Feeling Festive with Boden

I love Christmas and nothing says the festive season has properly started quite like dressing the tree in your seasonal jumper so, when Boden sent through some of their most gorgeous knits for the whole family, I couldn't resist sharing our afternoon decorating the tree in a blog post.

We have a three week old in our house so I decided not to book a trip to see Father Christmas this year as I wasn't sure how much energy we'd have for it. Instead we took a trip to Standen House National Trust a few weeks ago to see their trees on one of their twilight weekends. It was stunning and really got us in the mood but, I have to be honest, taking the trip with a 1 week old whose feeds were entirely unpredictable and two toddlers who wanted to touch every light and decoration going was a mistake! We were truly outnumbered.

Nonetheless, the traditional decorations gave me inspiration for our tree; I'm normally a glass bauble kind of girl but, with a 1 and 2 year old, I knew things had to change so fully embraced the more durable toys like Nutcracker soldiers, post boxes, gingerbread men and the like. So, while our older two napped in the nursery and our newborn snoozed under the tree, I popped all the baubles on (out of reach) and set out the toddler-friendly decorations ready for Charlie and Holly when they woke. I wasn't quite expecting the reaction we got so was thrilled that they fully embraced it.

I was fully expecting, at least, one of them to decide they didn't want to change into their Christmas jumpers (you never know with toddlers!) but they were both so excited to pop them on and get started with the decorating. Charlie loves the fact that his jumper has Rudolph on and the excuse to sing the song, while Holly is obsessed with her Robin leggings and the hood of her poncho. Our newborn looked absolutely adorable in his cosy fox adorned knitted playsuit (similar) and the fact it's so soft means it doesn't irritate his delicate skin. 

Not to leave us out, the lovely people at Boden sent the hubs and I the best Fair Isle jumpers that we're finding every excuse to wear (Christmas jumpers all month, I say). In fact, all of our festive knits are so popular that they've already been through the wash lots of times and look just as good as the first time we popped them on. We all love ours so much that I'm going online to snap up some others in Boden's sale.

We have a gorgeous big front door and traditional Victorian porch that is crying out for a real wreath at Christmas, so Holly and I hung it while Charlie was finding the best spots for his gingerbread men. Our local florist had some lovely bunches of mistletoe so the hubs hung that over the door and we each stole a few kisses with our girl before heading back in to warm up in front of 'The Snowman and the Snowdog' and admire our handiwork.

The excitement of Christmas is strong in our household; both our toddlers have their favourite decorations (me too!) that they're allowed to play with and get really excited each morning to turn on the tree lights and seek them out. In fact, I don't know what we'll do when we have to take the tree down or it's no longer acceptable to wear our Christmas jumpers!