I'm not that much into holiday specific decor aside from Halloween and Christmas. In the summer I have fresh flowers and change the bedding and drapes to lighter versions of our winter gear (linen verses velvet etc). In the fall I add pumpkins and gourds to the decor but to me, much else gets kitzie.

I have a small child....he seems to be mentally adjusted to this so far. If it turns out I've screwed him up by mid teens...I'll find some shamrocks or something and make an effort I guess lol

Funny you should ask this....last night I threw out all of the Easter and valentines decorations I found in the attic.

I do think I balance out this lazy side by literally having Santa barf out Christmas all over the house. Dh asked me yesterday if I was going to start putting trees on the trees :).

I'm not that much into holiday specific decor aside from Halloween and Christmas. In the summer I have fresh flowers and change the bedding and drapes to lighter versions of our winter gear (linen verses velvet etc). In the fall I add pumpkins and gourds to the decor but to me, much else gets kitzie.

I have a small child....he seems to be mentally adjusted to this so far. If it turns out I've screwed him up by mid teens...I'll find some shamrocks or something and make an effort I guess lol

Funny you should ask this....last night I threw out all of the Easter and valentines decorations I found in the attic.

I do think I balance out this lazy side by literally having Santa barf out Christmas all over the house. Dh asked me yesterday if I was going to start putting trees on the trees :).

I only decorate for Winter, Christmas and Spring/Summer. Christmas is the only holiday I buy holiday decor for.

The best place for inexpensive and nice decorating items are save-on-crafts.com and Joanns.com.

Also Walmart & Target. Large selections in lots of colors at all these places.

There are a lot of other online stores like ChristmasCentral.com..which is a good one!

igloochic - your post came through twice and I don't think there could have been a better post for that to happen to : " do think I balance out this lazy side by literally having Santa barf out Christmas all over the house" - left me almost spitting out my lunch! Thanks for the giggle!

I only decorate for Christmas, and when my kids were little, Christmas, Halloween, Valentine's (kinda sorta) and maybe some flags for the 4th. I don't change sheets, towels, throw pillows, drapes, rugs or case goods. Someone gave me holiday kitchen towels, but I am capable of using Easter towels in November.

My unsolicited advice make sure that kids participate--holidays are not performance art enacted by adults with children as an audience. And use every piece of decoration produced by the above-mentioned children--no matter how tacky, inept, glittery or downright ugly. My son made a Nativity scene out of clay that makes Mary, Joseph, and the Magi look like slugs with pipe cleaner halos. Wouldn't trade it for gold.

I loved igloo's response too!

When your child gets to preschool, you will automatically have "decorations" for every holiday because of the arts and crafts s/he brings home.

I have 3 kids and I only decorate for Halloween and Christmas, and I have a couple of cute bunny figurines that I put on a shelf around Easter. I just can't be bothered (and don't have the storage for) other seasonal or holiday decorations. But that's just a matter of personal preference.

In fact, I am headed to TJ Maxx right now to check out their Christmas decorations! I find some of the best holiday decorations there (and Marshalls and Home Goods), and from our local nursery/garden shop.

My kids' favorite holiday-decorating tradition is that I buy each of them a Hallmark ornament every year -- I try to choose the ornament based on an interest or activity they've had during that particular year. When we decorate the tree each year, each kid puts his/her own decorations on the tree. They also have some engraved with their names that they were given as babies, so they put those up too. When they get older and have their own homes, I will give them all their ornaments. Oh jeez, just saying that makes me feel sad!

Fisher Price has cute kids "holiday" sets perfect for wee ones. Then you have something to put in your kid's room that they can play with versus having grown ups yell at them to "Don't Touch That". That will get you through while they are young ... when they are a little older let them create the decorations. That's what my kid's do, and they always create far cuter things then the dreck they sell as holiday decor in some shops. And continue your family tradition of little gifts and cards for all holidays; it's charming and will create great memories for them.

I started decorating for pretty much every holiday when my firstborn was a toddler. My bestfriend is a home ec teacher with kids the same age as mine, so you can imagine the holiday decs we made and bought over the years! But, after ten or so years of it, storing them all the other 11+ months of the year became somewhat of a PIA! Since then, I've tried to add to them only minimally each year . . . with some success. If any of you caught my Halloween pics this year, you wouldn't think so, though!
But, when I do buy these days, it's usually at Hobby Lobby, Marshalls, TJ Maxx, a local holiday craft fair or I make it myself.
These days I decorate minimally for Valentines, Easter, President's Day (I'm related to Abraham Lincoln, so it's a special holiday for us); Fourth of July, if we're in town for it, Autumn, Thanksgiving and Winter-post-Christmas). I still decorate big for Halloween and Christmas.
Lynn

Halloween and Christmas are the two holidays where the entire house(every wall, ceiling, floor, flat surface) gets decorated. I have a few Easter specific items, but mostly the rest of the year is just spring/summer/fall/winter not holiday specific.

