Holiday Gauntlet 2: Christmas tree management

A Christmas tree and a toddler can be a bad combination. There are a bunch of different solutions that have been used successfully.

We've had good success by getting a teeny little tree and putting it up on a table. The toddler couldn't reach it, but we could. Not much room for stacking gifts, but then you have a built-in reminder to stay prudent with gift-purchasing.

You could also put the tree inside a playpen, if you have one, or block it off with gates or a playard.

Other people have strung wires from walls or ceilings to anchor the tree and prevent it from toppling, or to suspend the tree upside-down. (I have to confess that I don't really get the point of this.) This seems to work really well to keep the tree upright, but you still have the problem of kids pulling off ornaments, lights, and branches.

What do you do? And at what age did the tree cease to be a negative temptation for your child? In our house, 21 months seems to be the cut-off between total tree destruction and pointing wide-eyed.

Comments

[christie]

Last year, on a tip from someone in my multiples group, we decorated the (small) tree with shiny metal cookie cutters. Kids were 2.5 at the time, and we did have a lot of taking-off and putting-on of the "ornaments," but that was the point. No harm, no foul.

This year I suspect we'll still see a lot of, um, interaction with the tree, but with luck no destruction. (The kids are pretty sure we should put the tree up in the kitchen.)

[Laura]

Unbreakable ornaments. Get an assortment at Lowe's for approx $8 for about 40 ornaments (really.) Also, her "special" ornaments are hung low for her and so she feels very strongly that they should be well-cared for-- so she is that much more careful. Finally, I use florist wire to wire the antique and special ornaments to the tree, out of reach. with them wired to the tree they might sway, but they never fall.

We also have a playful cat and a cocker spaniel, so between the "helpful" 4 year old and her two 4 legged playmates, I redecorate the bottom foot of the tree every couple of days.

We anchored the tree with fishing line (really doesn't show) and have the cords and such very well covered (lucky me has a husband who works in electrical supplies so he has these great box things and tapes and such to secure the cords/ power strips.)

When DD was littler we used one of those play yard/ gate things and some fishing line (that was how we secured it to the wall, and we stuck white temporary adhesive hooks-- those release ones on the wall) to gate off the tree. It was very easy to take the gate down when we had company.

Also-- when DD was smaller and before I thought of wiring the special ornaments to the tree, I used theose in other arrangements way out of reach. The nicest thing I came up with was hanging a prelit garland over windows and hanging the ornamenmts on/ from that.

[hedra]

Glass ornaments can wait until they're older - plastic unbreakable or metal or stuffed toys for us!

Small tree on the table (okay, this year, that might be more of a challenge, since we now have six people who can sit at the table on their own to eat...).

That's pretty much been 'it' for management at our house. At my mom's, it has been 'no breakables down low', plus an extensive train track laid out under the tree ('Thomas'/brio collection having grown over several years), which tends to keep the kids a bit farther from the tree branches, and distracts them with toys at the same time (works best if you have more room, I suspect). The tree is fake, and has one of those really heavy wide wooden bases, so tipping has never been an issue, thankfully!

The 2-year-old year seems to be a good age for tree awareness, awe, and wonder. This year should be very interesting, since the twins just turned two.

[AmyinMotown]

I was going to write and beg you to address this issue, stat. We have a just-turned-two toddler who is just into everything--I call her Nosy Parker because she's always rummaging through things. We're getting our tree tonight and I am dreading the chaos that might ensue. I bought some prety ornaments at Target that I thought were glass, but discovered when I dropped one that no! Unbreakable plastic! We're used to decorating around two cats who think it's great that we bring in a bit of the outdoors and bedeck it with cat toys, but the cats don't have opposable thumbs. I'm thinking the "small tree on a table" might be our best bet. All the awe and wonder, none of the "I am SO climbing that!" Thanks for the tip--I never thought of that for some reason!

