Where would you buy your Christmas gear?

[Gigi]

wow, Kaytee, you are so organised, good on you. Esp with your birthday so close to Xmas, i get that, as my DD's birthday is mid Nov, and two events like that, within a month, was "big" for me. (and i didn't even host a xmas day).

[Teeki]

Lol Gigi, our November has: 16th - DH's b'day, 19th - dog's b'day (we kinda celebrate with him lol), 26th - my b'day, 28th - wedding anniversary. We just lump it all together! It's usually not so bad, I don't even start to consider Christmas til mid-December. But if we host next year I figured our house better look the part! We've never hosted before so have almost zero decorations and just a tiny tree (til today, the new one is 7.5ft hehehe ).

[briggsy's girl]

sounds like our tree! we used to put it in the lounge room that we use all the time, but now last year realised DD was very mobile, and moved it into our rumpus/bar room with gates to keep her out! that's a whole lotta tree if she dragged it down on herself!! i'd suggest (if you can) to get out the base of the tree and let it fall open so you can see how much room it takes up so that you can make sure you reorganise things enough to fit it in. if your tree is that tall, it's likely to have a fairly big base to it and you want to make sure you can put it somewhere safe and still have the house functional! mum's tree is similar size to ours, and she has to move furniture out of her lounge room to fit it in. thankfully it's just her and dad at home, so she can do that, but once everyone is in the house, it's really not functional for a tree that size! if you've got an idea of size, you can plan ahead as to what may need to be changed around to fit it in. having had an 18/19 month old last year for Christmas, i'd suggest making sure that your tree is somewhere that bub can visit, but doesn't have everyday access to (if possible) - they are AMAZINGLY quick at getting into things at that age!

i think i have you on FB for GOT stuff - if i do but you don't have access to photos, let me know and i'll change the settings so you can see our Christmas stuff

[Teeki]

Yeah, you're on my fb for games That'd be great to see how you've done your tree if it's similar to ours!

We've got a room at the front of the house set up for a formal lounge/home theatre type thing, and we don't spend much time in there so that's where the tree will go. If it's too huge the only thing it will be in the way of is the TV lol. I figured we'd put it there because DD is mobile enough just with rolling, I can't imagine next year at 18 months how she'll go around all that stuff when she's walking/running! Going to be very exciting

It does say on the box that the base has a 119cm girth - is that around or across? I dunno. There was one set up in the store and it's pretty big! I might get it out when DH gets home for a look, any excuse hey?

[briggsy's girl]

yeah any excuse is a good excuse. be prepared for a biiiiiiiiiiiiig day when you set it up too. you have to "foof" (as mum puts it) all the tips to fill in the gaps and things. very exhausting job! and decorate the top/put the star on before it goes on the tree if you can - unless your DH is like mine and tall enough to reach (it's not just the height - it's the height plus the lean over the base of the tree to decorate). biiiiiiiiig job but awesome fun once it gets going. can't wait for DD to be a little more aware next year to help us decorate. she kinda got it this year but kept taking things off the tree and rearranging them and losing the hooks!

[Teeki]

Haha my Mum calls it 'foofing' too. They have a huge tree so she gets it out for a 'foof' while he's still at work, then he can help her put it together and decorate when he gets home. I'll check it out tonight, but hopefully DH will be able to reach easily enough.

Thanks for the access to the Christmas album - you have beautiful decorations, your place looked great! Wasn't til I saw a pic of your DD standing by the tree that I thought "Hmmm, that is quite big!" lol. Sounds like your next Christmas will be wonderful, I can only imagine how it'll be with a littley that really 'gets' it

[briggsy's girl]

the decorations were our presents to each other before DD came along. we had only my brothers kids to buy for, and going through IVF and stuff, we wanted to still make is special for us while we waited for a special bub to join us - so we went for a very grown up set of decorations - thankfully DD loves them so it doesn't feel like we've gone TOO grown up with all the hand painted stuff!