How to decorate a tree- 2 year old style

We bought our tree Thanksgiving weekend. I'm all about the real live tree. That's what we always had growing up and that's what I want every year. Last year if you recall we had a miniature fake tree because we didn't have any room in our townhouse. Also, the kids were still pretty destructive (like they aren't now, HA!) so I made all of the ornaments out of paper thinking they would last one year and then this year we would be back to the real thing. Funny thing is that I really liked our tree last year with all paper ornaments so I decided to use the paper ornaments again mixed with our other breakable items.
When we went to buy the tree the kids were crabby and all out of sorts plus it was cold and rainy with no snow so it certainly was not the tree picking parting I had envisioned. We were walking around in the lot and all the kids did was huddle together and oogle the snack Addy had smuggled out of the van. They had no interest in wandering around a tree lot and I kind of forgot to talk up the Christmas thing so they had no idea what we were even doing.


They did like the free blue pine cones that came with a tree purchase. Here's a triplet perk- most customers get one per tree. We got 3.

Someone (Eloise) was not happy about the glitter on her hand.

Inspecting our selection

Eloise doing the freshness test- breaking branches to release the incredible pine aroma.

But you can't decorate the Christmas tree unless you are properly attired. right?

I pulled out all the unbreakable decorations and just let them have at it. They really were not able to hook the ornaments on the tree but they came up with their own creative team effort.


Addy was the organizer pulling out ornaments and beads out of boxes and bags as fast as she could.

Handing off to the other two for their artful placement.


I had to intervene once they found the pine cones and just started to throw them at the tree and retrieve whatever didn't stick and start over. That was fine until Addy found the glass balls...

We lost a couple ornaments in that battle but what is a good tree decorating party without a few accidents and emergency sweeping?

Eloise has such a good eye. She could see a few bare spots and added a few finishing touches.
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And one more thing, right there...

Finished product- notice the stockings stuffed in the branches?

I added 40 feet of home made hand colored garland and we are good to go. My favorite tree ever.