[SheilaC]

We have used the play-yard around the tree with great success, and we always tie the top of the tree to a heavy duty plant hanger hook in the ceiling. That saved us last year when our tree stand broke!

Even three year and four olds may pull hard on the lower branches in their efforts to reach and move a favourite ornament, so you want to be sure the tree is very secure.

Be careful of toddler choking hazards with those "unbreakable" ornaments. Many wooden and plastic decorations have parts that will break off easily, and that are tempting for youngsters to mouth. They look pretty, but are not sturdy or safe enough to be toys. If your kids help decorate, expect some breakage!

- mom to 6 year old triplets

[SarcastiCarrie]

Don't let the kids watch you decorate the tree. If you are touching it, they want to touch it. If you ignore it, they just might.

Also, non-breakables down low. Sentimental and nice ornaments attached to the tree at the top with twist ties.

My nineteen month old son is not interested in the tree too much, but in general, he is pretty good about not touching/being distracted by shiny toys over here away from the tree. He wanted to live in the tree when we were touching/decorating it though.

[Charisse]

Hmmm, age wise Mouse wasn't mobile at 8 months and was into the awe and wonder at 20. This year at 2 1/2 she was exceedngly dictatorial about which ornaments belonged where and how you had to be gentle with the glass ones (she got to carry them over and b lifted up). But she is both a girl and rather geekly and biddable (no credit to my parenting, that's just how she's always been), so YMM obviously V.

We put our tree up on Saturday and had a baby shower yesterday that was attended by 7 approximately 2 1/2 to 3 year olds and their parents. 2 of the 7 were threats to the tree at least in a party context--one kid is just the energizer bunny and never stops running and jumping...and not so much with the looking where he's going...and the other is going through a defiant phase and will smirkingly do whatever her parents tell her not to. She grabbed a tree branch and yanked when her dad asked her to be careful.

I should have posted this on the kid crafts thread at parent hacks, but the lower part of our tree is decorated with these paper ornaments my sister and I made 30 or so years ago with our cool babysitter of the time. Basically you cut circles from old xmas cards (or origami paper or whatever) and then fold the edges to get equilateral triangles...and gluestick 8 of them together into an octahedron/ball. I think we did this when we were between 5 and 8--we must have had some help, but I don't think it was hard. Anyway, they look really cool, weigh nothing, and can't break or hurt anyone. My parents have gone for an all adult tree, so they passed them on to me.

[liz]

Muffin Man helped decorate last year (at almost 4) and did most of the decorating himself this year (almost 5). I did the lights and the garlands, my husband did the star. MM did everything else and I filled in where he couldn't reach.

[Menita]

You've read my mind. We are struggling with this at home. Pretty much everything seems to be out of the question, what with Polly's climbing. She'd try to climb the tree. Yes she would. If we put up lights she will create a ladder out of chairs and toys to reach them.
We are seriously thinking of just putting cutouts of trees and pictures of Santa taped to the wall.

[Shelley]

I've had luck last year and this year (mine is 3) teaching her to touch the ornaments with one finger only. The urge to touch is satisfied, but she can't squeeze and therefore break the ornaments.

[O]

Last year we hit on a great solution for us: The tree is outside on the porch. We put our fake one in storage, got a real tree from the local fire department, and set it up on the porch with the plastic ornaments. The kids love it, the neighbors love it, and I am ecstatic to have no needles in the house and more control over my kids' access to the tree. The boys are 3 & 1; I can wait another year or two for all the other ornaments. (And I love the cookie cutter idea! Am totally stealing that.)
Good luck to all!

[Nell]

My parents are planning to go the tree-on-the-porch route as well, but for their young cats! Last year my mom got our son (then 1 y.o.) a stuffed felt tree from Hallmark, with big buttons and stuffed ornaments with elastic loops. I'm not crazy about the marketing-ploy aspect, but I've seen similar stuffed trees at craft fairs as well. It seemed to help to be able to redirect him to his own tree. I would caution against strings of beaded garland -- too tempting, and too easy for a good tug to start the tree wobbling.

