O, Christmas tree?

Ok. Here is my dilemma. Last year the boys were just barely getting around good. No worries about them getting in to anything. This year... they are two little Dennis the menaces! lol

SO how is everyone else handling the question of whether to get a tree or not??? I have no gate enclosure I can put up. Right now we are looking at a treeless Christmas! *sniffle* My dad sai to hang it from the ceiling! He was serious and I was appalled! HELP!

 

Our boys are very mobile already - starting to walk at just over 11 months. We have a small, 3-foot tree on an end table, which is wedged into a corner, with the tree on the back corner where they can't reach it. So far that seems to be working for us. We may have to do that again next year if they are so mischievous still!!

 

My kids were 11 months old their first Christmas (their b-day is 12/26) so for that Christmas, we did put up a tree and did not put ornaments on the bottom. We also put the tree in a corner between our loveseat and couch and blocked it off with their plastic toy box to keep them away from it. That did the trick. It really depends on what you are comfortable with, if you don't feel like the children will be safe with the tree and ornaments out...maybe just get a small table Christmas tree for this year and next year put out your regular tree. Good luck on your decision!

 

We have two trees in our house. One in the basement and one on the main floor. We have gone full tilt with lights, ornaments and garland. We just teach them that they don't touch the tree. It hasn't been all that difficult either really. Miss O likes to touch on particular ornament with her index finger and Gavin likes to touch one particular branch. I figure, that is ok for they aren't breaking anything. However, I still enforce that "we don't touch the tree".

 

I had the same dilemma this year, but luckily I have really tall ceiling in my den so I put a small four foot tree on the top of my entertainment center. That way we get the tree and lights, but they can't get to it or the presents. I also had to hang the stockings from the bookcases on the entertainment center because they hung too low from the fireplace and I knew they would never leave them alone.

 

We have the same problem. We have no superyard, not that that would keep them out anyway. We put up our tree last night and so far it hasn't gone well. They touched the ornaments all day and DD even pulled the whole thing over. They also broke one of my childhood ornaments. I don't know if we should try timeouts or not. I'm not sure how we could enforce it since I am nursing DD#2 a lot and I'd constantly be trying to do timeouts. DH says the tree is coming down tonight. We've thought about moving it into our office, but DH says there's no point since no one will see it. I'm so disappointed.

I hope your kids stay out of your tree. I really don't have any good advice for you, other than putting a little tree up high. I think it really depends on the personality of your kids as to whether they will stay out of it or not. We do have some garland with lights on top of the fireplace mantle and that looks nice. (But my kids pulled down all of the stockings except for mine).

 

Aw Amber! I'm sorry they broke the ornament! That sounds exactly like what Colton and Chayton would do! They are so adventurous and rough that I know they would just pull the whole thing over on themselves. I try to tell myself this is how they explore their world and they are little scientists right now but its still hard when they are breaking things and hitting each other with toys and tipping over my folded clothes that I JUST got done with! lol
Thanks for all the suggestions, ladies! If I cannot find a high place to set up a small tree then I will just put lights on the house and stockings on the fireplace and hope that next year the tree can come back! I'm tempted to try it out and see just how chaotic it gets. They're good boys. They just *have* to try stuff out. We'll see. Should be entertaining at the very least!

Merry Christmas!!

~Joanna

 

We got a real tree as we always do. We have a super yard cornering it off and are skipping ornaments this year (for fear they'll get a hook). We decorated w/ lights and bows. So far, so good. They're not paying too much attention to it.

 

I got a lot of good Christmas tree ideas from this thread. We are planning to get our tree tomorrow. I'm a little worried after hearing about Amber's experience Though we are putting it in a corner with a window beside it, so I'm thinking we can tie some fishing line around the top of the tree and tie it to the curtain rod to help keep it stable should our boys try to pull it over. And we are also going to wrap a super play yard around it.

 

Update: The kids have still been into the tree a bit during the last 2 days, but nothing like the first day. I think we will leave it up for the time being. So if it doesn't go well in the beginning, the novelty may wear off.

 

I tried to talk my DH into getting a table top tree this year, but it was a no-go. The twins have done fine with it though. Hope eating pine needles isn't bad for them

 

I started this tradition last year and plan on doing it again this year: I am not putting up a tree until after the kids go to bed on Christmas Eve. That way, I tell them that Santa brought the tree and all the presents and I get a much bigger reaction on Christmas morning.

I do put up other decorations - our stockings, decorate our mantle, the lighted wreaths, garland, etc. But, just wait on the tree. And then I leave the tree up through the New Year, of course. So, it generally stays up about 2 weeks.

But, as for keeping the kids away from it once it is up, I plan on using the playard. Another option I have heard of is to wrap big boxes full of stored clothes or something to make the boxes heavy. Make them look like big Christmas gifts and place them strategically around the tree to keep the kids away. I haven't tried this, myself, but know someone who does it and she says it works great.

 

That idea totally rocks!! I may try this because we had to cave and put up the play-yard again this year to keep my miscreants away from the ornaments!

:thanks:

 

How about in YOUR bedroom? It's romantic and you can choose to let the kids in at your discretion.

 

My kids are wild too, so I thought the tree would be a disaster... we put it in a room that they generally don't have access to and we go and visit the tree a few times a day now. They're surprisingly good. At first they wanted to rip all the ornaments off, but we just were consistent with "don't touch" and now they'll poke it with their finger and move on. It's our first successful discipline experiment :lol: I think it helps that visiting the tree is "special".

I also went out and bought a bunch of cheap plastic balls so that our tree still looks decorated but there's no chance they'll break my nice glass ornaments and hurt themselves.

 

A friend of mine gave me some "kid proof" handmade ornaments. Cross stitch and other soft items. I personally don't have time to make them myself but I think a mom (or better yet a Grandma!) could make some pretty quickly. I let the kids put them on their own little tree. I have two that I let them use... one is a 1 foot high fake tree. The other is a stuffed fabric tree that has huge buttons on it that the kids can put the ornament's loops on. Both get stored beyond the gate though unless we're playing with them.

Walmart had a wall decal set that has a tree and ornaments. Planning on doing that with the kids as we near Christmas. Not sure how that will go.

We're not doing a big tree this year... but more because the space is in the middle of being painted / updated than for any other reason.