Cat V Xmas Tree

[loopdeloop1654]

We will have a 5 month old kitten at Xmas. Do these tree tunnels work? Or do they attract the cat to the tree even more? My beloved quirky bauble collection will have to wait in the box this year 😂

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0FPL8NS6C/ref=sw_img_1?smid=&psc=1

I’m interested too. Ours will be 8 months old but she’s already up and down the curtains

Our cats have just turned 2, when we got them as kittens we picked them up at the end of Nov. They liked to go under the tree but never up it. Last year they were fond of trying to bat particularly dangling baubles but generally left the trees alone.
The main issue we had was them jumping up to pull off snowflake window stickers from the patio doors. Putting them only on the upper half of the window just made it more of a game!
We may leave them off this year!!

You might be surprised. Our boy will be four in January and is a total (orange) hoodlum - he’s completely unbothered by the tree other than mild intrigue at it when it first goes up. I was astonished at him. On the other hand our previous girl was generally not interested in playing with toys, and an all round good girl, but she could not be trusted with the tree at all. The Christmas of 2020 we had a fake tree so it could go up early in the midst of all the misery, and I swear she had that thing down more than it was up!

Tax - One of my favourite photos of our girl plotting destruction, and Louie sat at the window with the tree behind him last year looking bemused by it.

I am into cat 4 now.
Cat 1 was around 2.5 at our first Christmas and never bothered with the tree at all.
Cat 2 again was around 2.5 at her first Christmas with us, she was climbing the tree (artificial) before DH had assembled it. Basically she spent the 4 weeks it was up in the tree. When we left her alone in the house we shut her out of the lounge. As she wasn’t very big she never managed to topple it over.
Cats 3&4 came next and were around 6 months at Christmas, whilst they were fascinated by the tree they didn’t really climb it. Although any baubles are considered theirs and we often find that the nicely decorated tree is naked at the bottom and over filled at the top as each time we put a bauble back in it goes higher up the tree.
We only have cat 4 now and as a mature lady she will just sleep under the tree.

Tips from over the years.
Put heirloom, glass and delicate decorations up high
Don’t Use tinsel or the hanging strands
No chocolates on the tree, my DC got the blame when they disappeared one Christmas, until I found them under the sofa
Try to limit access to the trunk, I found that if they can’t start to climb from the bottom then they don’t. I tend to use a wicker tree skirt and fake presents.

OP, once we had cats we had to put the Christmas tree on a table. It wasn’t just that they patted the lower baubles, they also thought I had put it there as a delightful alternative to their litter tray….

Here's my kiki few years ago also used to lay on the floor and twirl the lower baubles around.
( sadly passed Sept 2025)
Other two never went near the tree at all. Only one cat left now.

Haribo, aged 7 has never had the pleasure or awe of a Christmas tree as I sold mine 15 years ago after a exasperating time with Barnaby and Troy. I dislike decorating Christmas trees anyway so was relieved I had an excuse for being a Grinch.

My cat is the reason I can only have fridge magnets on the top half of the fridge otherwise they get pulled off and batted around the floor until they go under the fridge never to be seen again.

We had two three month old kittens last Christmas and they were terrors with the tree. Constantly climbing it and swinging it. We had to weigh it down and remove the lights as one got stuck in it. Thank god someone was in to see it and rescue them straight away. So do watch them carefully at first as we needed to make quite a lot of changes for safety.