It’s all in the festive detail

From experience, if you have three teenagers in the house and you ask them to tidy their bedrooms, they will react in three different ways. One will tidy it four times, because that’s how many times you’ve reminded them all. One will half tidy and promise to do the rest of it tomorrow. One will provide a performance that makes you wonder if they are destined for the stage, as you watch them move one sock slightly nearer the wash pile.

Now, dangle the promise of a mystery, festive treat in front of them, as a reward. Something tempting, in the hope to focus their minds. Nope. Apparently it makes no difference, apart from the sock-mover asking more questions to see if it’s worth the effort. I’m not sure this one will need an agent to negotiate the fee in their future, hypothetical stage career.

Saturday, I gave up. I told them to strip their beds and we’d tackle their floors the next day. Little did they realise, that it was all part of my plan. I sent them downstairs and told them to leave me in peace.

You’re not the only one who can turn on the theatricals in the household, my little sock transporter.

This year, I’ve decided to be a little bit extra and concentrate more on the details of the festive season. Bringing extra cheer. They may be teens, but that doesn’t mean they don’t enjoy the magic of the season, as much as they did as toddlers, just in different ways. (Elf points are up, but not in use.) The children have worked hard, this year, and have missed out on so many events they were looking forward to. A bit of extra festive magic is needed.

One of my plans was to extend our seasonal decorations up the stairs and into the bedrooms. Not something we usually do, but they always ask for. Ground floor only when it comes to the stars and baubles, in the normal way.

Saturday, the tree arrived. The Christmas boxes were retrieved from the attic and everyone dug in. With three trees, we had an extra one to go on the landing, at the top of the stairs. The lit up Christmas village was carefully arranged around the base of it. It does look pretty at night and catches your eye from downstairs too.

Then I hit them with my festive treat.

“Oh my! It’s like being in a top class guest house! Wow!”

….or words to that effect. There certainly were a few “Wows!”

While they had been busy downstairs, I’d put brand new linen on their beds. There may have been a dance of joy, a few weeks earlier, when I finally sourced plaid/tartan sheets. They are brushed cotton and so soft.

Each room has a festive theme. The two older teens share, so they both had the twelve days of Christmas duvet covers, while the boy has a Christmas town scene, with lots of characters to spot. In our room, we have the Nutcracker. I rearranged their existing fairy lights and switched them all on. I don’t think even they knew they had so many twinkly lights.

(“If I keep my eyes really tightly shut, she won’t notice I’m on her new duvet cover.”)

With only the fairy lights on, it did look spectacular. We may not have gone away this year, but I can make them all feel special and give them a touch of the experience at home.

At this point I should really share a photo or two of their winter wonderland rooms, but we are talking about teens, so forgive me if I don’t. Maybe I’ll get a shot over the weekend. Although Middle Teen has started her mock exams, so I’m not going to push my luck.

Well, that pretty much sums up my week. Encouraging teens to do things they don’t really want to do. Adding those extra, little touches to make this season a tad more special than usual. Wondering if I can start the special chocolates, I’ve secretly squirreled away.

Oh, I should leave the final word to the sock pusher, who did run out of clean socks during the week and has thoughtfully suggested that they might try extra hard to tidy their room this weekend.

We’ll see.

Joining in with Anne’s Word of the Week Linky. My word is extra. How about you?