Remind me how you have a Christmas tree with toddlers?

Last year we skipped having a Christmas tree, partly b/c our house was too crowded (we still had the superyard up), and partly b/c I could not imagine how we'd keep the girls from climbing, toppling, or ingesting it. But I remember reading that many of you would never dream of skipping it, and just found some way to make it safe. I really want to have one this year -- advice?

I know it's early, but you know how it is these days -- Halloween leads straight to Christmas!

 

I think I would have been so depressed without a Christmas tree. We would just keep a close eye on the girls. Rarely would they try to cause a potential catastrophy. We would just tell them "NO" over and over again. Honestly, the only Christmas they kept messing with the ornaments was when they were 9 months old. They did unwrap several presents at that age also. But after that first Christmas, it wasn't even an issue.

 

I had a tabletop tree when they were 1 and 2 (mine were born 4 days before Christmas). That way I still had a tree, and they couldn't get to it. When they were 3 they minded well enough to have a proper tree on the floor. HTH!

 

This is the first year we're attempting a tree, unless you count the year they were born, and they were only 10 days old!! :lol: Our family thought we were HORRIBLE, but honestly I could not bear the thought of setting it all up only to have my children climb all over, knock it down, break all the ornaments, etc. Also our house was extremely small and a tree would have taken half of their already small play area away. In hindsight we should have just done a tabletop tree, that is a great idea. I'm still nervous about it, but I'm hoping they won't get too crazy around the tree!

 

Glad you posted this. We had one last year (9m) w/o problem. This year, the boys are into everything.

I am very skeptical, DH thinks it's no big deal....of course he's not the one who's going to be dealing with it 99% of the time!

I just can't imagine Xmas w/o one!

 

I agree, it wouldn't be xmas without the tree. We plan on putting it in our dining room, where the girlies have no access to. I figure there will be times when we can go in there and enjoy it, but it will be off limits when I can't be right there with them.
I love christmas and hunting for the tree!!!!
jena

 

Last year and this year again we will put our Christmas tree in our living room. We have a gate so they can't get in that room. We are hoping next year to be able to put the tree back in family room so we can enjoy it during Christmastime.

 

When our girls were one we had it surrounded by our Super Play Yard. Worked great.

We also tether it to the wall -- but I've done that for a long time anyway because of cats and dogs.

 

Last Christmas, we stayed with relatives for a few days. They put up a tree in the living room and decorated it with antique toys and collectible, porcelain Barbie ornaments :blink: I tried to build a fortress around the tree with the presents and said "no" about a thousand times an hour and it was really stressful. I convinced them to take the tree down the morning after Christmas because without the few seconds of sprint time the present wall allowed...

If we do put one up, it will be decorated with only non-breakables. Perhaps I'll have them make drawings to hang on the tree. If they don't mess with it this year, then next year we'll put the regular stuff up.

 

The Christmas just after they turned 1, we had a little 4ft tree on a coffee table behind their gated play area.

The next year, we put the big tree in the gated area.

The Christmas just after they turned 3 was the first year they actally had access to the tree. I put all non-breakable ornaments on it, and it wasn't really an issue. Last year, we made all of the ornaments. We used salt dough to make ornaments with cookie cutters, and then strung fruit loops on yarn to make garland. It turned out really cute, and I'm thinking we'll do it again this year.

 

My two are almost exactly a year older than yours. Last year was the first year I did a tree and suprisingly they did really well with it. The kids LOVED the tree and got mad at me when I took it down after Christmas (and that was a month after Christmas!). Even now DD, in particular, asks when we'll get a tree again. Last year I put any breakable oranments near the top of the tree and ornaments they could play with at the bottom. Anything that was especially precious I just didn't put on the tree. After the tree was up for a little while, more and more ornaments moved up the tree out of their reach so the tree looked slightly strange. Also, I did have redecorate the bottom of the tree pretty often . But it was worth it. I thought if it got really bad I would fence the tree with our super yard but it never came to that. I didn't put presents under the tree either until the night of Christmas Eve. I didn't think they would get that they had to wait to unwrap the presents.

 

Alden, I used the superyard around the tree!! It kept it all in tact and the mystery alive!

