Christmas Tree with 2 yr old.

DMB2STEP

Well, 2 1/2 yr old.. Last year, I was a bit paranoid and I made MH put the giant gate around it but he is not having it this year. Wdyt?? What about ornament hooks ? Do they sell safe ones?

sugarp

Forget "safe" ornament hooks (I've never heard of them, though they prob. exist). Just put your ornaments higher up on the tree...it makes for a funny looking tree, but I learned my lesson when my DD started taking off the lower ornaments and crushing them to pieces.

KrisBriMcBunny

I dont do the hooks....I buy the red & gold stretchy cord at AC Moore to tie on the ornaments....I think the ornaments stay on better since the loop goes around the branch rather than just hooked on the branch.

I never put a gate up....I aint buying the huge thing just to put around the tree & I just dont have the room for that.

Last year we put the tree up early and spent 3-5 days teaching her to leave the tree alone and I put soft ornaments within her reach so if she did pull them off it wouldnt be such a biggie.

Hooray2005

I was worried about this last year with my little guy (who will also be 2 1/2 at Christmas), but I was surprised at his ability to leave the tree alone after some initial exploration/fascination.  He's very much a hands-on exploration guy, so I fully expected the tree to be down on the ground at some point last year, but it didn't happen.

I hung "safe" ornaments on the lower portion of the tree - nothing breakable, and kept anything important either off the tree or up high and on the side of the tree that would fall onto the sofa if knocked over (haa haa!)

I've never seen safe hooks, but if you're worried about that,  you could always buy some pretty yarn and tie the ornaments on the tree this year in lieu of hooks.   

#6

Last year we had a 2.5yr old and 2 1.5yr olds.  They LOVED that tree and were always bothering it.  I wish we had room for a gate.  We bought cheapy plastic ornaments for all over the tree and then some of our nice breakable one we put only on top.  The kids pulled the plastic ones off and I told them NO a million times.  They only wanted the ornaments and left the hooks alone.  Plus the cheapy ones would pull off from the hooks since I put them on so tightly.  I wrapped that metal hook around it super tight.  Taking them off was a PITA in January though. 

This year L is 3.5yr and K&K are 2.5yrs.  Im going to tell them if they dont leave it alone Im taking it down.  L I hope will understand and if the girls dont I will try redirecting again.  Hoping it will work out better t his year.   Tree is going up tonight after kids go to bed.  We will decorate it tomorrow together. 

Good Luck.

ElizabethD

I have had 9 month old babies, 20 month olds, 2.5 and soon 3.5 (putting the tree up today/tomorrow) and we haven't really had a problem.  Just put a few kid-friendly ones in their reach and let them know they can touch JUST THOSE.  Of course it also helps to put the tree in a corner where they normally don't play so the temptation isn't so great.  :P

Marce921

I'm more worried about how our 5 month old kitten is going to do with the tree rather than DS. LOL Last yr I had fears of having a 1 yr old with the tree, but he had no interest in touching it, amazingly enough. I'm sure we'll have more problems this yr, but we'll see. GL!

Bellisimo

MS won't touch the tree and ornaments after he threw an ornament on the floor and it shattered the other day when I was decorating my tree.  He learned his lesson!