The Christmas tree

greyt00

Anyone not put up a tree because of the problems it causes?  DS1 really likes it, wants to sit there staring at it forever.  I put it up last night and in the middle of the night he got up and almost cried because he wanted the tree.  Fortunately, I didn't have much trouble getting him to use the bathroom and go back to bed.  This morning he was upset again and wanted the tree.  I thought it was going to be a nightmare but we carried him downstairs crying and he got over it.  We made sure to close the gate at the top of the stairs after we got him down.  He wants us to turn the lights on the tree and we told him we would do it tonight. It might be a good idea to make "good night tree" part of his bedtime process.  When he comes upstairs to go to bed, we turn the lights off on the tree for it to go to sleep.  I guess I won't get to look the lights much either except on weekends. ;-P   Anyone else got issues?  Fortunately in the last few months he has been better, usually, about getting over things, getting past them, and moving on. 

bumpuser511563

Friday, after Thanksgiving, we put our tree up and DS helped decorate.

DS wanted all the lights on the tree on all day long. I let him turn it on a few times for a few minutes but encourage him to turn it off each time. I think my only struggle is on the weekends when DS is at home more. I had to explain that he can turn on the Christmas lights when the sun goes down to sleep each time. We have our lights on from 6:00-7:00 pm.

Electricity is expensive especially when our entire apartment runs on it!

MirandaHobbes

I'm a softie when it comes to the holidays- I loved how much DS was enamored with our tree at that age. I got him a little table top one to put in his room, high up and out of reach, but it acted as his night light for the month of December. And yes to the LED's- I use them exclusively in DS's room because he sleeps with lights on all night.

bumpuser511563

I don't think my dining table top tree my dad made and our huge tree have LED lights. I bought the tree in 2010 at Kmart.

Someday I will make the switch with an upgraded fake tree with snow and LED lights.

veggieroll

I have lights on the tree, but only keep it on for a little while when I remember to plug it in. DS loves staring at lights, but he also really wants to get them.

kcisthebombdotcom

I feel like it takes a few days for kids to adjust. At this time next week he may be better. I'm also on mobile and can't see ages but for dd it has gotten better over the years. The past two years she was obsessed with pulling off the ornaments and stimming on the lights. This year the only time she touched the ornaments was when she helped decorate and I haven't seen her stim at the lights once in the past ten days.

Junebug060609

Strangely, our tree doesn't cause issues with DS. I cant have garland, boy has a thing for cords/string, but otherwise he does well. The first day or so he pulled a few ornaments off, but now he's fine. Doesn't stim off the lights, which is a surprise.

malcivar

Both boys have a thing for letters, numbers and colors.  Our tree (fake) has colored lights so the two of them just like looking at the different colored lights and maybe trying to touch the light bulbs and telling me what color they are. 

The littlest one also has a thing for "5 little monkeys jumping on a bed" and "ten in the bed" and he wants to make the little bear ornaments "fall off the bed".  Needless to say I got resin ornaments - nothing that could break into anything sharp.

For both, we have gotten them into saying "good night" and "bye bye" to things as a means of transitioning to something else.  That seems to work for them.