First Christmas with cats - what to do about the tree?

[Lizardlegs]

Hello!

We have two lovely indoor only Maine coon sisters who will be just over one year old this Christmas. Normally we have a (cough - artificial - cough) tree up with lots of garlands and ornaments, but I'm worried that our girls would spend all day pouncing on the tree and chewing things that they shouldn't. What do others do with their Christmas trees and cats? I remember my childhood cat going wild for the ornaments too.

Advice very welcome!

LizzyLegs

Glass ornaments or shatterproof?

Ours couldn't care less about the tree except possibly as a location for a cheeky wee behind because they couldn't be bothered with the litter tray. I don't put tinsel or anything which might be a choking hazard on the tree but they mainly just see it as an annoying obstacle to walk around.

For our kittens first Christmas we used a real tree and decorated with only natural materials - you can get lovely wood and wicker baubles, plus slices of dried oranges tied up with ribbon. Cats don't really like the smell of orange so it put them off a bit, and it adds a bit of colour. We chose a tree with very densely packed branches so they couldn't get inside it. Yes a few of the baubles were claimed as prey but no harm was done.

I'm sorry

They look like they can't wait to get up and down it

@gindreams

I'm sorry

They look like they can't wait to get up and down it

Ha ha this is what I'm afraid of!!! 🤣🤣🤣

Just put the tree up and enjoy (and share!) the chaos

Speaking from experience, only use relatively short lengths of tinsel, don't hang any baubles lower than about 2 feet unless you want to find them in random places all over the house, and avoid chocolate decorations as well. We have an open-plan lounge with a staircase and this year I will be attaching the tree to the banisters...

We're wondering this too.
We've had our cat since May and she'll be 18 months in December and currently chases and attacks anything, whether it moves or not.
We were only discussing this a few days ago.
I'm going to put ours up and see how it goes. It could be interesting.

We had our first Xmas with a cat last year. I was also worried about the tree, imagining it would be scaled within minutes. In fact he barely looked at it - though didn’t risk any especially low hanging baubles. Also, the cat is barred from the living room at night, so I don’t know if the tree would have remained unscathed if he had 24 hour unsupervised access to it.

I think having a natural one helps, as I think they’re not keen on the smell…

Definitely a natural tree with the prickliest needles you can find. All shatter proof plastic or natural decorations.
Artificial trees are a bad idea, even our Middle Aged cat will climb them.

Our older cat would just sit under it from when he was a kitten. However I imagine our 8 month old will find his place along with the star on top of it this year. He's much livelier and more curious than our other boy was at his age.

My cat loved swiping the baubles! I agree with someone else, don't hang those too low

Duck tape tree to floor to avoid it toppling over. Use a big wicker tree skirt to make it difficult to get underneath. Double secure baubles on with green gardening wire. Avoid big draping loops of beads/tinsel etc. Avoid bird shaped and feather decorations.

My two cats have never managed to knock or pull anything of my tree in 9 years. (Or my toddler for that matter!)

I've got 6 cats, and they mostly ignore the tree. Apart from the odd low hanging bauble giving the occasional 5 minutes of amusement, they really don't care about the tree at all.

They’re lovely

2019- 9 month old kitten: had to be closely monitored and was very attracted to the fairly lights, in particular. Did get into the tree a few times to climb it, but then lost interest pretty quickly.

2020- 1yr 9mth old teenager: no interest whatsoever. May have given a low-hanging bauble an occasional bat of her paw, but largely disinterested. Did like lying under the tree and looking up, but otherwise didn’t interact at all.

Oh my they look like proper trouble 😆 Hopefully they will ignore it but you could put a few baubles on the lower branches to be a good sport.

What a pair of beauties! 😻😻

My pair knocked down the tree within a few hours of it being up. And did it again the next day. And the next. Eventually I just kept it laying down and enjoyed its horizontal festiveness. not at all because they actually succeeded in breaking the base and the lights

This year I am putting up a wall tree. I am not convinced it will last the season!

I just keep putting the baubles and tinsel back in, my kitties destroy the tree

I have a Maine coon too, we do have an artificial tree we duck tape to the floor, I tried all sorts to stop her climbing it, I put tin foil and oranges at the base as cats are supposed to dislike this it made no difference. I kept her locked out of the living room at night as the only way I could stop her climbing it was to keep her in sight, we also had to put cable protection on the wires as we caught her trying to chew those. Good news is she stopped after the first two Christmas's.
Beautiful cat's though would not change her, she has the best personality, she looks very much like your dark cat.

I found the only viable option was an artificial tree with affixed decorations.

We had this last year so we hung one of these in our bay window. You can decorate it, we just used felt and wooden decorations. It looked really nice and we might do the same again this year.

None of our cats have ever been to interest in the tree, one avoided the tree after she pricked her nose on it. The rest have not bothered apart from one who'd creep under it and drink the water from the tree stand. I'm wondering if having a real tree makes a difference.

Sorry forgot the link!

www.notonthehighstreet.com/dibor/product/personalised-copper-mistletoe-christmas-tree-ladder?cq_src=google_ads&cq_cmp=1725257932&cq_term=&cq_plac=&cq_net=g&cq_plt=gp&DGMKT=FID__TID_aud-320996244214:pla-343501315876_PID_888839_CRI_343501315876&gclid=Cj0KCQiAsqOMBhDFARIsAFBTN3eeIRSnCNyBWT1mbeGA_lRH2_o5lZ5uJWdWRG-Nr9uFfi0_FlmYI-waArReEALw_wcB

My cat had his snip last year around Christmas, even the cone didn't stop him climbing the tree

Put small ones that don’t smash at the bottom. They’ll suddenly appear in the strangest of places all over the house but at least they keep the cats entertained.