Christmas tree and gifts

MommaA117

What is your plan for protecting the tree and gifts? My Mom suggested not putting the gifts under until Christmas eve. I love the gifts being under there! I've heard of people using a baby fence but i feel like that defeats the whole pretty factor. Right now my only plan is to not put any glass ornaments in baby's arms reach. Am I crazy for thinking "no" might work by then? Lol 

MommaA117

Yes, I just corrected a million typos. Lol

DramaMama06

last year we had the tree in our TV room, but that is not happening with a 3 mo old and a 17 mo old. we just finished our sunroom and it stays pretty warm out there. i think all of our christmas stuff is going out there.

Gifts don't go under the tree until santa brings them here

nfrtny

Hmm.. hadn't thought about a Christmas tree with a toddler running around yet... We probably just won't put one up. We go to DH's moms, grandpas, and my parents house on Christmas morning anyway

MommaA117

See. All our wrapped gifts from each under go under the tree in advance. Santas are usually the only ones that come out Christmas eve.

lauracoro

The room that we put our tree in is not our living room and dd is only in that room to walk thru to the kitchen. So I think it will be ok. In sure she will stand at the baby gate in the living room and stare at the tree lol

kpaivel

Oh geez, I hadn't even thought of that! I'm not really sure what we're going to do actually. DD gets into EV-ER-Y-THING.

ETA: We have an open-concept home, so we won't be able to close off the tree into one room. Eeeeeek. Time to start brainstorming!

sunshine336

I'm still undecided about putting up a tree this year.  DH will be deployed, and with no family nearby, it'll just be Maya and me.  But, we were visiting family back home for Christmas last year so we didn't put any decorations up- and I miss my ornaments!

march2008

I've never been able to put our gifts out ahead of time because we have 2 cats and they like to mess with the bows on the gifts....which sometimes results in the gift wrap being shredded, too! So, our gifts usually come out late on Christmas Eve so they have the least amount of time to mess them up.

I don't know expect that she'll stay away from the Christmas tree. I'm just going to put unbreakable stuff down at the lower half and hope that she doesn't notice the tree stand filled with water! 

I still can't decide what to do about the gifts from "Santa". I don't know if they should be wrapped or not?? 

CarlaAndJames

We'll play it by ear. We have a fake tree and we've been doing all plastic ornaments for a couple of years because of the cats anyway. We usually put fake gifts out (really it's just pretty cardboard boxes that we use to organize all the Christmas decorations in storage bins!) so if she wants to play with those it's no biggie.

MommaA117

kpaivel:

Oh geez, I hadn't even thought of that! I'm not really sure what we're going to do actually. DD gets into EV-ER-Y-THING.

ETA: We have an open-concept home, so we won't be able to close off the tree into one room. Eeeeeek. Time to start brainstorming!

this is us. The only room is the living room, where we always are. 

cvl105

Hm, I don't know what I'll do with the tree. I love putting it in our family room/tv room so that I can enjoy it while sitting in there...but maybe I'll put it in the living room this year. I guess we'll cross that bridge when it gets here. I'll put all the delicate ornaments up higher.

And I normally don't put out gifts too early. We normally don't have many for each other, if any, so it'll mostly just be Callie's presents...although we probably will be out of town for christmas this year visiting my family in NJ.

JuneBugsMommy

I'm not so worried about the gifts, we only put gifts for our immediate families under the tree before Christmas eve night and I plan to push them all to the back. As for ornaments, DH and I decided to only put them out of Jagger's reach. I'll probably buy him some plastic/cloth ornaments to put at the bottom of the tree that he can play with. I don't want a baby gate around the tree either.

egpitt22

You're not crazy!  Everyone thought I was crazy for putting our (live) Christmas tree in the same room at our old house where Jake spent most of his time, with all of the gifts underneath.  It was fine, I would have been devastated to not have the pretty gifts under there to look at, but I'm weird like that.

We live in a different house now & the room the tree goes in is a "formal" living room type place, so the kids aren't in there that much.  I still plan on putting the gifts under.  let's hope I'm not kicking myself by mid-December!

MommaA117

egpitt22:

You're not crazy!  Everyone thought I was crazy for putting our (live) Christmas tree in the same room at our old house where Jake spent most of his time, with all of the gifts underneath.  It was fine, I would have been devastated to not have the pretty gifts under there to look at, but I'm weird like that.

We live in a different house now & the room the tree goes in is a "formal" living room type place, so the kids aren't in there that much.  I still plan on putting the gifts under.  let's hope I'm not kicking myself by mid-December!

Me too. I'm very particular about how our holidays flow and no tree or an ugly fence would mess with the "feel" lol. I mean, we keep her away from the cabinets on the t.v stand. I guess it will be like that....I just can't imagine putting all the gifts under at one time. I love wrapping every few days as I buy stuff and seeing the pile grow... 

kimbo1216

My plan is to do what we always do with the exception of making sure nothing too fragile is hung low.  I will also put presents underneath.  Hopefully, Audrey will learn quickly she is not to mess with it. I think she'll be old enough to understand by then.  But I have no problem letting her know I mean business if she doesn't listen.

KYBABY2011

We have no idea where we will be putting our tree, especially since we are still in the IL's basement. However, the gifts would be under my tree. Santa doesn't come to our house (don't judge me) so the gifts are there as soon as I buy them and wrap them. There may be have to be a gate around the tree. DS isn't listening to No very well.

jellybeanjean

We've done a decorated, full-sized, live tree in the main living area every Christmas so far.  Luke was 27 mon last year, and it worked out fine.  Sam worries me for this Christmas, but we'll have to see how it goes.  We put gifts under it weeks ahead of time...

mesr

my parents did the fence for dd1's first christmas, which worked well (she was 10 months).  the next year she didn't need it.  i'm hoping we won't have to do any of that this year for dd2, but we'll see.  it may be easier to use the fence than pick up ornaments from all over the house.  most of my ornaments are made of wood, so they're not dangerous, but i do like them a lot and don't want them to get damaged.