Christmas Trees with a 1 year old

lindzed

Hey guys,

We have a tiny house in midtown (we bought it pre-baby and the market is too bad to sell now so we have no space) and a 1 year old.  I love Christmas and of course have to have a tree, but I'm worried about where to put it that Adam will not try to climb all over it.  Any ideas on how to baby proof the tree without taking up tons of space?

Thanks!

andrea922

We put it in a corner and put a baby gate around it. It didn't look great but it worked. You could also do only non-breakables at the bottom and hope for the best

hthomas02

we put it in a corner and then we tied some invisible thread around the center of the tree and tied it to one of those removable hooks that we put on the wall.  We also didn't decorate the bottom portion of the tree.  Has worked well the last two years with two little ones!

julienandy

andrea922:

We put it in a corner and put a baby gate around it. It didn't look great but it worked. You could also do only non-breakables at the bottom and hope for the best

this is what we did as well.  the second year, I had fewer ornaments on the tree, def lighter on the breakable or old family sentimental ones.

almostanO

I am thinking of having a mini rosemary Christmas tree this year.  Like this.

We live in a condo in midtown and I just can't see being able to keep elliot out of the tree.  Before elliot we just got a shorter 6ft tree and put it on an end table.  It always kept the dog out of the tree. We may do that again when elliot is a little older.

Jessica85

We got a table top tree last year, because I KNEW my son would have a 6ft tree down in no time.

Alison422

My daughter was 16-17 months old last year and she really didn't mess with the tree.  We just put the non-breakable, not so important ornaments on the bottom.  But it really was not an issue. 

slwprincess

The past 2 years, we have put the tree in our front room and gated that room off so that Gavin couldn't get to it.  But this year, that room is his play room so that's not gonna work.  He's pretty good about not touching if I tell him no so we will probably just put non-breakables on the bottom and hope for the best.  Now if your DS is a climber, I would probably go ahead and put a superyard gate around it- not attractive, but it works.

AugustaBride04

Alison422:

My daughter was 16-17 months old last year and she really didn't mess with the tree.  We just put the non-breakable, not so important ornaments on the bottom.  But it really was not an issue. 

This. My daughter is super active and very curious. I had nightmares of her pulling the tree down last year.  lol. However, she completely surprised me. She LOVED the Christmas tree and was in complete awe. Never tried to pull on it once. We did put non-breakables on the bottom and we bought several plush/soft ornaments that were "hers" so that she could play with them and put them/arrange wherever she wanted on the tree.  She was always very careful and cautious when doing so.

Kerrin

I didn't change anything.  Same sized tree that we always got and i didn't childproof the tree or put gates up.

I simply explained to them that the tree was NOT for touching and that we could only look at it b/c we could get hurt.

FWIW, i never really babyproofed the house either.  I put the plug adapters in all the plugs and door knob things on exterior doors, but that's it.  But i do tell them what they can and can't do and what will happen if they do something they shouldn't.  It's worked for me.

keg

My DDs didn't pay as much attention to it last year as we expected.  Their main place space was inside a set of Superyard gates with the tree just outside, but they really didn't mess with it.  We did only put non-breakable things on it though.  It will be interesting to see what they do this year since they are much more mobile and curious. 

When I was growing up, I remember my parents getting a shorter tree and putting it up on a table to keep it away from me and my sister (the table was between dining table and coffee table height).  

lindzed

Thanks for all the good ideas!!

K&P414

Alison422:

My daughter was 16-17 months old last year and she really didn't mess with the tree.  We just put the non-breakable, not so important ornaments on the bottom.  But it really was not an issue. 

This