The jury is still out on whether I will have to do it again this year. I am going to attempt to "train" them to stay away, but more likely than not, I'll superyard it again!!

I love love love having my lit Christmas tree every evening!!!

 

WHen DD was 1 & 2 we also did the table top tree... Next year when the Twins are moving about we will have a "fence" around the tree.. Just like on jon and kate + 8!

 

QUOTE(marieber @ Nov 2 2007, 01:16 PM) [snapback]478398[/snapback]
When our girls were one we had it surrounded by our Super Play Yard. Worked great.


We did this the first year. Babies were 11 months old.

Last year when they were 23 months old we didn't do anything and they never really touched it. Might have just been luck though!

This year will do the same as last year and just put it up. I will keep the nice ornaments at the top and the non-breakable ones near the bottom in case they want to touch.

 

This will be my first year with the twins who will be almost 15 months at the end of December. We have a gate that can go around the tree too. I am beginning to wonder if we should get a tabletop tree for this year? We don't have any glass ornments (I never really felt comfortable with it) but I am a huge fan of hallmark ornments collection.

My question is -- should I put the big tree up? or get the tabletree? Honestly, I am not even sure how we will do that because we don't have a living room only a kitchen goes into the dining area part of the kitchen. Any suggestion?

Thanks,
Diana w/Rianna and Justin 13 months (Born: Sept. 30, 2006)

 

We HAVE to have a tree so I think I will dig out the old Superyard, if needed. I am positive they will get into it, especially curious DS.

 

I am always on the lookout for unbreakable ornaments! Like sterling silver ones, etc... Last year, Target had this great 'trim a tree' collection you could get in different color schemes. It came in a tube for about $30 and had tons of different sized balls, sparkly snowflakes, beads, etc... I bought two of those and we decorated the tree with it. Perhaps it wasn't designer, but nothing on it could break! It actually turned out really cute! When my twins were 18 months, we also went with a fake, pre-lit tree. I really, really love a real tree, but they are more prone to tip, and it takes so long to decorate them, that I thought if it got knocked over I would have been irritated! This way, for a few years we had a tree for the kids to decorate, without the hassle of a real tree. It worked well for us! Now I have used the pre-lit tree for a few years, I'm hesitant to go buy a real one - the fake one is SO EASY!!!

 

We didn't have a tree the first year (approx. 9mos) because we were still in our apartment and there just wasn't enough room, not to mention the drama of trying to keep them out of it. Last year we put the tree in the living/dining room, which they are only in 1) to walk to the table, kitchen, or front door or 2) sitting strapped in at the table, so it was safe enough and I didn't have to spend all my time keeping them away from it. I couldn't imagine having one in a room where they spend a lot of time, even this year! When we went to my parents' hous elast year it was pretty stressful keeping them out of the tree all the time.

 

We were wondering about what to do with the tree, too. Then I was watching Jon & Kate Plus 8 the other day & they had a Superyard around their tree, too! I figured, if it works to keep 6 little ones away it should work for my 2.

 

I'm going to get them a mini Christmas tree in their bedroom (they are still in the crib). The Xmas tree will be by the window area where they can't reach (too far). It will only have little lights around the tree (no ornments) yet. They'll get to look at the Xmas tree every night with going to bed but we will have a timer that will go off. We found a solution to our family Christmas tree by moving it into the den area off by the family room. They can't go into the den which is an office area. Whew!

Have a Happy Holiday until the count down!
Diana w/Rianna and Justin (13 months)

 

You could put the superyard around the tree is that works for you.

Or up until the girls were 3 (so last year), we just decorated the top half of the tree which they couldn't reach,

 

I can't NOT have a Christmas tree! When Aaron was 6mos and already mobile and I was pregnant with the twins we decided to go with artificial so we didn't have three little ones knocking needles off trying to eat them. One year we used the superyard around it, but mostly we just decorate with non breakable ornaments on the bottom of the tree. We move them up as they get played with so by Christmas we have a tree with about the top third decorated! I think this year will be better. We also don't put presents out until after all the kids are in bed Christmas eve. That's when we wrap!

