A toddler and a Christmas tree--help!

[* Paula *]

I hear you on that one Judy - DS does not understand gentle when it comes to hitting me either,but we are also going to give the one finger approach to touching the christmas tree.

[Bryony's mum]

With dd, we always had the tree (it's an artificial one, about 5ft tall) up on a small table or something, 'barricaded' into a corner by the furniture, so it was basically out of reach.  Since she wasn't much of a climber, we didn't have any problems with that. 

Ds, however, is something of an adventurer, so last year we had to come up with another option.  Ds was 14 months old and, having moved house, we didn't have any corners to put the tree in.  Instead we had it in plain view and positioned in front of a radiator.  My main concern was that ds would pull the tree over on himself, so I tied two pieces of string to the trunk part of the tree and tied the end of each string to opposite ends of the radiator.  It probably sounds a bit weird, but it worked as the tree was anchored securely.  After that, of course, it was a matter of only putting unbreakable, child-safe ornaments on the tree, and then reminding him not to remove the ornaments, and helping him to put them straight back on if they 'accidentally' fell off.  We didn't have any probs at all.

This year, of course, at just over two years, ds is even more of an adventurer, so we shall have to see how it goes, but hopefully the same strategy will work. 

[blondie10]

With a 3 year old we look after, we give him his own mini tree to decorate with safe ornaments and chocolate money. He knows that the big tree isn't his and if he leaves it alone he can have a chocolate a day. doesn't stop him touching the big tree completely for the first few days but the one finger technique works a treat for those few days. He takes great delight in showing visitors the big tree, then dragging them to see his little one! And of course, the chocolates disappear very quickly!!

[Jaime]

i couldn't resist posting, mainly so i could attach this picture & brag a little on dh.  we put our tree on a table.  they can't reach it.   

[woopster]

Jaime, that's last years tree right?  Tell me you haven't got this year's up already? 

[Jaime]

LOL - yes that is last year's tree!!  dh won't start building the table for this year's for a couple more weeks.  he's adding 1 more train to it (luke's train as last year was his 1st christmas), so it's got to be a bit bigger.  i think there's a mountain involved.   

[TDR'smom]

Jaime!!

That tree and table are absolutely GORGEOUS!!!  Good for DH!!!   


Judy

[* Paula *]

Jaime,

The tree is absolutely beautiful. 

[15milner]

The first year when Matthew turned 1 we had a dinky little tree up high.
Last year (age 2) we had a standard size real tree in the corner, so he couldn't go round it and it was protected on 2 sides.

With regards to the decorations, I followed some advice from on here and gave Matthew some of his own decorations - little unbreakable baubles.  He could put them on and take them off but he knew that they were HIS.  The rest were mummy and daddy's.  Worked like a charm, didn't touch any of the other decorations, or the lights just his one. 

i think this year, I may take him out to go and buy one with him to put on the tree that is truly his - not just one he his told is his, but he will have ownership of it too.

alex

[Bryony's mum]

Alex - that reminds me about the lights, which was my other worry.  Ds didn't do much to them last year, but I did buy these little gren plastic clips that clipped the wire on really securely (and were a nightmare to get off again!), just to be on the safe side.

[ks6]

Our answer to the light problem--a pre-lit tree.  I don't think those ever come off.     (See how happy I am in 2 years when the bulbs all go out.  )

[maggieruth]

i feel sooo stupid!  the whole tree thing never occured to me as last year ds was a non mobile 7 month old... this year he will be an incredibly adventurous 19 month old! 
this website saves my backside SOOO often! 

[Critter]

Kim, we've had the same pre-lit tree for 5 years and all the lights are still working :-)

I asked my girlfriend the other day what they did last Christmas when her daughter was this age.  She said that most of the fragile ornaments stayed in a box, but some went at the top of the tree.  She bought soft, plushy ornaments to put down at the bottom for her dd to touch and play with.

We're probably going to put lots of bows on our pre-lit 7' tree this year.  A few ornaments, but mostly bows.  That way, Luke can pull them off as much as he wants and it won't matter.  I don't think anyone is going to have a critical eye when they know you have SuperDave there :-).  I wasn't going to put one up at all, but the more I think about it, I just HAVE to.  It's the first Christmas where Luke will kinda "get it."

We will also have a smaller tree in the front of our house by the window on a table.  I will probably put some of my pretty breakable ornaments on it. 

[MDHmommy]

This is cracking me up because DH and I had the very same conv. about a week ago. We decided that we will get a short tree, and put it on top of this very sturdy table that we have. This way, it's up high so that we can see it (the table will place the bottom of tree at hip level on an adult) but DS can't reach it!
I hate to have to run around trying to keep DS from touching things, he just gets frustrated and I don't think he's old enough to manage himself yet...next year we'll try to teach him "gentle" and not to touch the tree!

[LŠuren]

This is cracking me up because DH and I had the very same conv.

    We had it tonight, but it's been on my mind for a while.......

Calum LOVES playing with light sockets, so I fear that the bulbs will get blown, wires pulled dowm (closely followed by tree) or baubles thrown about the livingroom.

He seem to understand no touch before and now he just laughs and goes out of his way to touch the very thing we didn't want him to.

I was in a shop with him the other day and he ran to the xmas tree on display and started pulling the baubles off as fast as I could put them back on.