Tree and 1 year old

[Blankiefan]

DD will be 15 months in December - I'll be surprised if she's not up and seriously walking by then (she's sooo close now!)

We'll have a tree in our formal / posh sitting room (we don't really use it but will do pressies there Xmas morning and it has a big bay window to the street.

We spend most of our time in the family room and have a tree for there but wonder if it's just going to be a mare. Here are my options (I think):

• put tree up and hope she learns "no" / move her away (as we currently do from floor lamps/electrical sockets/bins/etc

• put tree up a couple of days before Xmas to shorten the pain.

• don't have the tree in the family room this year.

I love christmas and it feels wrong not to Tree it Up but am I letting myself in for a stressful December??

TIA

When mine were little, we screwed a cup hook into the window frame (we had the tree up in the front room window), and tied the tree to that, so it would have been fairly hard for them to pull it over.

We did supervise them, and made sure they knew they should not touch it, but to be honest we never really had a problem with them touching it or pulling at it.

We didn't put the tree up,until fairly close to Christmas anyway - when I was a child, my parents put our tree up on Christmas Eve, which I felt wasn't long enough, so we tended to put it up about a week before Christmas.

I agree about the fixings. We have always had large -7ft real trees even when the kids were toddlers and it has never been a problem.

We attach green garden wire around the trunk at two or three intervals and place some sturdy hooks or similar into the wall/window frame.
It then is quite secure. Don't put lights or decorations on the lower 18 inches of the tree- or as we did let little ones have their own baby safe decorations to pull off and rehang as they wish. Keeping a child away from an exciting tree is pretty unrealistic and hard work.

One other thing is we always get a Nordman Fir, the leaves don't drop, and if a few do, they have rounded tips so won't prick delicate little feet.

We didn't bother with a tree last christmas when DD was a similar age but we were not going to be at home on Christmas Day anyway. I didn't think it would be fair on her to spend a few weeks getting told off for touching something that is supposed to look so attractive! We just put up lots of other decorations (garlands on the fireplace, fairy lights on the windows etc) that were well out of reach but still made the room feel festive.

Last Christmas I had a 16 month old, two and a half year old and almost four year old- none of them were arsed with the tree at all. Same with previous Christmases at younger ages. Last year we had an eight foot Norway spruce but usually we get a seven foot. Full to the brim of different decorations and lights. They've just known not to go near it and don't. I think the spikes on it probably help . But seriously, I don't understand the fuss of hiding trees from small children. Maybe I'm just really lucky, I don't know!

I bought a tiny little tree that came in a decorative bucket from Tesco last year. Cost £10, came with little lights and some baubles. Put it on my mantle piece. Dd was 17 months then so this year she'll be almost 2 1/2 and this was I had a tree but no stress! Was quite sweet actually.
I'm happy to wait a few years til we can get a proper tree again as DS is 5 weeks now and our flat is fairly small so it would just be too stressful!!
Hoping Tesco sell those trees again this year. Still have last years bucket that dd can play with this winter!

We did a little one on top of the piano, we don't much go in for lots of prezzies so it was perfect. But I'm a bit of a scrooge any way and would happily not have a tree.
Think if you like it have one up and be very firm about not touching.

I've always had trees even when my girls were tiny.

I would just keep all the best ornaments for another year

When DS1 was 1 we still put the tree up (fake and prelit, so no shedding and minimal trailing wires to tidy up), and did as others have by fixing it to the wall. He wasn't really bothered about it though.

We'll be doing the same again this year now we'll also have 1yo DS2, and since anything and everything ends up in his mouth it will be well and truly fixed to the wall and with soft/wooden decorations only! I've accepted the fact my lovely glass baubles will remain in the loft probably until they are at least 10 or something!