[Amy]

I never had problems with either of my kids touching the tree. I think the trick for us was that we put it up in the living room, but we never spent any time in there. Bummer for *enjoying* the tree, but great for encouraging toddlers to forget about it.

[Mrs. Why]

I absolutely love the porch idea, that's great, O.

I have an 11-month-old girl who loves the dog's food, the toilet and toilet paper, the contents of trash cans, however she has been surprisingly good about the tree. It's smack dab in the main living area of our house, so she does spend a fair amount of time grabbing ornaments off it, all while making a grunting sound and pulling like she's picking apples. I put the more kid friendly ones at the bottom, and also bought some Little People Christmas toys (Santa, sleigh and reindeer, and a tree lighting dealie complete with a hot pretzel salesman, um, ok) so that often diverts attention. Whenever I catch her grabbing or touching the lights I tell her No and that it can hurt her.

Overall, I think it's good for kids to be exposed to things like the Christmas tree. They learn the rules of the house and what they can and can't get away with. It's good practice for going to other people's houses, too, in that they don't have the mind set that every single thing in a house is a potential toy.

[Linda]

There is nothing on my tree that is valuable and breakable. If a cheap ball that I bought our first year of marriage is broken~who cares? (This is good since we're on broken ball #3.) The ornaments with sentimental value are either nonbreakable or not on the tree until my kids are older. So I have no stress as they move the ornaments around or knock them off.

[victoria]

We always tie our tree to the wall - but that's more for the cat than the kids. None of my 3 have ever really been a pain with the tree. they touch it a bit when we first put it up, but after we tell them that it is only for looking and not for touching, they mostly leave it alone. Even my 18 month old has only touched it once in 12 days!! I see that the new "thing" is to hang them upside down from the ceiling (the trees, not kids). that might be an idea.

[cagey]

Thus far, I've had great success with my 14 month old and our tree. I put the tree up sans decorations for about 3 days, then put all the breakable ornaments towards the top. I purchased some fun, unbreakable ornaments for the bottom branches that he is allowed to take off and play with (every other day or so, I put them back on and the cycle begins anew. Sigh).

For sure, it is the ugliest tree we've ever had with gaping, ornament-free holes. But everybody is happy and I guess that is what counts.

[inthefastlane]

I have three kids (12 yrs, 7 yrs and 18 mo) and a dog. And this is the first time we have every had issues with the tree (other than the 80 pound lab trying to run through the tree once last year). My older two kids were not nearly as nosey as the baby. Little Jack Jack, however is the nosiest I have ever seen. We did not even think about what he was going to do to the tree, since our tree had survived all the other years. The problem we are having is that he likes to grab and run with what ever he can get. He is also very capable of climbing onto what ever furniture he can find to reach anything that is higher. I think we will barely manage this year and hope things are better for next year. Sigh.

[STL Mom]

We did the tree-on-a-coffee-table when my kids were under 2, and it worked well. This year I let the kids (ages 3 and 6) do most of the decorating. I put the breakables up high and the kids put the less-breakables down low, mostly all on the bottom right side. I am resisting the urge to even things out and hang things properly, because I've decided that the tree at our house is for the kids. Our living home isn't a department store and the tree doesn't have to be perfect or even pretty! Some of the ornaments have been taken off and played with, but that's the fault of grandmas who buy adorable little Santa-in-a-truck ornaments. Who could resist?

[Kay]

I have my full on tree in the middle of the family room. I have a 13 1/2 month old daughter, and I just tell her "no ma'am". It works. Just in case, though, I did put only non-breakable ornaments near the bottom of the tree and very few breakables are on the tree at all.

[jd]

I heard a story about a mom who put the tree inside the playpen, instead of the kids. Sounds strange at first, but when you think about it - it keeps the kids and the tree safe and separate, the kids can easily see the tree, and everyone can enjoy it without constant intervention. It goes along with the idea that it's easier to control your environment than the kids.

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