help in the decorations.  While your Aunt Becky’s recipe for sugar cookies might be the best ever, you have your hands full right now.  Being able to pop that dough out of the fridge in a jiffy might just save you some sanity and letting the kids decorate the cookies (and themselves) will be a great avenue for getting rid of some of that toddler energy.
  

• If the weather is bad, skip the local Christmas parade.  If it is either too hot or too cold, no amount of reindeer or sugar plums is going to turn that toddler’s frown upside down.  Keep in mind that the average attention span of a toddler is around 3 minutes.  If you really want to see the parade, go during the middle of it and put your toddler on your shoulders so he can see the revelry.  After a few minutes, the excitement has worn off but you haven’t taken too much time out of your day (and precious patience of your child) getting the spot with the good view.
  

• Less is more.  If you have a large extended family, don’t buy anything at all for your toddler.  If you can't stand the thought of not buying your child something, make it something small.  Ethan is getting a doll and stroller for Christmas from us.  Based on his usage of his cousin’s doll stroller, I imagine we won’t be able to break his attention for at least 2 weeks after he gets it.  And there is no worry that he will be neglected for Christmas.  Between both sets of grandparents, he will probably make it to nap time before even opening all of his presents.  Will he care or notice?  Not at 22 months old.