Can we put up a Christmas tree?

So my twins will be 19 mos during the month of December and we are having family in town, our first Christmas in a new house, etc. so it would nice to have a Christmas tree... However I realize this might be a great pain and not worth it! Does anyone have any thoughts on this from when your kids were this age? I was thinking to get a really prickly one and leave it up for awhile w/o ornaments or lights so they will touch it, get the idea, and then won't want to touch it when it does get decorated, LOL! Any experiences, ideas, suggestions would be appreciated, thanks!

 

The boys first Christmas they were two months old, second Christmas they were 14 months old, third they were 26 months old, and fourth they will be 38 months old. We've never had a problem with them! Do you have a gate you could put around it? I would say the hardest year was when they were 14 months old. But if you put a gate up around it, that should help. Annabella will be 18 months old, I think she's going to be trouble!

Oh-and I put all of my nice ornaments on it-just up REALLY high!

 

If you have a superyard you could put it around it to mostly protect it, even though it wouldn't be very pretty.

We didn't do it last year and my kids were 22 months... we probably won't this year either. I guess it depends though, if someone will be in the room all the time with them, it wouldn't be a problem, but I just don't trust my DS...

 

Mine were 18 months and it worked just fine. I don't remember having any problems. We did put it up on a small table (foot off the ground) and tell them it was off limits. GL!

 

Mine have been 12 months and 24ths during the holiday season. We've always had a tree and didn't have any problems. We were consistent that they not play with and they've been really great about it.

They did take one ornament off the tree. It's a singing sheep that baas out a holiday tune. They like to press that repeatedly and that's annoying. But that's it.

 

My guys were almost 17 months old last Christmas and we had a tree. We put the Superyard around it (it was in a bay window) and they pretty much left it alone. ardon: I did have to retrieve the occasional toy they pitched over the top of the Superyard, and sometimes they pushed on it, but I don't remember it being a big deal.

 

We've had a tree every year. There was one year when the twins were almost 3 and Liam was almost 1 that we didn't put any of the breakable ornaments up.

 

at that age we didn't put any ornaments on the tree - just lights and garland, and put the superyard in front of it - worked well!!!

 

We have always had a tree & we have always put the decorations on. Some years there was a lot of time spent saying no & dragging them away from it and one year by Christmas most of the ornaments had migrated toward the top & out of their reach, but we have never had a major catastrophe.

 

As long as you don't mind a tree that's only 1/2 decorated, it's not really a big deal. I always put my delicate ornaments up at the top. I have lots of unbreakable ones that I use on the bottom half. Whenever there are toddlers in the house, we spend a lot of time redecorating... but now it's mostly my older kids that do that. You could also get a small 3-4 ft. tree and put it on a table. Personally, I didn't want the look of a play yard around the tree, but I also have a very small living room. I'd rather just block off the room the tree was in, or deal with the consequences of letting my toddlers in there.

 

We put ours up last year with the superyard around it. Max was facinated with chucking any toy possible at it. I say chucking because it wasn't just a toss or throw. He also managed to knock it over trying to reach over the superyard to touch it, but thankfully it just tilted sideways against the superyard and was easy to stand back up. We did not put any sentimental bulbs or even breakable ones on the tree.

I am really debating putting one up this year because he is still obsessed with chucking toys when he gets a chance. Now he has better aim and more force in the throw. For us it will depend on if my MIL throws a fit over having Christmas dinner at her house seven though she tells us the kids should be in their home on Christmas day with their toys :headbang: . She is all about the drama, but that is another story.

Good luck with your decision and you could also use clear fishing line to hook the tree to the ceiling from a plant hook available at any hardware store. We did this when our last cat used to climb the inside of the tree. It is a hard decision because I think memories of the tree on Christmas morning are what childhood is all about, but with twins it can be a nightmare.

 

Thanks everyone!! Those are some good ideas and helpful to know it can be done w/o going too crazy ... Think I will definitely go for it b/c I wouldn't feel like it was Christmas without a tree! I will try it without the superyard at first b/c I really don't feel like dragging it out of storage & having that eyesore, but if it has to come out, oh well. Like the string to ceiling idea too if it comes to that, I sure hope not ... GL to everyone w/their trees this upcoming holiday!

 

I don't remember having any issues. Their first Christmas they were crawling so we didn't worry about the tree much, the second year they would have been 19 months old and I think we did put a play-yard around the tree.

Honestly I have more trouble with the cats messing with the tree than the twins! :laughing:

 

My two were 12 months their first Christmas and 24 months their second Christmas. We left the bottom of the tree ornament free and blocked it off with their toy box and had no problems with the tree.

 

This is what I was thinking. LOL! :laughing: We have always put our tree up, but at the 17 month mark we used non-breakable (shatter proof) ornaments only. By the end of Christmas, the bottom half of the tree was bare. ardon:

 

Sure! My kids were 7 months, 19 months and 31 months old during Christmas tree season and we never had problems. At 19 months old, we put up a full sized tree in our living room. The girls spent most of their time playing in the family room, so they weren't around the tree unsupervised. We did a lot of explaining that the tree was pretty, but not for climbing or pulling on. And... we only put non-breakable ornaments on the bottom half.

 

The twins first Christmas they were 10 months old and we had the tree in the other room and had gates up so they couldn't get to it anyway. The second Christmas they were 22 months and we had the tree up and no gates. We put lights and ornaments on the tree, just not breakable ones on the bottom and just explained (and showed them) over and over again lol that they could look at the tree, but not touch it. Believe it or not, that worked pretty well, sure they touched it a few times, but most of the time just looked at it like we had showed them.