Babies and Christmas trees

[Celia1978]

Probably being a bit previous with a Christmas-related question but M&S have just released their Christmas ad, so if it's good enough for them...

DD will be 9 and a half months at Christmas - she's already very mobile (crawling, pulling up, creeping along furniture). HV thinks she'll be walking by 9 months though who knows. Either way she'll be able to get around.

We're having the whole family to ours for Christmas for the first time and obviously I'd like to have a tree but DD is VERY curious and into everything, always pulling at/chewing on/investigating something (usually something she shouldn't be), and is still to young to understand 'no' or 'don't touch that'! Am I just inviting disaster having a tree that she could potentially pull over on herself in the room (we do have a pretty hefty tree stand, I should say), or will I just have to spend a couple of weeks being extra vigilant (or pulling pine needles out of her mouth every 10 minutes)?

What have you done in previous years? Thanks!

I didn't bother with DD1 (11 months at Xmas just cruising, understood a lot including no and never put anything in her mouth), but we couldn't deprived DD1 (almost 6 yo) when DD2 was 10 month and walking exploring with her mouth all the time so we did have a tree then. Not as bad as we thought but we put the tree on really close to Xmas (the week end before) and it is down a few days after.
Yes she did pull it down several time (unbreakable bobbles from IKEA), never suck on the pine needles more than once (it is very bitter), bobbles on the other hand...
She also ate rudolf's carrot leftover..

I got so fed up of removing my dcs from the tree that I had a large poster of one instead while they were small!

My son was 13 months last christmas but not very mobile. We had a small tree on a table. He could gaze at the sparkly lights but not reach anything.

I've been told that this year we can't have presents under the tree as he's of an age when he'll open them all!

christmases are changing!!!
k

Asda do really reasonable trees, we got one for 75p when DS was six months. It was just a small one but it worked!

DS will be 6 1/2 months by Christmas. I was planning on having a tree but wondering if he'll be crawling by then and it might be a really bad idea?

I think you're prob ok until. 7/8/9 months? When I had a crawler I always got mid height trees and out them on the sideboard. Last year we had kitten who were worse tbh so I just tried to keep the livin room doors closed.

I think you should be ok. I thought my daughter was going to be a nightmare (she touches absolutely everything and still does even though she is nearly 3!!). To be honest the cats were worse than her, I used to come home from work to find them swinging off it, and I had to put the decorations back on everyday!!

A smaller one up on a table is what is go for.

Our tree was in the hallway. When Ds was 1 y 4m and into everything we just chaperoned him in the hall. My living room was gated & I have a latch on kitchen door which helped.

He loved it. Yes we got a bit of him removing ornaments. I had really cute knitted ones & no glass.

I love our Christmas tree - normally between 10-12ft with lots of twinkly lights but this year DD will be 19 months so thought we may have to be without a tree for a year or so...
However had a bit of a brainwave and thought we could use our playpen (as it's now really just a huge toy store ) and perhaps trim the lower branches. Really hoping this might work? Anyone tried it?

I think it's time to revive 'Christmas and baby' memories. :)

Play pen around the tree.

I put a fire guard around the tree for ds's 1st xmas - he was 10months. DD was 6 weeks old her 1st xmas. and I really can't remember after that but have always had a tree and no problems. I've put pressies under it but only for other people and not for them and not had a problem there either.

Dc 1&2 were 11m and 7m for their first Christmases and were both fine at those ages however when dc1 was 23m the tree was not healthy looking lol
Dd will be nearly 9months at Christmas, she can't crawl yet and I don't think she will before then
We will have a tree and am sure it'll be fine

Our DS is 10 months so we bought a small artificial Christmas tree from tescos for £5. www.tesco.com/betadirect/tesco-3ft-green-christmas-tree/755-8099.prd?pageLevel=&skuId=755-8099
We'll have it on a table out of reach, they also sold mini decorations for not much. Bargain

We put ours in the playpen & avoided glass decorations for a couple of years (DDs close together in age so had a few 'curious' years to deal with). I seem to recall one year tying the top of it to the curtain rail too in case it was pulled over (it was out of the playpen at this point).