The after-Christmas chaos is a rough time for toddlers. The main reason is that toddlers are simply overwhelmed. Christmas brought in a plethora of wrapped toys, candy, and cookies. All the excitement combined with sugar can overload them on that day. Unfortunately, the aftermath of Christmas day is simply pure chaos. One of the hardest things for toddlers to understand is that Christmas is over.
With so many toys to play with on the day after, you might want to consider putting some of them away until most of the mess is cleaned up. Consider putting away the toys that have the most potential for making a mess. The last thing you really want to do is try to clean up paint while trying to tackle cleaning the house at the same time.
Noise is certainly going to be an issue for you as a parent. There is only so much of the same repetitive song that can be heard before it grates on nerves and sends you over the edge. Your best bet is to quickly locate the sound buttons or distract kids with something else that is not so noisy. The coloring book and crayons might be a good choice to keep your toddler distracted for awhile.
This might be a good day to send the toddlers out with their grandparents to look at the after-Christmas sales for awhile. This will give you a little space to unwind from the general chaos of Christmas and perhaps clean up a bit. If they are gone long enough, sneaking in a little nap might be possible.
Don’t try to plan things for the day after Christmas. Give yourself and your toddler some time to calm down from the chaos. While seeing their faces on Christmas morning is well worth it, the aftermath is still a little stressful when you look at the mess and try to deal with a hyped-up toddler at the same time.