Christmas trees-did your little ones mess with or leave alone?

[lecach]

DS will be 12 months old on Dec. 7. Im a little worried about how he'll be around the tree. Im thinking of putting up the prelit artificial tree this year without ornaments at first to see how he'll do. Then if its a real problem I can take it down. Just wondering what others with children around this age experienced.

 

[cmaelltt1]

My little ones just couldn't stay away from our tree until they were over 3. It's just too tempting. For my oldest, we put a small on up and then took it down when it was too much work to keep her out of. She was less than a year and didn't notice. The next year I put a gate around it and that worked. So, that's what I did for all three kids after that. This year will be my first gate free tree in 5 years.

Carrie

 

[kmp1191]

Put any fragile or glass ornaments towards the top and leave the bottom area "blank". When mine were little I did a stuffed animal tree all around the bottom...then it didn't matter if they messed with it...they had fun rearranging it. Good luck!

 

[iwantahemi]

We put ours in corner behind sofa as our DD tried to climb it at 9 months. Last year she had to rearrange all the low hanging ornaments daily so we put the unbreakables down low. Hopefully this year she will just leave it alone.

 

[FionaLovesShrek]

Yep, they LOVE touching the tree. I did the same as the OP, put non breakable ornaments around the lower half of the tree. My MIL told me she used to put their tree in the playpen so her son wouldn't mess with the tree. But I feel that Christmas time is a special time to make memories. I remember when DD was 2 and tried to climb the tree to reach her special Snow White ornament. She nearly pulled down the tree because that ornament plugs into a light, so that the fireplace is lit up!

 

[rileyroosmom]

My three kids always touched it! My first son knocked the whole tree over trying to grab something. When my second son was 2 I did as others said and moved all breakables to the top. He took his toy baseball bat and whacked the tree! Sent the tree crashing and many ornaments broke. I tempted fate again with my third child, a daughter. She was much better with the tree. Had the unbreakables at the bottom and she loved to move them around.
This year the kids are 12, 8 and almost 5. I believe my tree problems are behind us now!

 

[Mom to Jordan]

Well i had one of those rare kids that never touched it. He would just sit and look at it for hours!!

Be very sure that even if the ornaments on the lower branches do not break that they are safe for little ones. Most are not made for toddlers and pieces can break off and create choking hazards. Also be very sure that the plug is out of reach. Plugs into little mouths can spell trouble. We had friends that put their tree in a play pen.

Jordans' mom

 

[4lilpoohs]

My boys were all pretty good with the tree. We don't put much on the bottom. The stuff they can reach isn't breakable. Another idea is put something under the tree that they can play with. We have a Little People Christmas set.

 

[scouthawkk]

Well i had one of those rare kids that never touched it. He would just sit and look at it for hours!!

That's my DS3. He loves looking at the tree and all the lights (DH goes crazy with the lights ). But we still put the not breakable stuff on the bottom. Not because of DS, but besause of our cats! They just can't seem to keep their little paws of the ornaments. One year we lost a very nice ornament DH had gotten as a gift. It was pretty easy to figure out what happened...the one little kitty still had green paint from the ornament on the white part of his aw: ! So now we always put the not so nice stuff on the bottom!

 

[Livie's Mommy]

My daughter was 15 months old last Christmas and she also couldn't stay away from the tree and ornaments. Luckily, she never tried to pull at the tree itself (or climb it...haha), but she loved the ornaments. Just like one of the previous posters, we tucked our Disney Christmas beanie babies all around the bottom branches of the tree. That way, we didn't mind if she took them off and played with them. All of the more fragile ornaments went at the top of the tree.

 

[JPN4265]

DS will be 12 months old on Dec. 7. Im a little worried about how he'll be around the tree. Im thinking of putting up the prelit artificial tree this year without ornaments at first to see how he'll do. Then if its a real problem I can take it down. Just wondering what others with children around this age experienced.

We still talk about how our daughter (cat, dog) played with the christmas tree. Its all part of the christmas holiday. Set back and enjoy it. The memories are priceless.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

We decorated the top half of the tree.