I agree that every single random holiday craft from pre-school should be proudly displayed. DS2 made a potato turkey with golf tee feet, googly eyes, and brightly colored feather tail that proudly sat on my otherwise subtlely decorated Thanksgiving table last year.

Go to Goodwill or some other Thrift store. I wish I had, but I wasn't into Thrift store finds then. If you do anything besides a Christmas tree. They have tons of cute/nice stuff hardly used.I am down to only decorating a tree, I just don't want to bother with any of the other stuff. It was fun for kid when he was young.

I do a bit for Valentines day, a bit more for Easter. I have a lot of seasonal spring/summer stuff. Some for the 4th. Seasonal autumn stuff, some halloween, lots of Thanksgiving, and lots of Christmas.

After a few years of collecting, don't be afraid to sift, sort, and dispose of as necessary. Half the fun is the contunued hunt for new, fun, and fresh...

We decorate outside for Halloween and Christmas. Halloween is my holiday, Christmas is hubby's. We have 3 kids.

I always did a flag outside for different holidays and had a mailbox cover for each as well, until we put in a new mailbox. I'm far too busy with the kids and when they were younger, they just destroyed everything. In fact, that's how we ended up with a second tree in our house. We gave the kids there own to hang school stuff on and decorate to their hearts content. We don't touch their tree, they dont' touch ours.

Still working and the oldest is a teen! :)

I think that's so beautiful you want to make these memories for your child! Knowing my own decorating and reading the above responses I see a common thread of choosing which holidays and how to decorate coming about organically. Like your child will be making decorations in preschool, and now that you've decided you want to do this your eye will start noticing others' (inc. shops') decorations and what appeals to you.

This forum has also really helped me with SUPER ideas about decorating. Like a few years ago kswl had that incredible slideshow of her home at xmas and I fell so hard head over heels ... it totally inspired my nutcrackers (for xmas). And another generous participant posted her beautiful gumdrop tree (again for xmas) which got me going in that candy direction, and I'll tell you I RAN with it! I don't even like (to eat) candy yet I've found it the most magical, perfect way of decorating the trees. Thank you GW!

So we're multiethnic (I'm 1/2 Jewish, 1/2 WASP and my partner is 100% Shinto Buddhist Japanese) and we have fun with it. I love love love our Hanukkah waterglobe collection and growing collection of dreidels. I love all the koinobori (carp windsocks) we have for Children's Day (May 5th).

I find that for many holidays my decorating effort extends to color-appropriate candies in the living room -- like red & silver kisses for Valentine's, pastel pastilles for Easter. I am NOT a jingoist but I do love red white & blue bunting on the 4th ... on other people's houses. I'm not that motivated, I guess, although this year we did line our front walk with stars and stripes pinwheels. That was fun and made me really part of our sweet little town's festivities.

We have Japanese lanterns up in the backyard so they're already handy for Obondori (another Japanese celebration honoring your ancestors), and then because I am a wannabe Mexican I have tons of fun with Halloween and my calaveras / catrinas. My 6 y.o. is *delighted* with the enormous fuzzy tarantula we affix to the outside of his window each year -- the kids love it. This year I went bananas at Target and purchased a string of jack o lantern lights and put them in a tree, and then a cobweb made of orange lights which we plastered on the living room window.

I'm not sure who loved all this new stuff more: my 6 y.o. or me. (me)

If you like the look, Scandinavian straw ornaments are very inexpensive and cannot hurt your baby. When we were first married that was really all we could afford, and I still have many of the angels and stars that originally graced our tree. World market, if there's one near you, has a good selection of these.

When the children were young I decorated for Valentine's, St. Patrick's and 4th of July. They were all baptized on St. Valentine's Day, and we are Irish, so those two holidays were important to us. And I LOVE bunting, so it was always fun to decorate for Independence day :) We never decorated for Thanksgiving, as we were too busy getting ready for Christmas!

Kswl....it was you!!!!!!!! I think.....

I posted a week or more asking about a candy tree and jars with lights in the kitchen window. If it was you....can you repost that pretty please!!!!! I loved it and forgot the details.

Oh, Igloochic, I am sorry to say that it wasn't me :( The closest I've come to a candy tree was to have a wreath on the door with candy tied all over it and a long ribbon holding a pair of blunt child's sisssors, so people could cut off a piece and take it with them. The wreath was totally denuded of candy in a few days!

LOVE the idea of jars (mason?) with lights in the kitchen. I hope whomever posted it will repost. (And wish the search function was better, too)

I have gotten some wonderful ideas. Thank you so much. I also had no idea there was a holiday forum which I just read about on another post. I can see I am going to have to get organized if I want to do this for a few holidays. Luckily we do have an attic with lots of room in it.

I had no idea that fisher price had sets like that. I am going to look for sure.