Toddlers and christmas tree/decorations - is toddler-proofing a complete fantasy?

[FeelingLucky]

DD wasn't mobile last christmas, so not an issue.
This year, she'll be 19 months and wondering what we're going to do about decorations.

We have a small (2ft) plastic tree, tinsels, baubles and fairy lights. I can just see DD pulling the whole lot down once my back is turned but don;t want to consider a christmas without decorations.
What d'y'all think? And what do you do?

Also - presents: we normally put them under the tree, but this year they could be in danger of being ripped up well before christmas day!

we made sure tree decorations were pull off able without pulling the tree down, it was fine. We also gave him his own tiny tree wtih some tinsel and baubles to play with.

I have never risked putting presents under the tree - far too much temptation. I hide them till he's gone to bed on xmas eve.

Do you have a playpen?
Put small table inside playpen with tree on top. Presents round bottom of table, insede pen. Voila.

inside, even.

Presents under the tree!

You need to put it up high. With a 2ft tree this should be straightforward

I tied our 5ft one to the radiator with a toy tie last year and taped the bottom to a small table with parcel tape. All grabbable decorations were unbreakable.

I wonder if ive been smiled upon or whether im scarey we always have a huge tree loads of sparkly decs and gifts under and neither my own 3 children nor any of the many many other children over the years have EVER touched it - i have never done fireguards,safety gates or plug covers either.

Do you reckon im gonna suffer in years to come with grandchildren.....

My ds1 hasn't touched the tree much at all - 'no, don't touch' said a couple of times each year has done it. Ds2 wasn't mobile last year so it remains to be see whether he will be as biddable - I suspect not!

Presents - Put them under the tree on Christmas eve before bed. we did this as kids and it is a loely tradition. So exciting for eeryone to bring the patrcles out of hiding places.

Tree - A big real one is best. pricklier for a start

Decorations - does it really matter if she takes them off all the time? We usually end up with a tree that is naked from three-foot down (hence needing a really big tree)

sorry to be a killjoy but be really careful with baubles - friends ended up in a & e on christmas day after crawling baby got hold of and bit into a bauble, it shattered and cut her mouth quite badly. even some kinds of plastic ones can break. much as i love it we're not bothering with tree this year - curious toddler ds and boisterous dog equals reciple for chaos

We've always had a big tree. My only concession was to leave off any breakable or precious decorations until last year when my youngest was nearly 4.
I would hang some of the prettiest baubles from the curtain poles with lengths of ribbon.
DC help decorate the tree too and that makes them take care of it.

Aaahh, your tree looks gorgeous, PregnantHedgeWitch.

Think we're going to buy some cardboard decorations as Woodstock3's story has sent shivers down my spine. And we're going to put out one or two 'test' pressies under the tree and see if they get destroyed - if they don't we'll put them all under the tree.
Fingers crossed, DD will be like DCs of sparklestickchick

Thanks for all your suggestions everyone

Would struggle to get my tree on a table I reckon as it is nearly 7 foot!

I was just thinking of putting the unharmful decorations - cloth ones etc at the bottom and the baubles etc near the top?

This is the first year my ds is mobile too so ask me in a few weeks and I may be saying that I got rid of the tree as it was just easier!

I used a fireguard until last year (dd2 is now 7) as she used to climb the tree without one

DS was 17 months and mobile last Christmas. We put up tree as normal (real one in a pot), decorated with tinsel, plastic baubles, fairy lights, assorted oddments. He was fascinated by it, and a few things got pulled off, but otherwise fine.

Only thing was we made sure he didn't get left alone with it when the lights were on, as they have a tendency to get a bit hot. Oh and we always put our presents out after tea on Christmas Eve when I was a child, so have carried on this tradition (altho I think DH does it because he's worried about burglars...)

We had a real tree last year because I always had a very big 8ft+ real tree and glass baubles as I child with my parents doing the 'look dont touch'. Telling us how special the glass baubles on the tree were as they had been in the family for years and letting me and my sister choose a new one every year made them special to us so we did not touch them.

My little boy is 18 months this christmas and I want him to learn the same sort of respect for the christmas tree that I had so to make it special to him this year we are going to make a tree.

I have made a small test tree from two sheets of cardbord cut into basic tree shape and sloted together. The plan is to make a bigger one and paint it together, making it special to him too. For baubles Im planning on useing pom-poms and lots of glitter.

It will be a messy christmas of paint, glue and glitter but I think if you make the tree special to them they should have no reason to break it and if any accients do happen its only cardbroad. (nothing a bit of tape cant fix)

My dd who was (slowly doing the maths) 19m last Christmas, was quite good about listening to 'don't touch' early on - but got progressively more fascinated by the baubles and couldn't resist by the end of the roughly two weeks it was up.
If I'd known about the scary bauble thing I'd've been more careful I suppose, but she was mostly past the put things in mouth stage by then.