I'm always looking for new ways to decorate our apartment in intriguing ways. The hard part about this is finding things that my toddler can't break or set on fire. When you have a toddler with sensory issues, who loves to jump and throw things, you have to find alternatives for almost everything. We don't keep many picture frames or mirrors around, and wall decals are a must. So for Christmas I had to think outside the box.
We didn't place too many breakables on the tree, so I had to decorate other ways. This year I decided to decorate our Christmas area with lanterns. These lanterns are 10 inches in diameter, and are made from rice paper. You can buy them on Amazon, and it comes with a free ebook with crafts you can do with them. I saw a few ways to use it on the ebook that would be great for Thanksgiving.
I strung up all of the lanterns together and hanged them around the Christmas tree. Inside each lantern I placed a glow in the dark bracelet for illumination. This way, I don't have to turn on the lights when Aiden is playing near the tree. I also left one of the 10 lanterns on the ground for him to play with, in case he gets curious. This quickly turned into a good idea because he started crying as soon as we were putting the lanterns up. He was happy playing with one of the lanterns, throwing it around the living room. I was happy letting him play with it, and not worrying about him breaking anything. I was actually quite surprised that the lantern is still in tact!
Each night, instead of putting an ornament on the tree, each person grabbed a glow in the dark bracelet that was previously cut, and sprayed the entire wall with the liquid. My son loved doing this, and it's an easy clean afterwards. It is fun letting him just play around instead of restricting what he can and cannot do.
Now that Christmas is over, I'm looking for new ways to use the lanterns. I want to keep the Christmas spirit alive, so I decided to decorate one of the lanterns with all of the goodies Aiden got from his friends. Now I can keep this in the room when the tree is taken down, and Aiden can still enjoy the Christmas Spirit. All I did for this craft was to tape and super glue cards and goodies from Aiden's stocking. I also added a few goodies that he got from his play group.
As far as the rest of the lanterns, I plan on packing them away for now and doing another craft with them next year.
I plan on making this a tradition. I hope it teaches him to appreciate all the cards and gifts everyone gives him aside from focusing on toys he gets. How do transition the holidays into the New Year with your children?
You can buy these lanterns on Amazon, click here.
I received these lanterns in return for an honest review. I am not required to give a positive review. All opinions are my own.
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