Christmas Tree VS. Toddler

[MosMom]

Now, I'm not a stranger to a toddler. My daughter was once a toddler but my daughter wasn't your typical toddler. If we told her not to touch the Christmas tree, she didn't touch the Christmas tree.

My son on the other hand will probably try to CLIMB the Christmas tree and won't really care what we think about that. We are a little concerned about what to do. We don't have a separate family/living room and our entry way, dining room, & great room are all open to each other so there is really no separate room to put the tree in.

I had considered a small table top tree but the idea doesn't thrill me. We may just have to put up the tree and watch him like a hawk whenever he is around it. Ohhhh my little tyrant tries to kill me. Any suggestions?

 

[scarlett873]

can you set up some kind of "fence" around the tree? i've seen it somewhere before but it's like a white picket fence around it...would that keep him away?

i have no toddlers...i had 2 dalmatians at one point. and cats...they all LOVE the tree...especially when there are breakable ornaments on it...

best of luck!!

 

[MosMom]

Ohhhh he would probably climb the fence. LOL My precious little boy has turned into Spiderman. I don't know if you remember, but we had a baby barracade area in our living room. Well, he now escapes the baby barracade with the greatest of ease so we have gated off the basement, upstaris, & kitchen and he has free reign of a baby proofed area in-between. The other day he figured out how to get his little toes into the gate holes and climb up a bit.

I just keep reminding myself that his inquisitve nature will probably be very helpful to him in life, even if it seems he is determined to kill himself with it now. He is just SO into his surroundings, he points at everything around him that is exciting and yells SEE! SEE! SEE!

I'm thinking we will just let him have access to it but watch him like a hawk. If I let him feel the tree and touch the ornaments perhaps it will feed his curiosity and he won't be as interested (ha ha ha).

 

[Octoberbride03]

Is there anyplace you could put the tree and tie it to window treatments or something?

That way if he touches the tree or pulls at it, he won't bring it down. We've always done this in my family, makes for less hassle and you can put sturdy stuff on the bottom that you won't mind him grabbing.

Maureen

 

[MerryPoppins]

One Christmas we put a table in the playpen and put a tree on top. It was maybe a 4 foot tree, so it looked pretty tall up on the table like that. Then we decorated lower branches with safe ornaments just in case and put the packages in the playpen around the table.

At that age you'll have to watch closely no matter what you do, but that method worked well for us.

 

[scarlett873]

i do recall tying the tree to the wall...lol

my dogs were just always so inquisitive when it came to the tree...no matter what you said or did, they wouldn't stay away. so i took rope...tied it around the tree in about 2 spots and then tied them to an eye hook or something in the wall...

it kept the tree up!

 

[snoopy]

Both of my boys were climbers, but we always had trees. It was just a matter of being diligent - just when you think you can't say "no no, don't pull on the tree" another time, you find that you can.

I never baby proofed my house, either. I figured they would learn eventually, and they did. Its a PITA to have to watch them like hawks, but eventually they do learn. Its also beneficial because when you go to other people's house they already have been broken in, so to speak.

Best of luck!

 

[4greatboys]

Been there and done that x 4, lol. Boys are just really into exploring everything they shouldnt. We always have our tree in our living room and I really only decorate the top part of the tree. Seems like if you hang some ornaments low they keep coming back but if you keep them pretty high the tend to lose interest. This year my last one is in full swing of toddlerhood. He is 18 months so hopefully this will be the last year of fighting him off the tree.

 

[Travelingmice]

Our little Spidey is now a 4 year old Superman who thinks you should jump off of any solid surface available. I reccomend putting the tree where you can tie it (like infront of steps and tie to bannister). Then decorate as high as he can reach with plastic ornanments (or have your daughter make paper ornaments). This will work (been there done that)

 

[castlegazer]

Proud Mommy of a boy toddler here (why don't our friends with only girls get it?) WITH a precious ornament collection: We tie our tree with eye hooks and wire to the wall. Lower branches are for ornaments I don't care about. We'll see how this year goes.

 

[Dizzy-Disney4]

I have always had a tree, with my own kids and my daycare children. Never had any problems believe it or not. Now the cats on the other hand .

 

[swea_pea1]

When I first saw this, I thought it was going to be a poll and I thought "toddler wins hands down!"

When DD was a toddler, I learned the hard way. Now that DS is at that age, I plan to do the same....I make sure the tree's in really, really tight and put all the unbreakable ornaments within their reach. I basically have a Lenox Christmas at the top and a Walmart Christmas at the bottom. I also put lots and lots of candy canes at the bottom because that tends to distract them from hauling the ornaments all over the place. Those suckers are usually wrapped so tight they can't open them before I get to them anyway.