Premature Christmas question

It's been a hard week and I am daydreaming about Christmas.

This will be our first Christmas not flying home to our families and I get to decorate our family Christmas tree from scratch. Yay! I have lots of ideas of a theme. But now I am worrying that all those decorations will be a safety nightmare. The boys are into everything and still eat anything and everything. What did you do last Christmas? What will you plan to do? Small tree up high? Soft, toddler safe decorations? Fence around the tree? Not worry?

Thanks and Merry Christmas and Happy holidays!

 

My girls' birthday is in November so when they were 13 months we put the big tree in the dining room where they couldn't get to it and we had that room blocked off. They were just starting to walk then. The following year when they were 25 months old they were into everything. We put a small tree up high on our entertainment center. We also have an enclosed front porch where we put a big tree with all our of good decroations on it. We could see it from our living room window. Their third year we were back to putting the big tree in the living room but we didn't put a lot of the good ornaments on it and we found unbreakable balls.

The thing that I was concerned with in the first and second years was them putting things into their mouths. Even if you put on all unbreakable ornaments you still have to worry about ornament hooks and lights.

 

We put a play yard around the tree. It was in the corner and we had 2 extra panels.

 

We used a fake tree. I had flashes of images of kids putting dropped pine neddles in their mouth, or getting stuch with them someplace sensitive. We did not put any glass orniments on the tree either.
We did not really worry too much other than that. Put it in a sort of out of the way corner, but still accessible, in the foyer.

 

I decorated and put the superyard around the tree! Wouldn't be Christmas without a tree!!!!

I put all my other stuff up and out of the way or didn't put it up..... You can do it, some people only decorate the top half of their tree, but I can't do that!

 

I too have been wondering where to put our tree this year. We usually put it in the family room so we can always see it, but that might be a nightmare with two little ones. We may put it in our living room where they can't get to it, but then we can't see it very much.

 

Look for soft ornaments with strings, not hooks. Nothing glass or breakable. Artificial tree. Don't have edible garland (popcorn, cranberries). Avoid choking hazards. We bought lights at target that are a large round screw in type bulb. I don't like those tiny lights that pull out.

I've seen trees decorated with toys, stuffed animals, etc. Of course, that would be inviting them to play, so maybe not the best idea.

 

I had the tree in the living room, decorated it from top to bottom & put a superyard around it. I will have to determine if the girls are old enough at 3 1/2 to leave the tree alone - if not, we will block it off again.

 

When we were pregnant last year we visited family friends with little twins around Christmas and they had their small tree up in a crib in the living room. We have a superyard and if we stay here this year we'll use that

 

Our twins were about 16 months at Christmas time. We made sure that all ornaments were fairly high up so that they couldn't grab them, but that was about it. WE had a real tree and no 'fence' around it. Worked out well. They didn't really notice the tree there.

 

The kids first Christmas they were 11 months old. We decorated the tree and put the Superyard around it. The second Christmas they were 23 months and we did not end up having to use the Superyard. I did though put more "kid-friendly" ornaments near the bottom of the tree that if touched would not hurt them or be destroyd if they got handled by little ones. I would say for this year your best bet might be a Superyard if you really want the decorated tree. They are very active and do not really understand "no and do not touch" at 18-19 months. But I also think it depends on the personalty of the kids too. Good luck!