Christmas Tree and a small mobile child

[exiledmancityfan]

You see my difficulty DS2 (14 months) is a nightmare for pulling things off and the word no seems to make it more of a challenge. Any suggestions as ti how to save my decorations and my tree?

Perhaps this is the one year when you should opt for a tabletop sized tree?

Put the tree somewhere out of reach. Behind a sofa or in a room that you don't use that much, hall way, dinning room? Or get a small one and put it up on a table?
When my Dd was small I put mine in the corner and arranged the sofa and small coffee table and arm chair around it so she could get to it but we could still see it and put present under it.

I think I will look for a table top tree but we have just moved into a Victorian Terrace and I wanted to do a traditional style xmas this year.

I'm in same position with my 16 month old. But just decided it's not worth it. He's too young to be told not to pull with it all the time. I'm going to but those branch type things you can get along my staircase (it's in living room) and hang decorations off that. Next year we'll do the tree thing.

Can you put the tree inside a babydan type of thing?

Glad someone else started this thread! My dd will be 11 months in December but I really want a tree
but dp refused to hang it from te ceiling..

The tree that is, not my dd!

I decorated my tree with non-breakables within reaching distance when my DDs were toddlers, tiny soft toys, wooden decorations, imitation snowdrops, feathers etc. And higher up I put my Victorian baubles that look like old fashioned tin toys.

The soft toys fitted in really well with the Victorian look.

We put ours in the play pen..

ancient the baby or the tree?

Could you fence it off with a playpen or Babydan style room divider?

While your DD is so young I would urge you not to have any glass decorations on the tree. We didn't really have any bother with DS 16mo because we let him touch the tree and decorations on it, although we asked him to be gentle, something he understood because he was gentle with our cats. In fact, because it wasn't forbidden, he only touched the tree occasionally and we had more trouble with the cats pulling things off to play with. The more you say no the more of a game it becomes.

There are options; a small table top tree, or a wall hanging tree, which are both out of reach.

Tree, though I used to sit in it from time to time.

I did loads of research about this last year, DD was 18 months at Christmas, debated not getting a tree, play pens, tying her arms behind her back for a month etc.

She lost interest after about 2 days. It might be fine.

I did the same as Tyrannosaurus when my dcs were little. Just lots of wooden, fabric toys low down on the branches. I even scattered some around the pot so they could easily be grabbed and played with.

We've always had a tree. Now my dcs are older they love the fact that every year we decorate the tree together and they see the same wooden decs they've remembered all their lives.

I say have the tree. Make sure it's sturdy.

Scattered pine cones are popular and cheap. My dcs seemed to hold them for hours.

My son's first Christmas he was 10 months old and the tree was one big toy, we had to move our whole living room around and hide the tree behind the sofa x

We've had ours in various places over the last few years, in a playpen, and in the corner between two sofas where they couldn't get to it. DD will be 2.4 this Christmas, so I might actually get away with having it out this year
Also, last year, I got them a tiny 50p Christmas tree and some little decorations that they could do themselves and they mostly ignored the real one

Stick it on a chair, thats what we do anyway, so tree looks taller!

I put ours in a corner of the dining room fenced off somewhat by the table and chairs. I also put paper and fabric decorations mostly at the bottom with the more fragile things at the top so even if he did pull them off they wouldn't be dangerous if broken.

We had the same as twick, ds2 was 12 months last Christmas. He fiddled a bit with the bottom decorations for a day or 2 and then got bored. Hoping for the same thing this year!

Last year my DC were aged almost three, 18 months and 4 months. None of them had very much interest in the tree, it was the same the two years before as well. They would occasionally pull a couple of baubles off but I don't have many breakable ones and I put them and the very special ones at the top of the tree. I just have the felt ones nearer the bottom. And it wasn't hard to put them back on! Tree was way too heavy to pull over and we always get a real one so it's quite spiky to the touch and I think that also put them off.

tie the top the tree to the wall with some string so cant be pulled down/knocked up by children or cats

then have shatter proof decorations :)