advice pls - Kittens and Christmas Trees

[xkcdknowsmybrain]

our 2 kittens will be 6 months old in December.

before we got them we discussed Christmas Trees and thought we would just get a small potted table top tree to keep things minimal.

now we have the kittens I don't think this will work. Also I appear to have volunteered to host the family for Christmas so add top avoid leaving the kittens alone for too long, and I don't think the various aunties and grandparents will be satisfied with a little potted tree anyway.

so any experience or tips to share? is it going to be an unmitigated disaster whatever we do?

I was thinking if we got a fairly sturdy tree, not too large but robust enough to not be destroyed assuming that they would be climbing it no matter what we do, and used only plastic ornaments, would that be ok?

what H&S issues do we need to know? are Christmas tree needles a particular health hazard/poisonous to cats? are twinkly lights a terrible idea? is there anything I can spray on a tree to make cats less interested in it?

My previous cats only ever batted a few of the lower decorations about so all I had to do was to put the nonbreakable ones on the lowest branches.

My current pair are a bloody nightmare with everything. Last year (when they were 5 months) I only had the top half of my artificial tree with the bottom half only trunk. It looked like a lollipop. This year they are bigger so I have no idea what I'm going to do!

I worried about this too with my two so did loads of other decorations and lights so still very festive. We all went to my mums for the week and I obviously couldn’t tell her not to have a tree but there was nothing to worry about, they had the odd play with low hanging fruit but nothing more. Really was a non issue. My cats are British blue just so you know and can judge breeds as all are different. They won’t go up the tree as it will be too bushy/prickly and puts them off

if you Google real Christmas trees you will see they are potentially poisonous to cats, and also the water they sit in can be.
Because of this , we got an artificial one last year .
The cat still chewed on it, so I looked at deterrent for that , it was suggested peppermint oil . So put peppermint on said tree. The bloody cat carried on chewing the tree ! THEN - found out peppermint is toxic , so off with all the baubles and had to wash the tree ! ! 😂😂 hoping for a relaxing Christmas this year

A lot of plants are toxic to cats, their more interested in the baubles though.

If you get some fishing line you can tie the tree to a wall so they don’t knock it over when they climb it.

My 2 never really bothered with the tree and used it as a place to hide and sleep under. We have an artificial one too

I put some cheap baubles on the bottom so my cat could knock those about and it kept her entertained enough to not touch the fancy ones up top!

I had cheap polystyrene baubles (from tesco I think) on our tree with kittens - years ago now. They only really attacked the bottom few. We still have baubles with little teeth marks in, they both died some years ago now but I can't get rid!

I have Siamese cats. After a disastrous pre Christmas many years ago when they were kittens, I now accept that it is highly unusual to cats to be bringing in a tree to my lounge.

Always, always wire the trunk to a window sill (two ways if possible) and wire on any precious glass ornaments.

We have had 10 successful Christmas's since that first time. I lost all but one of my very expensive hand made glass ornaments that first year!

Mine ignore the tree. We had a 7 month old kitten last year, he climbed into the bare tree, got told off and never went near it again!

They like sitting under the tree so I wrapped two cardboard boxes in Christmas wrapping paper and left them to it!

Personally I think go without the tree this year .
Your kittens are still babies . They will have a housefull this Christmas , there will be lots of new things .

I think the "wants" of your guests for a tree shouldn't over ride the need to keep your house calm, and avoid a tree disaster .
Have other decorations that they cannot get hold of .

I got my cats this year , they'll be 18 months so I'm hoping my fake prelit with extra static lights , no baubles , nothing under the tree will be ok.

And I thought about this In MAY

My cat had a blast in the tree last year. By new year it looked a very sad state indeed. He’s got a Maine coon kitten friend to join him this year 😱😂
I’m contemplating attaching cat toys only to the thing this year. No fairy lights. I’m worried about entanglement, chewing off decs and getting hurt.

There’s a brilliant video of a cat attacking its owners from the depths of the Christmas tree on YouTube.

I ended up with a cheapy pop up tree last year when dcat was tiny. She kept climbing in the proper one and flicking all the baubles on the floor.
This year she's a bit too big to climb in and I have a smaller tree placed on a little table. Have used wires to fix non breakable decorations . She's tried to shake them off but she is too heavy to climb in and get a proper grip 😁.
No amount of orange essential oil or water spray detected her last year so I'd give up until she's bigger.

First year we had Leroy we didn't bother with a tree because he turned out to be a nutter. Second year we risked it with limited decorations and he completely ignored it. Last year we went for it... and the furry bastard wouldn't leave the bloody thing alone 🤦🏼‍♀️.

Just tie everything on really tightly and don't leave the lights plugged in.

Good luck.

If you've got a plastic one, it might be a case of trying it. We gave up with our first two and took it down before Christmas. Last Xmas was our first year with our two new boys, Ollie couldn't resist batting it, but it stayed up.

Ours will be 5 months. If i only had Gilbert I would risk a tree. He doesn't seen to be a climber and is pretty chill. However, Freda on the other hand - aka Tiny Evil would wreck a tree. She climbs everything and seems to thoroughly enjoy doing everything that's bad.

Surely part of the fun of kittens is them seeing a tree for the first time?.

I can't say that seeing my kittens with a Christmas tree was any fun at all for me.