Small children and Christmas trees

[mellymel]

Last year DD was about 7 months old at Christmas. She loved the Christmas tree! She also loved to pull ornaments off the tree. It was NBD, she was always closely supervised near the tree.

[lauren170]

You should be able to to gate it off... just google gate for Christmas Tree

[redheadk]

I was worried but it was a nonissue in the end. She was very careful around the tree. I did not use any breakable or glass ornaments just to be safe. The tree was in our living room but she spent most of her time in the playroom, which was gated. When she was in the LR, she would very carefully place this little star shaped mirror from a purse set of hers in the bottom branches of the tree, move it around the tree, etc. It was super sweet.

I'm worried about this year, though, because the playroom is not gated at our new house and she spends much more time in the living room unsupervised.

[redheadbaker]

DS was 1 month old at his first Christmas, 13 months old and still primarily crawling at his second. We live in a smallish apartment, so our only choice for a tree is the living room. He pretty much left it alone. We did only put unbreakable ornaments near the bottom (and left the glass ones off altogether), but we were surprised how uninterested he seemed in the tree.

[ilikedonuts]

We just put the breakable ornaments up high and told her not to touch it (she was 13 months at thanksgiving that year) and just kept an eye on her around it.

[Brie]

C is generally a tornado child and last year, at 15m, he mostly left the tree alone. Breakables go near the top, just in case.

[Jalapeñomel]

It will go in a different room where he has no access.

[Deleted]

We just did a prelit tree last year no ornaments. He was 19 monthd

[sent]

We have a small tree because we've always lived in apartments. It is usually up on a table.

This reminds me, my mom got ornament shamed last year when she bought a "Baby's First Christmas" ornament on December 26th.  She was like "uh the kid wasn't supposed to be born until way after Christmas but showed up at home on the 24th. Now ring up my half price ornament please."

[suburbanzookeeper]

We wrap ours in a dog x-pen every year because we foster puppies and it also helps with the toddler/crawling baby aspect. It's not exactly the most attractive thing but it keeps the damage for all of our offenders low.

[Deleted]

DS was 10 months old his first Christmas. We sold our 6' tree and bought a 3' one that we put on top of a small table. I've attached a pic. It was tall enough that he could only reach a handful of ornaments, and we obviously put non-cherished ones on the bottom row. He pulled off a couple but after some scolding he stopped. This year when he was 22 months was NBD, he loved watching it and wasn't interested in breaking it.

[dcn]

Ds was 14 months last year and into everything, except for the tree. He would touch the ornaments with one finger and then run away, lol. I think it depends on the kid, but it was generally not the nightmare I thought it would be.

[carolinagirl831]

We put our regular tree and ornaments. Dd was 91/2 months and could pull up and crawl. It was fine, she barely bothered it. I put a few small soft stuffed ornaments on the bottom and she knew she was allowed up touch those

[cherry1111]

I was worried too, and wasn't planning on putting one up, but after a sad December I decided I wanted to in order to get more into the Christmas spirit. I put all ornaments out of his reach and he left it alone for the most part.

[fortmyersbride]

I put a superyard gate around the tree each year that my kids were in the 1-2 age range.

[speckledfrog]

We only decorated the top half of the tree.

[jena]

Some years the tree has been in a room I could gate off. I have always put non-breakable ornaments on bottom (damn evil cats have broken many more ornaments than my kids ever have). When I've had a tree out that i couldn't keep gated off I had it tethered to the wall.

[havarti]

Between the dogs and the kid, we put the tree up on a table. I'm still hoping he won't yank on a cord and pull the whole thing down. We alsononly kept it up for.a week and put the gifts under on Christmas eve.

[rootbeerfloat]

We used super yard and unbreakable ornaments. The super yard was not very effective, lol.

[zarapipe]

Sept 27, 2014 23:15:05 GMT -5 speckledfrog said:

We only decorated the top half of the tree.

Pretty much this. And breakables really really h8gh. Even Las year at almost 4 she would still pull down ornaments to look at them and play. We will see how this year goes. I found a couple ornaments she could reach in her play room months later last year. Nothing breakable but others than interested her that she could reach.

[origami]

I (used to) put my tree in a room that was gated off. But I know others who gated off the tree in a main room or just got brave and let child and ornament coexist. I am not brave.

[rex]

L is very curious but also a very good listener, so i have no idea if the tree will be a nightmare or not. i plan on setting it up and seeing what happens. i don't care if we have to take it down.

[spanikopita]

We had a small table-top tree.

[undecidedowl]

I was shocked but DS left the tree alone. He liked to look at it with all the lights on but he never really bothered it.

[bunch]

Sept 27, 2014 20:51:09 GMT -5 @mrswindycity said:

This is one of those totally-depends-on-the-kid things. WIth DS1, we were basically like, "Don't go by the Christmas tree" and he never did. One time he touched it, hated the feel of it, and then he REALLY had no interest in going by it.

I full expect DS2 to pull down the entire Christmas tree, though. So we'll see how that goes...

Exactly this.  I'm dreading it.

[smile]

This is definitely a "depends on the child" situation. DD was 11 1/2 months and walking for Christmas last year. She had access to the tree whenever we were downstairs, but she never showed much interest outside the occasional one finger touch of an ornament. I hope to have the same results this year.

[formerlyllizzyb]

We did not put a tree up when DS was 9 months because he was pulling up and cruising on everything.
Last year at 21 months we did put one up and he basically left it alone. Occasionally he would rearrange ornaments. He's not a destructive or daredevil kid so I wasn't worried.

[Deleted]

DD was so completely fascinated by the tree she never cared to destroy it. I just put the cloth snowflake ornaments on the bottom and she moved those around sometimes.

I don't expect to DS to care either.

I do put it in a more out of the way spot. A place where we can all see it but we're not always there either.

[docholly]

ODS was one when we put one up, and YDS was 8 months. Both did fine. As others have said, we just put breakable items beyond reach on the tree.

[penguingrrl]

We have always put a tree up and told the kids not to touch and not had a problem. I have had to watch them a little more carefully around the tree than I otherwise might have, but no issues yet. That said, I'm convinced that my son will successfully pull the tree down this year because he's a spider monkey. We may use fishing line to tether it to the wall.

Also, all breakable ornaments go up top where the kids can't reach. My cousin's daughter bit into a glass ornament when she had just turned 1 and it turned into an ER visit.