Toddler & Christmas Tree

[sophiaslullaby]

The fact this is the main issue on my mind is making me smile as it's not that big of a deal but thought I'd find out how others tackled it - my DS is just over a year old and naturally into EVERYTHING. He's going to think Christmas has actually come early if we put the tree up. I don't want to be the party pooper but I don't want to spend the whole of Christmas saying 'no, no, don't touch' blah blah. It'll be for safety reasons more than anything (tree lights and spikey tree falling...).
Therefore I can only think this means no tree for us this year - how come others cope with it though? What am I missing? Don't get me wrong I'm not an over-protective mother but the joy of a lovely tree is going to me smooshed somewhat if it's always on the floor with my toddler underneath and the decorations in all corners of the house

When DD was about to turn 1 (26th Dec baby), we used the fake tree (which we also use any year that we are travelling "home" for Christmas and won't be around to keep a real one watered).

We used plastic baubles near the bottom, and only a few of the "good" glass ones near the top.

We did do the "ah ah, don't touch" at the start, but she was pretty good about staying out of it. We kept it in the sitting room, and had more daily life going on in the kitchen/diner, with a closed door between, so I didn't have to constantly patrol her.

But she was pretty good at looking but not touching once we had made it clear at the start.

We also had a Santa teddy that she could play with, who only comes out for December (still - she's about to turn 11!) which was another distraction. And it probably helped that I was back at work so she was in crèche most of the day - so she saw it every day but we weren't policing it all day long.

There's a few ideas on this thread

I din't put up a tree when DS was 19 months, I knew it would be down more than it was up! I bought a little real tree that I sat on the dining table and put up the rest of the decorations. Was a bit sad at that but he didn't care, and now we have a christmas tree in the back garden!

We put a little fence around ours!

Our tree lived in a playpen for a good number of years.

I second the suggestion of putting it in a playpen too. You can decorate it with tinsel and it looks quite festive!

Another idea is to get a small, cheap, plastic tree, tinsel, plastic baubles and battery lights and that's the tree they are allowed to play with and "decorate" (under supervision). Sometimes it distracts them from the the real thing in the corner.

We had a full-size tree when DS was about 18mo. We used some string to tie it to a curtain hook on the wall to reduce the risk of it toppling. We replaced our most fragile glass baubles with some plastic ones, and anything that could potentially be a choking hazard went at the top of the tree. DS was fine with it - he had a couple of baubles off but he was mostly unfazed by it and left it alone.

DS is 2.5 now, we've got the tree up and no problems (so far!)

Ds2 is 14 months. We have a 6ft real tree and I just say no and move him away. There are other Things he's allowed to touch and so far so good. If I leave the room he comes too and the door is closed.

When I brought him down from his nap and he saw the tree and all the hanging decorations he spent ages saying "woahhhhh wow! Wow!" Which was very cute.

My ds was 18m last yr. He never bothered with the tree. We have a 6ft fake one. We used all our usual decorations with no issue.
He was enchanted by a little train going round the mountian that we have and spent ages watching it go round. We just told him no if he tried to touch it.

At 2.5 this year I suspect he will be more interested in the tree. We have a smaller tree that goes in the dining room that we are going to put in his playroom, up on a table in the corner. I'm goin to let him help me decorate that one.

The only thing I won't do as normal this year is put gifts under before Xmas day as he knows what a present is and would be very keen to open them all!!

Aww thank you all, really good suggestions there (fence it in - haha, I thought of that too!). Going by what a few of you said I'm probably worrying for nothing so could be worth putting it up (curtain hook on the wall and string - great idea, passed it to DH!) and just trying it.
Our tree (fake) is one that comes in 4 parts so failing all I'll just use the top part and stick it on a tucked away coffee table maybe.

Our fake tree comes in parts and that's exactly what we did when DS was 1.

Worked a treat and we put tinsel up on doorframes, little Christmas teddies dotted about etc so still looked festive. He helped to decorate last year and wouldn't let anyone touch his creation! Very cute :)

Our baby is now 18 months. We put the tree up yesterday with her invaluable help. As with all things, she's touched it now and isn't in the least interested. We can't even get her to stand near it for a photo.

We had a small kitten last year so put a metal eye on the wall (still there) and attached a piece of webbing with a clip to it...I think it was a bag strap we used..though string or anything would be fine.

As it was he climbed on the first lot of branches, fell through and never bothered again

DD was just over 1 last year and we had a small tree on top of the sideboard that she couldn't reach. She's now just over 2 and 'helped' us put the full size tree up this year. We've told her she can look but not touch - and she's listened, so far!

I've got a just 3 year old and an 17 month old and we've never really had any problems to be honest! We've had a big real tree with a 13 month old, a just 2 year old and a 5 month old, and then this year 3 and 17 months. It usually takes half a day of saying 'no, don't touch the Christmas tree' and they just get bored of it!