The kid is fascinated by the Christmas tree--which, because we were worried her fascination would lead to eating, tugging, and a tree falling in the living room, is only 4' tall and perched safely on a table--and we expect that, come Christmas morning, she'll be opening presents with wild enthusiasm.
Of course, I think she'll be more interested in (tearing, chewing, swallowing, and throwing around) the wrapping paper than in the contents of any gift.
Since I'd rather not spend Christmas watching my daughter binge and purge giant sheets of paper, what else should you do for wrapping/opening gifts? Or more generally, how do you handle Christmas with a 10-month old baby?
Note to DT's Jewish readers; we're planning to teach her the dreidl next year, when I expect her to read and count. Although we're not Jewish, we are New Yorkers, which is practically the same thing.
I too have a 9 month old and haven't gotten a tree yet, but...
On a side note, since when is living in New York the same as being Jewish? Are Jewish people teaching the nativity scene because they live outside New York? That's silly my friend.
Forcing me to come out of lurking...
For our little girl, who will be ten months come Christmas, we're putting all her unwrapped and ready to play with presents in one big (attractive and reusable) box (big box = fun) with a large ribbon (untying ribbon = fun UNDER SUPERVISION OF COURSE, and reusable). Then, as we ambitiously imagine now, she'll pull up on the box, play with the ribbon, we'll help her open it, and she'll choose one attractively designed retro-cool toy and be amused by it for the rest of the morning. We'll save the rest for later and proceed to drinking coffee and carping about the family dinner the night before. (photo op, photo op, photo op, photo op, bizarre fantasy, and eventuality). Then we'll resume her lessons on creating run-on sentences.
In reality, all of the above will probably happen, except each toy will amuse her for about fifteen seconds and then she'll find the dog's raw bone on the bottom shelf of the fridge when I open it to get the half and half for my coffee, then I'll spend the morning listening to her whine and preventing her from taking it out of the dog's mouth and trying not to spill my coffee. But as long as I get the photos, who is she to know better? My parents tell me all kinds of stories about things we all did when I was a kid, although as I grow older I find more and more reasons to doubt they ever happened.
You could go the traditional route and use fabric to wrap the presents.
Our little girl will only be 5 and a half months old, so we'll probably wrap our gifts to her and then just unwrap those (and the ones from everyone else) for her. I don't think she'll really care. Maybe plop her down next to some unwrapped presents for a quick photo.
We don't have a full-sized tree, but it is because of cats, not because of the baby.
I think you should give her more credit actually. I don't think she'll eat the paper, my son didn't. Just don't leave her alone with the stuff (obvious).
I have 2 trees, a 7 foot downstairs and a 6 foot upstairs. We have a fence (this thing rocks) around the tree which is usually used to keep Jack from the fireplace and the curio cabinet. Upstairs, we don't spend much time in the hall. With both trees, we let him touch the ornaments and branches while holding him up. I think they have to be able to explore what interests them or they'll never get it out of their system.
Once they figure out that xmas trees aren't for climbing and wrapping paper isn't for eating, the urge to do these things goes away and, usually, never comes back.
I dunno... all this talk is making me a little hungry for some wrapping paper...