Christmas tree babyproofing?

witch_city_wife

Have we discussed how to make this happen?  Because I'm a little scared of what's to come.  Although, I'd be sad not to have a tree.

leneae10

Yes!  I gave up and ended up buying a cheapy $20 6ft tree at Target and all plastic and felt ornaments.  I'm going to be wiring it to the wall and it will be placed on top of a storage cube thingy on its side.  It's anchored to the wall and about 3ft or so high. (it's from IKEA, pictured below).  It will be in our dining room, which is where Isaac plays and really the ONLY place it can be.

You could wire your tree to an anchor on the wall in multiple points and only put lights near the top and plastic ornaments on the bottom?

Mrs.EmmaLouise

We will only have ours up 3-4 days and hope for the best

rabstbmom

DH bought a 3-foot tree at Target that we're probably going to put on our dining table for a few weeks. Right now, we kind of set a bad example by eating most of our meals at the coffee table in front of the TV, so it's not like we use our dining table for much more than a place to stack stuff until we deal with it. But I figure D'll still only be 10 1/2 months when Christmas is here. We can start setting a better example and use our dining table properly once the New Year is here.

amberdaz

We'll be putting a tree up and I won't be decorating the bottom. DD is walking now and although we spend most of the time in bedroom and family room we can't just close off the living room w/ the tree. She is learning not to touch mommy's plants. I plan on just redirecting like we do with everything else.

JessiLW

Last christmas DS1 was about 20 months old. We broke down and got a fake tree (I'm a die-hard real tree gal) I left the lower branches off of it and used only plastic ornaments within his reach. We didn't put any gifts under it until a few days before christmas, made sure to put the tree right in front of an outlet so we have no cords sticking out and it will again be tied to the wall with four things of high tension fishing line. We bought some tiny 3M stick-on wall hooks to hide behind the tree and we tie the fishing line to that. We also stopped using metal hooks to put ornaments on the tree. They are now held on with string or the tie-on kind. And Last year my tree still looked pretty good despite all of the fun being taken out of it.  This year I will have to child proof it from 2 kiddos. One is 2 1/2 the other is 14 mos.

Jessicaanne_1@yahoo.com

I hadn't thought about it. If she was the only kid I just wouldn't put one up, because I am Scrooge. The older kids would be really disappointed though. Hmm what are we going to do. 

Addicted2thenot

Our tree is up undecorated so he can get used to it being there

So far he has not paid much attention to it

I have unbreakable ornament sets from Costco that will replace our glass balls once we decorate. 

With DS1 it was never a problem

Jill+Dave

We didn't have a tree our 1st yr only because we didn't actually own one at the time.  She was almost 5 mos at her 1st Christmas.  Last year, almost 17 mos, we put one up & had all the presents under it & had absolutely no problems at all. But my daughter is really good about not touching or playing with things unless we tell her that she can.  There are definitely more active, adventurous & curious children that probably couldn't resist the temptation.  A friend of mine puts a baby gate/fence all the way around her tree.  Personally I think this looks silly though.

mamaholic

We will be putting it in a corner and using a baby gate around it.

Jacquiemark

I think I'll just use the plastic ornaments and use string instead of those wire hooks. I usually have to worry about the cat breaking balls but I know DD is going to be all up in that tree tearing it apart. It will be an almost naked tree.

olivia_eve

I would put it up and see what happens.  DD was never really interested in the tree, we just watched her around it and made sure the lower branches had nothing breakable on them.  

Ernie52408

Part of me doesn't even want to mess with a tree this year. DS is mobile and into everything.

I think we are going to set it up in our family room instead of the living room. We don't use the family room much and DS doesn't have free reign there.

sarahandeddiejune212008

My plan is to put the tree up and leave it alone for a few days to let her get used to it.  Then we will decorate.  I'm going to replace all the metals hooks with ribbon or fishing line.  I do like the idea of anchoring it to the wall though.  We just plan on teaching her not to touch it, but we will be keeping anything breakable out of her reach.

witch_city_wife

JessiLW:

We also stopped using metal hooks to put ornaments on the tree. They are now held on with string or the tie-on kind.

I never even thought about the metal hooks!