My kids totally were interested. If it was baby-friendly..then the ornament went on the bottom. Kids are 5 and 3...and I still kind of do this. Only--bottom half is ornaments they won't break and top half is the ones I'd like to preserve .

 

[Mkaz]

Our daughter drove us crazy when she was little. She would not leave the tree alone. However, our son didn't really bother with it. Some friends of ours came up with a really clever idea to keep their daughter away from their tree. They put up a miniature picket fence around the tree. It had a gate and everything. It was just adorable!

 

[lil.disney.princess]

it wasnt ds3 that was the problem with the tree-it was ds2 and dd2 that were the nightmare with it!!!!!they were 3 and 2 at the time and i went in the front room one day to find the tree stripped of all the chocolates on it-just the empty foil wrappers hanging from thier gold threads!!!!!!!!!this was the 2nd time i had replaced them so i unplugged the lights.....grabbed the tree....and slung it up the hallway!!!!!!!!


later in the day i discovered that dd1 and ds1 had carried it back into the front room and set it back up beautifully.............but the gruesome twosome never touched it again!!!!

 

[babytrees]

My munchkins never touched the tree but like some pp's it was our cats who had too much fun with the tree.....of course until two years ago we had a shrunken tree(less than 4 ft) that stood on a table. Quite often it is the lights that attract the little ones. Most of my ornaments are not fragile....I am saving those for when my girls take their ornaments to decorate their trees when they leave us. They receive at least one annual ornament signifying the previous year for them.

 

[Kande]

My little one (Chipper the cat) climbed our tree one year and got to the top and made it fall over. It broke several of my fav ornimates and made such a mess with spilled water and broken glass.

 

[NotUrsula]

Regardless of whether the issue is animals or children, it is always a good idea to top-anchor your tree for safety. Put a couple of very small screw-eyes in the wall at a distance about 3-4 feet apart and 6 feet off the floor, then use them to run a length of fishing line from one eye, around the trunk of the tree at that level, then tied off to the other eye. That will ensure that the tree will not fall over.

We gave up breakable ornaments years ago; they are just too much trouble to keep safe. We don't have any glass at all.

 

[kldmom2000]

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/t...bbs_b_2_2/002-3187480-7437663?v=glance&s=baby We had the problem twice now... this piece of babygear is a wonderful invention!!!!
I bought it shortly before our second daughter was walking knowing how much mischief my first one got into. This gate was great for everything-I'd use it outside in the summer and put a blanket on the grass. My older daughter and I would sit in it with my crawler/walker and not have to worry about her going anywhere. I sprang for the extensions too in order to give us extra room. When Christmas came, I wrapped it around the tree-it worked like a charm!!!!

 

[Nancyg56]

Regardless of whether the issue is animals or children, it is always a good idea to top-anchor your tree for safety. Put a couple of very small screw-eyes in the wall at a distance about 3-4 feet apart and 6 feet off the floor, then use them to run a length of fishing line from one eye, around the trunk of the tree at that level, then tied off to the other eye. That will ensure that the tree will not fall over.

We gave up breakable ornaments years ago; they are just too much trouble to keep safe. We don't have any glass at all.

That is what we had to do with our tree. My cats are always after it. We put unbreakable ornaments at the bottom,but by the time we take it down, there is nothing but drooping light strings. I even had to use a big red bath sheet instead of a tree skirt for several years, as one cat loved to steal it away from the tree. She could not drag the towel The kids were not so quizzy.

 

[Alysa]

We always get a beautiful 12 foot tree that goes up in our living room so for safety we got a very heavy iron tree stand and we anchor the tree to the wall. We also only put stuffed animals on the bottom three feet. My best tip is we also put a small 4 foot artificial tree up in DD's room with unbreakable balls on it and I think because she could play with that one (supervised) she was really good with the real one downstairs. I was just thinking earlier today actually that this worked so well that I will have to get another for her baby brother who is on the way.
Have a happy Christmas! Is it too early to start decorating yet?!