Keeping toddlers away from the tree

[TwinsandTrifle]

We have 20mth old DTwins. The age that they have zero understanding of being careful around a Christmas Tree, combined with being fabulously dexterous and mobile.

What do we do about the tree? A cage isn't an option. To me, it removes all the prettiness and presence of the tree.

DTwins will have all the baubles off every time my back is turned. Even if I ensure everything is hardy and non-smash plastic, they'll still yank them off and probably twiddle with the lights. Maybe even tug the whole thing over/along. (Prelit BH I think about 7ft if that makes any difference?)

What do you do to stop small children wrecking the tree? We have other DC, so we kind of need a tree, and with twins, it's not as simple as just keeping an eye, boy twin is like Houdini. There will be times when I'm in the vicinity but not watching like a hawk...and this is when they'll strike . Our house is pretty open plan too (bar the kitchen), and we usually have several trees, and I'm already limiting it to one.

Any suggestions very gratefully received.

Large piece of mdf 60 by 90cm as a base. Heavy metal tree stand fixed to mdf by drilling holes through and putting cable ties through the holes.

It's virtually impossible to pull over but visually inoffensive

We started doing this because two fighting cats climbed the tree and knocked it over. But I can verify it toddler proof also!

I'm going to be honest... my tree went up about two weeks before the big day.. and was down by The evening of Christmas Day and thrown up the garden when DD was that age . She was relentless. I spent what felt like every moment we were in the house while the bastard thing was as up stopping her from messing about with the tree. It's daft when you think about it, we put a big sparkly tree covered in toys in the room and expect them NOT to want to play with it. Madness. No amount of 'kind hands' and 'we don't touch' worked she was like a moth to a flame.

Fortunately, by the next year she was a bit more... biddable easier to bribe and we had the tree up till New Year's Day, which is when I normally take it down.

I don't know what to suggest when there is two of them. Gin maybe? We need holographic trees for this purpose. If we can bring back Tupac then we can do a tree!

We used a room divider when dts where toddlers. We sectioned off a corner of the room for the tree and decorated the divider with fairy lights and tinsel. I know you don't want a cage but it did work and made Christmas far more relaxing than it would have been otherwise.

A playpen really is the simple answer here, despite your aversion.

It's what we used, possibly for two years running (13 month gap), then it wasn't needed again.

They're good as you can see through them, so while they create a barrier, it doesn't ruin the view overly!

I want a beautiful tree my toddler twins won't touch but I won't put it behind a barrier?

Good luck!

What we did was accepted you have to change your expectations of Christmas.

You can:

• put a barrier in front of the tree
• put the tree in a different room
• buy a different type of tree or do without
• decorate above toddler arm height

Or you can:

• accept the tree being pulled over/touched
• put the toddlers in the play pen instead

My daughter was 18m last Xmas and she didn't go anywhere near the tree. I'm more concerned this year tbh.

When DS was 18m we didn’t put up or BH tree and had a small one up on a table with a few bomb proof decorations. He was better at 2.5 but still no glass decorations.

My DTs are three. Also very free range. The last two Christmasses the poor tree has only had decorations of its top half. Presents aren’t put out until 8pm on Christmas Eve. The twins are nearly four so I have high hopes for having a prettier tree this year.

Neither DS has yet to destroy my tree other then taking the odd toy bauble off to look at or hiding under the gap at the bottom.. Youngest is 2.5 but hopefully remembers from last year not to touch.

I havnt done anything special just said no and by some miracle they listened.

Tell them the elves are watching

When DC was 14m and a new, unsteady walker, we had a small table top tree covered in fairy lights and wooden/scandi decs.

Heavy heavy pot and tree roped to the wall as others have said. And no precious ornaments on the lower branches. Always. Cat proof, own child proof, visiting children proof.

Then, in various years,

A teeny tree on a shelf in the kitchen completely unreachable with the most precious baubles on it.

Tree made less accessible by having chairs in front of it.

A physical barrier. I know you don’t want to cage it but you can make the barrier very toddler friendly with lovely woollen pom-poms and bunting, bits of tinsel and Christmas bells, fairy lights etc.; that way you can also put any lit up Christmas houses or other pretty but breakable Christmas scene type stuff under the tree and it can be watched through the bars. Position it right and you can lift it out of the way after they’re in bed if you’re desperate to let the tree roam the house but in my experience they’re usually happy to stay crated. Can also let older children loose with streamers and tinsel to weave through the bars and end up with something not exactly tasteful but certainly sparkly and festive!

An alternative toddler friendly tree somewhere else - we’ve had a felt one or paper one on a wall, with decorations which can be stuck on or coloured in or generally fiddled with. We have a magnetic one which is officially an advent calendar but which gets put out and played with alongside the tree.

It’s a real tree here every year, and fist full of pine needles is a pretty good deterrent for most children. They’ll still twiddle, but gently.

I’m liking the idea of an outdoor tree on the patio. Not that we have a patio. But still.

