Help with the Christmas Tree

B.,
When my kids were younger, the only thing they wanted from the tree was the ornaments. I found that decorating the tree only half way down really helped. It wasn't the prettiest tree, but you have to compromise when you have young kids! And at least we still had a tree up!

Good luck.
J.

When my kids were younger we would block off the tree with a gate or a chair. Also we wouldn't decorate the 1st 3 rows or so so that they couldn't sntach anything of the tree.

I have seen people use the supergate around the tree; you can even decorate it a bit but it keeps them safe! I have a rammy little boy and he pulled at the tree the first week then he stopped; must have gotten OLD--like everything else. We put the safer ornaments on the bottom and glass on top. he was 11 months old at the time.

put up a tree, but put only plastic ornaments or no ornaments at all on lower half of tree. put a hook in the ceiling and tie top of tree to hook to secure it in place so baby doesnt pull it on his/herself. my kids are 11, 8, & 7, and with a dog and cat, we still secure the tree. good luck!

hi B.

I have a 2 and a 1 year old and when they were smaller to keep them from the tree. I bought a circular gate. It's small enough your you to get to the tree but big enough for her not to get to the decorations. Also if you want try to put all your decorations towards the top and keep the very bottem bare so she wont get to the decorations.

I hope this helps..

My son turns 1 in Dec too, the 11th. I was thinking the same thing. What I figure is I dont want to not put 1 up so Im just going to have to be extra careful when he's roaming around.

Hi! what we did with our daughter was to get a small tree. However, if you already have a big one, protect "the tree" per say.... if you have a round barrier as the ones we put through doors or to keep the kids on one place.

Hi B.,
My daughter just turned one in October and I was wondering the same thing. I actually put up my tree today. And I have a very small living room space too so what I did it put the tree in a corner and if I need to I can block it off with the couch and the love seat. But so far so good. I only put non breakable orniments at the bottom so if she does decide to "touch" the tree she won't get hurt. She helped me decorate today which was fun. So I guess we will see how she acts in the upcoming weeks but so far soo good! I hope you have good luck too! Happy birthday to your daughter!

I recommend putting up a couple of baby gates, to keep wandering hands and feet away from any danger. All the other ideas sound good, too. We never had to do anything with our son (now 2 and a half), he would just crawl over and lay under the tree. I would say see how it goes first, and if your daughter isn't very interested in the tree...don't worry about it:) (Although I would take the other advice on not using the hooks...that's an accident waiting to happen.)

I can definitely empathize with you. My son was born Dec 26 and we are facing the same dilemma. We have a pre lit artifical tree and we plan on putting it in the same place in the living room as always; but as far as ornaments go, I don't think we are putting any on, if we do, nothing fragile or old. A friend also recommended plastic ornament hooks as opposed to the metal ones. Also, no tinsel or garland. Hope you have a Merry Christmas !

My baby just turned one too! I'm planning on redoing the same plan we used to protect the tree from the cats last year. We tied the tree to the mantel so they couldn't pull it down. Then we only decorated the top two thirds of the tree so that there were no dangling bulbs to entice them. We got satin blubs instead of glass just in case something fell. Also I inhertied some really cool wooden decorations from my mom which are super kid friendly. You should see if any specialty stores carry them, they might be a bit pricey but well worth it. The other thing that I am doing this year is not using hooks becuase they can be a hazard, instead I'm just getting some gold string and using that to hang the ornaments. Good luck and happy holidays!

I used to put my tree on our dining room table. It was up higher so it worked out fine. I only had to do it once per kid...they are all 6 years apart. It worked every time.
Hope it works for you...

My son had just turned 1 last year in the middle on Dec too. He was actually ok with the tree. Every once in awhile he would go up and touch it or pull a ornament off but it def wasnt as bad as I thought it would be. Good luck