Xmas tree + crawler - what to do?

[LaTristesse]

DS will be 9mo at start of December, and is crawling, pulling himself up etc. What on earth do you do about a Xmas tree? We can't not have one - it's his first Xmas!

Don't have one.

Or put it in the playpen.

Fake tree - it's the only answer. Buy a decent one and it will last for years. Oh, and don't decorate the first couple of feet. HTH!

Playpen

Table much taller than child with no dangling bits

Get a shorter one, and put it on a table.

Oh and I wouldn't worry about it being his first Christmas - he won't remember a thing about it. My two are five and nearly 4 and this is the first year we're having one.

I know he won't, but we will - I'm already more excited about Christmas than I have been in years!

All 3 of mine were clearly told not to touch and I never had any trouble with my christmas trees

Ours went in the playpen

I bet you won't.

I don't remember anything much about either 1st Xmas with my DC. It's all a bit of a blur.

but I'm probably just being a bit of a curmudgeon. Please ignore me.

We used to obscure one side with furniture and then lay boobies traps (a line of bells on a string) on the other. Luckily both mine were too fascinated with the bells to get much further. The cat of course topples the tree on an annual basis

I am with some of the others. Ours goes in a playpen.

Boobie traps - love it!

Thanks for your replies everyone.

We had a small one on top of a high cupboard for a few years.

One year my parents arrived to visit and eldest (almost three) greeted them with the words "Oh what a lovely Christmas tree! Dooooooooooooooooooon't touch!" so something had sunk in!

Never been a problem with either of ours, they just got used to it being there (although the baubles gradually made their way up the tree!). You just have to place the tree somewhere you would not leave him unsupervised to play, eg ours last year when dd was 1 went in the dining room where the fire is so not somewhere I leave the dcs on their own.

We didn't have one till DD was 3.

I thought we were going to get one when she was 2 but somehow we came home with a goldfish tank instead. Never have worked out how/why DH pulled that stunt.

Anyhow, DD did not miss having tree at all.

We usually have a baby or two (foster carers) at Christmas and we learned long ago it's not worth the hassle having a big tree.

We opted for two fibre optic little ones, around 2ft 6ins - 3ft tall and we stand them at opposite sides of the living room on top of coffee/side tables.

Works for us

i honestly cant believe that some people done without a tree because they have a lo!

we have always had a tree,ds was 1 last december,he LOVED tree and lights.never had any problems,had to tell him no,the same as with lots of things.

Never had a problem - just told them not to touch, and put the more precious baubles higher up, and soft/card/plastic ones lower down. Other people use a playpen.

We tied ours down! And put crappy ornaents on the bottom branches.

Plastic tree (5ft) on top of small ish table with cheap ornaments at the bottom. That way if they are pulled off and broken it,s not a problem. We happily did that for several years. Getting a real tree this year with our proper ornaments dd now 4. :o

We have always had a 6ft real tree in the corner of the lounge. Can honestly say it has never been a problem. I too was worried the first year, but we just put glass ornament out of reach and in reality after the first day bit DS weren't that interested.

Enjoy your first Christmas it is fab!

With my first DC's first chiristmas I only had decorations on the tree that I had made myself from dough. (Too poor for real decs anyway.), and corn dolly type ones. (She was 9 months and walking at christmas.)

Look really good, actualy.

I'm a bit worried this year as I'll have another 9mo, but we're dicouraging movement. (Not in a cruel way you understand.)

I have a 9mo DD too and she's pulling up too. Think we're going to go with the 'No' approach and put an nice baubles higher up the tree.
Me and DP are normally quite Scrooge-like at Xmas but we're super excited for this year, even though DD won't be one bit fazed by any of it.

Glad it's not just me that's excited; I was beginning to think I was overreacting!

when big ones were little, i had the rule that the tree went up when daddy finished work for christmas- even if that meant christmas eve.

when we got our own house (rather than rented
i worked out the perfect spot for the tree and put a hook in the ceiling and attached the tree to that- tree was ceiling height give or take and used scoubidoo string or similar,

never had a problem since!