How to keep 1 year old away from the Christmas tree

[Jellybabie3]

No its not up yet but seeing how he obsesses over the tv speakers we're doomed.....

Advice please

I put ours up on a small table with the baby den round it. In later years, I tied it to the radiator and didn't leave them alone with it.

Put the tree in a playpen

My parents had a small one on a table when I was little. I have friends that just didn't bother for the first Christmas with a mobile baby, they had other decorations and realised the baby didn't understand it anyway.

Hang from ceiling!!
Or just put on a table

Ah OK so it looks like we need to buy a playpen....

It's impossible!

When ds was this age I decorated the house in Christmas themed balloons, there's only the two of us at home and it wasn't worth the hassle of constantly dragging him off it.

You’re going to buy a playpen for a christmas tree? Surely you just need to accept that for one year you have a small one on a table out of reach?

We just had a small one on a table last year when DD was 14 months old. This year the big one is coming back out!

I feel your pain Op. And what do you do when you've a child old enough to know about Christmas trees and Santa leaving presents under them but also have a destructive baby/toddler??

Our tree is too big for a playpen and ds2 will just pull the playpen yanking the lights on the tree anyway if we do that. Ds1 would be very disappointed to see presents under a little 2 ft tree sitting on the kitchen table!

I worried about this as my son meddled with and broke absolutely everything and he never bothered with it...you may be surprised

We had a smaller tree on a table

I'm getting a smaller potted one this year that I'm going to put on the sideboard. I'm not prepared to buy a play pen to imprison a tree! I've also bought one of those felt trees from hobbycraft that he can mess around with to his heart's content.

Just trying to think back but I'm not sure that we did anything different. Maybe we had the only DC not interested in Christmas trees.

Yeah, we already had the baby den thing.

TBH, none of them were interested (and it wasn't a case of them being unadventurous, perfect children!). I think DD had an unwrapping session once but it was only XH's gift so I didn't care! I hadn't bothered with the baby den for her.

When mine were wee, they never bothered with the tree really. They were quite taken by the cats sat amongst the branches though. 😕

Have you seen the toddler friendly Xmas tree? It's like fuzzy felt on a green cone. Maybe try that with a few stern 'this is yours, do not touch that one'??

Secure the tree so that it won’t topple.

Only decorate the parts of the tree he can’t reach.

put random crappy decorations at the bottom that you don’t mind getting broken.

I never even thought about it
Put the tree up
Told them No

It worked

Encourage play with the tree as soon as it's out. Get them involved decorating. Encourage messing about with it. Rustling, yanking, tickling the tinsel. Within an hour the tree will be boring as a blank wall

Hmm OK. Well I dont want a small one on a table (I'd have to buy one for starters and our usual tree is 6ft -artificial).

We could get a pen but again thats £ but atleast it may be used for something else albeit our living room isnt huge.

Think we might have to go for it and see first if others think their DC wasnt bothered

Wish me luck

Good luck! Our eldest (now 4) wasn't at all interested so you might be lucky. His younger brother (almost 13 months) on the other hand is already half boy half hamster and I really don't want him eating the decorations or tree so that's why I'm going with the little one! We have never put presents around the tree until Christmas Eve anyway so that wasn't a consideration for us.

small one on a table. It really isn't difficult.

Or, secure the tree and make sure no small parts in reach and let them play. Christmas time is meant to be fun!

We tied the tree to a hook behind it so it couldn't be pulled over. Tuck the lights well in so they can't be grabbed. Don't use breakable baubles. Say no a lot!
Also, we never never never put gifts under the tree until Christmas Eve. They're all safely hidden away from prying eyes.