 

We kept our tree in the family room since that is the only real living space that we have. The first year (9 months) we just put it on top of a little end table. At that point they were only crawling. The following year, (21 months) they were walking but kind of afraid of it. Of course, me telling them "DON'T TOUCH THE TREE" when they first laid eyes on it may have freaked them out a bit too. But really we just put non-breakable ornaments on the bottom half of the tree, and our expensive Radko collectibles on the top half. It looked funny, but that way we really did not have to worry about them breaking anything.

 

I could never do without a xmas tree either plus we have a 9 yr. old...anyway the first year they were 4 days old, last year we had the super gate around the tree and this year we may do the same if it becomes a problem I don't want to spend the whole day saying no.

 

Well, last year we took the tree down Christmas night, it was all I wanted for Xmas after dealing with the boys being crazy around it for a week or so! I am not a success story, so I don't know how it will go this year!

 

We also used our Superyard for the 1.5 year old Christmas. At 2.5 yrs and older, they could handle the tree without the Superyard. Still, they shouldn't be unsupervised around the tree. On Christmas morning when the girls were 2.5 years old I left the room and came back to the girls sitting on the floor with all the candy canes that used to be on the tree piled between them and they were eating them. It took them about 2 minutes to do that, LOL.

We'll probably be using the Superyard again this year because of Dax.

 

Weve never gated the tree with all 5 children. We make sure the real breakables are up high eventhough some are down low. Also it does take several days of consistant no but it does work. All of my kiddoes have different personalities from mellow to wild and we haven't lost a tree yet lol!

 

They've been really good surprisingly each year (6m, 18m and 2.5y). OUr tree goes in our front room which also happens to be the playroom. One trick was that I put all non-breakable, non-choking hazards at the bottom of the tree. Then, if they did take off an ornament it was no big deal. Last year, they redecorated the tree so many times it was a bit funny!

Someone bought us the Fisher Price Nativity Scene which we put near the tree and told them they could play with. That was a big distraction too. They loved setting it up and taking it down.

Hope that helps!
Tracy

 

Wow, thanks for all the responses! Part of my concern is that we literally have NO extra space, so as someone said, having a tree (especially if it has a superyard around it) is going to significantly reduce their play space and our living space. (We also have no table-top space -- every surface in our house is already covered.) And I'd have to supervise them much more closely than I normally do, since they have access to every inch of our house except the laundry room!

I really like live trees (the smell is the best part!), so I don't know if it would be worth it to me to have a fake one. But I guess we could get a little one and put up the superyard and hope for the best. Amy & Sarah are pretty non-destructive in general, although things could always change in the next month. :lol: They do love to touch things they aren't supposed to touch, though -- the buttons on the dishwasher, the washing machine, etc.

One other question -- did you have a problem with the needles getting all over the house and pricking the kids (or them trying to eat them)?

 

[SIZE=12pt]my mom already has her 2ft fiber optic tree out on her table and I can see now the twins aren't going to go easy on our tree. Last year I had no problems but we don't stay downstairs a lot where our tree will be so it's only a 2-3 hour a day worry. I have thought about putting the superyard around it but not sure yet. I can see one of them grabbing something and taking off running and having a strand of lights attached and my whole tree topple over [/SIZE]

 

I am so terrified about having a tree, we will definitly not go without one especially since it is our first x-mas in our new home, but I know it will be a constant battle. Good luck to all this year!!!

 

1st year with DS we did a real tree and all the trimmings, he was only 2months. 2nd year, DS and the twins...we strung lights around the cactus and called it good. Last year we did a real tree on a 12inch platform and did only the top 1/2 with ornaments. Still managed to destroy it on a regular basis.

This year I saw an artificial tree I really like and I think I will spend time over the next several weeks making ornaments with the kids out of paper (daily craft activity) and using those and sparkly fruit to decorate it. Might still try to do a platform so we can set up the antique train if I get the wiring fixed on time (it has survived 3 generations of boys, the kids can't hurt it) but will def. tether it, have too with the cats, dogs and kids...jeeze.

OT 1st time one of our kids will be in the Christmas program at church, learning Away in a Manger with James.