If you normally have loads of trees and are having to drop to one, a friend puts trees in her children’s bedrooms each year - if your 2 year olds are unwelcome in sibling rooms that might be an option?

We used fishing line and screwed into the wall so no chance of pulling it down for the first few years. From 3 years old they had their own small artifcial pre lit tree with homemade unbreakable decorations that they spent many hours redecorating and looked a shocking mess but at least they left the main one alone.

We moved the sofa to section off a corner of the room and had a smaller tree on a table behind it. Also tied the tree to the curtain rails. And no glass baubles that year. Ds could climb onto the sofa but not reach the tree from it.

Also had some nativity building blocks nearby (from lanke kade) that i pretended he wasn't supposed to touch which were a good decoy.

He would take ALL the baubles and tinsel off if unsupervised, despite usually being a very biddable child. Tree just seems to be like catnip! He had been playing a lot with Xmas devs and tree branches at nursery which while lovely didn't help.

My tried and tested technique that has worked so far with both cats and toddlers is to duck tape the tree to the floor to avoid it being pulled over, use a wicker tree skirt to disguise tape and prevent underneath access.

Use green gardening wire to tie baubles to tree - its fiddly to put up, but it means they can't be pulled off very easily. Works best with the type of bauble which don't have the wire prongs on, as otherwise the bauble can be separated from it tie. Lights go for lots but push them in more, or again use wire to secure any loose hanging strings of lights.

We put our tree in a corner between sofa and wall, and fastened it to the wall so it couldn’t be pulled over - a barrier would have been pointless, unless 6ft tall, since he’d just move heaven and earth to get over it!

Only fabric/wooden/unbreakable plastic decorations, and I even gave DS2 his own little tree he could do whatever he wanted with to distract him from the big one. In fact they both still have their own tree in their rooms that they get to decorate.

When each of ours were little we bought a smaller tree and put it on top of a chest of drawers. Kids still loved it but it was safe.

You need multiple trees. Your tree they don’t touch and their own tree they can do whatever they want with.

We just don’t put ours up now until a few days before Xmas Eve. Dd is about 2 be two so hopefully this will be the last year we have to do that

We had a small tree up on the sideboard when DDs were small. It would have been relentless otherwise!

Tree in the playpen when I had 2 toddlers- sorry.

It's only for a year or two, until they understand 'no' and can resist temptation a bit better!

At that age I was living in a house that had curtain hooks so I secured the tree by tying it with garden twine to the hook so it couldn't be pulled over and then just used soft and light decorations. I realise nit everyone has curtain hooks but is your tree going to be near a door or a window that you could tie it to? Maybe put lights around the ceiling rather than on the tree so you can still have that lovely glow but the kids can't reach them.

I just put up the tree as normal and managed it as appropriate. I didn't mind them looking at the decorations, taking the lower ones off for a closer look, spinning the baubles etc and sat with them sometimes for just that purpose. In fact, I probably encouraged them as our tree is a mishmash of whimsy so they loved looking for the sleeping mice and festive sloth and so on. They've grown up loving the tree and decorating it is their favourite bit of advent. Otherwise, I suppose I managed it the same as anything else. They weren't allowed to climb it or pull it over in the same way they weren't allowed to open the oven or scale a bookcase. In fact that's probably a good analogy. Yes you can take a book from the shelf, take all the books off a shelf, enjoy them, look at them, explore. No you can't rip them up or scale the bookcase.

I admit my Granny's Victorian baubles weren't on the tree when they were younger so I did mitigate risk but otherwise, I suppose I tried to teach them what they could and couldn't do with the tree and had to supervise as far as possible.

All the above obviously comes with the caveat that actually, it's pot luck and if you have a child who is determined to climb the tree or shred the decorations, you do need a plan b! I'm not naive enough to think that the average toddler can automatically be expected to resist their natural urges.

I don't remember any real problem when mine were toddlers, they did pull things off but we put any special decorations at the top where they couldn't reach and just picked up the rest as and when I could be bothered. It wasn't a picture perfect tree by Christmas day but happy to compromise. I guess all kids are different though, so good luck! Would they really be trying to climb it? I think the lights and pretty things were enough of a distraction / fascination and it didn't occur to them to pull on the branches or anything.

@Caspianberg

I’m going for a large real tree as usual, with 18 month. He’s a nightmare climber and Houdini also. My plan is: 1) Live tree in bucket, heavier then 2) tied tree to off radiator behind it. Can’t be dangerously pulled over then. Did same last year for our cats! 3) non breakable decorations on it.

We shall see. Worse case it will get moved into garden and viewed through door as mentioned above

We used to have huge real trees, in a big bucket of wet gravel, but always tied to a hook in the wall behind. Not because of toddlers, but just in case….

We just had two small trees on side tables that couldn't be reached.

DD, my delightful and passive, biddable child pulled the big tree on top her the first year we had one with children, egged on by ds. They were about 2.5 and 6. They both remember being sent to bed at 5pm!