Christmas tree + 1 year old??

[NickyEds]

My DS will be 1 this Christmas, he's crawling, cruising and having some very wobbly attempts at walking- generally into everything and trashing the place!! Everyone keeps saying I can't have a Christmas tree. Our house is quite small and we have one main living area. There isn't really anywhere to "box" a tree in using furniture.

So... what do you do about Christmas trees and toddlers?

My idea to "teach him not to pull himself up on it and be gentle with it" were met with peals of laughter!

[dinkystinky]

When Ds1 and Ds2 were 1 we had a tree - but a fake one with tinsel and v cheap/not easily breakable baubles on it - the bottom half of the tree got denuded at regular intervals (and with a real tree we would have had pine needles everywhere!). We moved back to real trees when they were 2 as they understood no, don't touch.

DS3 is now 1 - so its xmas in a box again this year for us but next year we will be back to our beautiful real tree with pine smells everywhere

[PickleMobile]

Ive got the same problem but dd is 19mo and a walking nightmare!

Ive accepted i cannot have my beautiful glass baubles this year as she broke on at the garden center and they really shatter.

We're going for a real tree this year with the idea it will be heavier/harder for her to pull over.

Sorry no help as she was not mobile last year so we didn't have to worry!

[scurryfunge]

Could you have a small table top one out of reach?

[dinkystinky]

Pickle - the needles will get EVERYWHERE! Put the real tree on a plastic sheet to try to contain the mess and make sure it is heavily weighted down - and your toddler does not try to climb it at all.

[TwelveLeggedWalk]

We had a small table top one and some really nice unbreakable paper and felt decorations, think they came from Ikea in kind of 70s colours, it worked well.

[Pointlessfan]

I have a crawling baby and I'm worried about this too. We're not going to use any breakable decorations and I'm considering putting the tree in a play pen! Starting to think we might not be able to have a real tree this year but I'll be gutted, choosing and decorating the tree is my favourite part of Christmas.

[Littlef00t]

Planning on digging out our 4ft tree for the table as dd will be crawling by then. You could go all out on wreaths and window stuff to make up for it.

[Chipandspuds]

DS was absolutely fine with the Christmas tree, he turned 1 on Christmas Eve and was about a week away from walking that year. He was very interested in looking at the tree, but we explained to him not to touch it and he seemed to understand. We put the non-breakable decorations out of reach just in case and soft toy decorations at the bottom. We didn't tend to leave him unattended in a room at that stage anyway, just took him with is to the kitchen etc.

[ZeViteVitchofCwismas]

i have two and have never changed xmas decs, sometimes you would be amazed at what they dont actually notice or see.

[Sootgremlin]

Have you only one child? If so then it is perfectly manageable to keep him under control near it, just never leave her alone with it and your plan of remove him etc should be fine. You need to do that for lots of things that can be dangerous for them to pull, climb etc so it's no different really. There are lots of things more dangerous for them to pull over, TV, bookcase, everyone has those you just need to take sensible precautions. They need supervision all the time anyway.

We had an artificial tree when my son was 9 months and cruising, nothing dangerous on it, plastic baubles, a couple in reach that he could look at as we didn't want to make it too forbidden fruit and it was fine. One main living area, with him at all times. Same following year at 20 months. Dd will be 1 this year and never considered not having a tree, although we are in a bigger house I will just take her out of the room with me as I would usually do.

I would see how he goes, if you are finding it too stressful, he won't leave it alone etc, then take it down. For my ds I didn't make too much fuss about it, included him in the decorating of it, and the novelty soon wore off fiddling with it.

[Lorelei353]

DS will be 18 months at Christmas but we're getting a real tree too and just keeping any breakable/sentimental valuable decorations off it this year. Hoping enough 'No, don't touch' will sink in. He will still rattle it I'm sure but it's either that or no tree (no room for a table top one) and I can't have no tree!

[NickyEds]

Thanks everyone. I've baby proofed the main living area so he can generally have a free reign but he's not left alone yet. I'm most worried about him pulling it over onto himself rather than making a mess-the house is pretty much a toy strewn bomb site anyway. I think I'll go with the idea to put it up and see if it's a pain. MIL suggested somehow tying the tree to the wall so it can't topple over??? I'm rather hoping he just won't be that bothered about it .