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

[skuttle]

Last Christmas my DS was 1 1/2 and did fine with our live tree. We made sure to hang non-breakable ornaments on the bottom and hung them with ribbon, just in case. DS actually never touched them. He never touched the presents or their bows either. I'm more worried about him this year at 2 1/2!

 

[crisi]

Both my kids played with the tree. They are six and seven and I haven't taken out the box of breakable ornaments yet - maybe when they are in college......

What we did was screw our Christmastree stand into a large peice of plywood - large enough that when touching the tree the child was standing on the plywood. It was really hard to pull over that way and didn't put holes in the wall from bolts.

 

[Jack's Mom]

When my sister had little one she found in-expensive artifiical tree at Goodwill, bought a few packages of cottom batting, some felt & made a snowman tree. Just put up the tree, white lights & stuffedthe tree with the white batting, then on top she constructed a hat, buttons, & all the "snowman fixings" with some cardboard & felt. It was the most adorable tree.

Needless to say this has been the "Offical 1st X-mas tree" for all of us as our little ones reached the first x-mas where they wanted to touch & could reach.

It's not a classy or tratidtional tree by any means, but a perfect tree for anyone with a little one who likes to put everything in thier mouth.

 

[Kanga1]

Have a happy Christmas! Is it too early to start decorating yet?!

Well...since we just put up a tree this evening....I say NO! It's NOT too early to start decorating!!! I know...crazy aren't we? But we're as fanatical about Christmas as we are about Disney! We put up 8 trees (4 full size and 4 miniature) and more than 100 North Pole houses, not including the accessories! Any Hallmark ornament or Dept. 56 collectors out there? It takes time and I like to have it all up and finished by the first of Dec. so I can relax and enjoy the holiday!

To the OP...I guess we're lucky...since the day she was born, our DD4 has never bothered the tree or the houses (and some are at ground level.) We have never had to rearrange the way we put on ornaments or decorate the house. She's so good about that. On the other hand...we just got a new cat...I may be eating my words in a few weeks!

Happy Holidays!

 

[minkydog]

My oldest one liked to move the ornaments around, so I bought a bunch of shiny satin ornaments. I thought i was the world's greatest mom because I had somehow "trained" him not to touch the lights.

Enter child #2, our "miracle child"--as in, "it's a miracle she's still alive." She has swallowed a safety pin. She once stuck her finger in a light socket and then complained because "a snake bit me." I caught her lying under the tree sucking on a lighted bulb. The tree immediately went into the play-pen and there it sat until we took it down.

Thankfully, child #3 doesn't care about the tree, but the dog has been known to cut a 3ft swath trying to strip the tree of candy canes.

 

[minkydog]

Both my kids played with the tree. They are six and seven and I haven't taken out the box of breakable ornaments yet - maybe when they are in college......

My oldest one started college this year. His 12yo sister asked me what our theme was going to be this year. "Theme"? Honey we haven't had a theme in 19years. So we had to go to Michaels and buy red beads, birds, and flowers to make a "theme". And now I have to make a new red tree skirt to go with that "theme". Of course, none of our ornaments go with the new "theme"

 

[pirateofthecarolinas]

Enter child #2, our "miracle child"--as in, "it's a miracle she's still alive." She has swallowed a safety pin. She once stuck her finger in a light socket and then complained because "a snake bit me." I caught her lying under the tree sucking on a lighted bulb. The tree immediately went into the play-pen and there it sat until we took it down.

LOL- so that's what I need to call my DS3, a miracle child. I'm just waiting for the day that he is at the ER. I know it is coming.

He broke 4 of my Halloween decorations. I told my husband that I'm not decorating for Christmas. Forget it!

Lori

 

[swilshire]

DH built a large plywood box when DD (now 19) was a toddler and we got a smaller tree to put on top of it. We wrapped the box every year to make it look like a big gift, then nailed the tree stand to the box so the tree couldn't be pulled off of it. It worked great. A small tree on a table would probably also work well.

Sheila

 

[rt2dz]

OK, I have this year DS almost 5, DS almost 2 and DS 2 months.

DS#1 never bothered with the tree ever. DS#2 at first want to play with the lower ornaments, but left the rest of tree alone. After some watching like a hawk, DS#2 eventually left the lower ornaments alone. Kept wanting to pull the bows off presents though.

 

[GPALANGE]

Wow I had 3 kids under 4 and none of them ever really messed with the tree. Once in a while they'd go up to it and look at the ornaments that are the pictures of themselves, and say "pretty baby" but none of them ever took ornaments off or toppled the tree. And we put up two, one in living room that is a victorian theme and another in the family room that is all the hodge podge christmas ornaments from Christmas's past.

 

[DisneyGrandParents]

Of course little ones can't stay away from a Christmas tree, everythings's all bright and sparkly and pretty and glistening. . . how could any child not be intrigued and want to touch it all over?

Go with either tree, real or artificial, but decorate it with non-breakables and miniture lights that don't hurt when touched. Then, sit back and see your first tree through their eyes. . .

Have a wonderful Christmas.

 

[SqueakyMouse]

My two boys never bothered the trees, but my dd strips the bottoms bare!! She's nearly 3, but I expect the same this year. She just can't keep her hands off anything.

As others have posted, our cats have been the bigger problems. A number of years ago, our cats knocked the tree down during the night. The tree was close enough to the fireplace that the top of the tree was smoldering and a little crispy (real tree -- we don't do those anymore!). It left a nice scorch mark on our hardwood floors, but never set off the fire alarm. We didn't discover it until morning! It's a wonder the house didn't burn down.

 

[Peace Mickey Lovers]

Well my little one loves undecorating the tree and we decided to put all out nice fragile ornaments on the top and the fabric ones on the bottom. I think this year we are putting a gate around it.

 

[granmaz]

One Christmas when my children were small, we had hollow chocolate 'baubles' in coloured foil on the tree. One day I noticed the back half of one had been eaten and carefully made to look like new. When we sat them down and asked who had eaten it (we were sure we knew), all three shouted 'it wasn't me'! Hmmm. So I said ' well the person who did eat it had better finish it off' Up went my youngest son's hand! (Yes that was the suspect).