Christmas tree and cats

[Ikeameatballs]

This is our first Christmas as cat owners, we’ve two lovely cats that will be 9 months at Christmas. I’ve now started to consider how they’ll respond to a Christmas tree, is it inevitable that they’ll try to pull off the baubles and climb the tree??

I would imagine the answer to your question is yes
We’ve got a cat that will be 9 months old at Christmas. We’re not having a tree this year

is it inevitable that they’ll try to pull off the baubles and climb the tree??

In my experience, yes,

Mine didn't really bother with the tree but hid under it and slept under it too. We just have an artificial one. They were age 1 the first time we had the tree

This Ian the worst that we got.
Our girl likes to play with the baubles and has knocked them off and chased them around the room but never pulled or climbed the tree.

My toddler, on the other hand......

Is not Ian. I do t know what he’s got to do with it

Yes.

We got an artificial tree as we thought the cat wouldn't be bothered if it wasn't a real tree. We were wrong. She is very happy to climb the artificial tree.

Yelling at the cat to get out of the tree simply becomes a new Christmas tradition.

Cats love Christmas.

Both mine chilling under the tree

Last year I put the tree up without decorating it and left it like that for a week. Shooed the cat away every time it went near until he learnt to leave it alone and then decorated it. Worked well for me but this year I have another who is completely batshit crazy so I’m not that hopeful of success

These are my two arseholes gorgeous cats

I have a couple of cup hooks in the wall behind where we put our tree, and I tie it to them with a bit of twine to stop our 7 year old quite large lump of a cat, who thinks he's still a little tiny thing, from toppling it over when he attempts to climb it. Every year.

@Lindy2 we have the same tradition. "Get out of the tree!!!!"
"No! LEAVE THE TREE ALONE!!!!"

Very comically, one year we had a real tree which wasn't the most stable of trees. On Christmas morning, one of the DSs ripped open a present quickly, frightened the cat, cat ran up the tree, tree toppled, I dropped my mug of coffee on the floor, grabbed the tree and ended up with a million pine needles in my hands and face. DS sat underneath just pissing himself laughing.

Yes... I'm afraid to say they will love the tree!
If it's not climbing it, then the baubles with get their attention... don't put chocolates on it...

Even the feral failed feral stable cats love a tree. They were still feral at the time but we came up in the morning and every single bauble had been removed and was scattered across the yard with two sets of eyes peeping out of corners looking guilty
My cat just does a face of "seen one tree, seen them all human"

Ok, it might not be inevitable but seems highly likely!

Last year our two kittens were 8 months old and the tree wasn’t even properly assembled and they were in in fighting each other! I put it in the playroom and shut the doors and kept them out. This year I have another 8 month old kitten who is crazier than those two, chances of the tree surviving - zero!

Tree, tinsel, baubles - cats love it all

My 2 ignored the tree for their first 2 christmases. Couldn't believe it! Felt inwardly smug lol. However they must have read my mind and thought, "We'll teach her!" and last christmas started to eat the (artificial) tree. I googled the effect this would have (the results ranged from no effects to death) resulting in me taking the bottom 3 layers of branches off. The kids complained, my eldest threatened to leave home and the front room felt bare & un-Christmassy. Don't know what to do this year?! 🙆🏼‍♀️🤷‍♀️

Mine is too lazy to do much damage to the tree, but the bag it comes out of is very exciting. I did once come home mid-January to find her playing with a bauble though. Not one of my baubles either...

We’ve had our cat for 7 years. He’s far too lazy to go for the tree. We do avoid baubles at the very bottom as the will get swatted but anything else is fine. We always do a real tree too. I love @TwatCat’s pictures so much that I actually wish my guy was that adventurous!

Adventurous is certainly one word to describe them. I have away of keeping the baubles on an artificial tree... I bend the ends of the branches over the bauble loops to stop them from being batted off. It doesn't stop them from climbing the tree and flattening the branches though. But at least the baubles (mostly) stay on.

Ours have never been fussed apart from pawing at the odd bauble . They're engrossed in all the packaging when we unpack the decorations each year though, that's their true Christmas Day!

We get nice dense real trees which the cats leave alone and sacrificial baubles on the bottom.

The person who invents a way of making an Xmas tree give a teeny-tiny electrical shock to inquisitive paws will be a millionaire!

CallistoCat has never been overly bothered by the tree - he just likes to hide under it. This year we also have CallistoKitten. She's ten weeks old (and batshit bloody crazy) so I think the tree is doomed...

Our two came to us in May so first Christmas here too.

We have a faux pre-lit .
I'm planning putting some extra lights on, no baubles .
And static lights .
Our boy chases the red laser dot light , he'd have a party with flashing lights