Christmas trees and babies/toddlers...

[Saila]

.. what do people do?

Is it one big safety hazard?

do people just go with it or do they barricade it off somehow?

[Princess]

Exactly the discussion we've been having in our house for the past week or so. I was tempted by this http://www.besportier.com/archives/eco-plywood-christmas-tree-by.html with just a sprinkling of lights and not a bauble or bit of tinsel (my pet hate anyway) in sight. As my husband pointed out to me it's still going to get pulled over though!

[Pickle]

We've always just gone with it, each year we've had small children at various stages of crawling/walking and been fine. Firm ground rules set out from the moment the tree goes up and my kids seem to understand. In our house the main problem when it comes to the tree is our cat, who sees it as a climbing opportunity!

[Gubodge]

If you have a play pen you can put the tree in that. We didn't, so would put our large coffee table into the corner of the room and place the tree on that. We'd put plenty of sparkly, easily detachable decorations on the front lower branches and they were enough to keep the children occupied. I wasn't too concerned anyway. It would have been a pain if they'd brought it down on top of them, but I think a child would have to be very unlucky indeed for a falling spruce to inflict too much damage.

[Moos]

We love our Christmas tree, so have kept it with our 6-month-old, 18-month-old and 2.5-year-old, and all was well. We roped it to a wall about halfway up, and kept the more delicate ornaments for the top half of the tree.

I think it partly depends on your children...if you have the cupboard-raiding, experimental, stool-climbing, fingers-in-everything kind, you might need to be more cautious than if they're the laid-back kind. Good luck!

[Moos]

We love our Christmas tree, so have kept it with our 6-month-old, 18-month-old and 2.5-year-old, and all was well. We roped it to a wall about halfway up, and kept the more delicate ornaments for the top half of the tree.

I think it partly depends on your children...if you have the cupboard-raiding, experimental, stool-climbing, fingers-in-everything kind, you might need to be more cautious than if they're the laid-back kind. Good luck!

[Knomester]

I love your dedication to the Christmas tree Moos!!!

We have two trees normally (I know - totally over the top but we love it!) which our cat likes to take a swipe at. This will be our first year with a baby, but he's too small to cause any mischief so making the most of the two trees before scaling back next year...

[snowboarder]

Moos Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

>

> I think it partly depends on your children...if

> you have the cupboard-raiding, experimental,

> stool-climbing, fingers-in-everything kind, you

> might need to be more cautious than if they're the

> laid-back kind. Good luck!

Oh dear....guess what category little sb falls into...oh well I also adore Christmas and trees etc and was so disappointed not to have a tree last year as went away for most of December. We'll give it a try and report back. First w/e of December is officially tree week end!

[snowboarder]

Ps we also have 2 cats....let's see who causes the most mischief!

[GinaG3]

We put our tree on a coffee table last year when daughter was about 10 months old and crawling. Now she is 22 months I'm just going to put it up and hope for the best. At least she knows NO! now..

[melbourne groover]

If you have a babydan play pen (or similar) these work brilliantly. We gated off the tree last year, easy to remove when you have guests, kept the presents safe from sticky fingers and made life easy (did not have to worry when I was in the kitchen and he was in the lounge). Sold the playpen this year so will be going au natural this xmas - so will probably have slightly stripped down version by xmas day....

[Saila]

great tips - especially the tying to the wall idea

i have an 'explore/pull/eat/chew/destroy' baby, who thinks 'NO!' is some hilarious joke... my biggest worry is him crunching through fairy lights....

however, my general 'golden rule' to myself since having a baby has been 'if you haven't heard it happen to another child, chances are it wont happen to mine'.

i haven't heard of a child being electrocuted by fairy lights or harmed by a falling xmas tree (i've seen You've Been Framed enough to know it doesn't harm them) but...

.. still a bit worried - perhaps i should attach it to the ceiling somehow?!

i love Christmas trees too much to see them in a playpen ..... errrrr... oh dear

(i only seem to open my mouth to change feet at the moment)

[Moos]

Knomester Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> I love your dedication to the Christmas tree

> Moos!!!

>

>

shush, you. :-$

should be back to one message now...

Did I mention we have real candles on the tree? :)) Mr. Moos Put His Foot Down some years ago, and won't let me use fairy lights...

[sillywoman]

Tying the tree to the wall is definitely the way to go - another sucker for Christmas here - never ever considered not having one, it's part of the magic for kids.

[The Nappy Lady]

We put the tree in the bay window and use the middle security screw lock thing on the centre bay window to tie the tree to for added security.

Though last year I did go for the easy option and buy a smaller tree which stood on top of our built in cupboard on one side of the fireplace, out of reach of C - then 14 months. This year though, the 7ft+ monster has to return (I have this stupid thing about Christmas Trees having to touch the ceiling, which is insane when you live in a Victorian House - not least because of the width most trees of that size are around the bottom*)!

*Imagine us all edging around a huge tree which takes up 7/10's of the room, and you'll be about right :-$

[katyc]

I managed to chomp through the fairy lights on the christmas tree when I was about 2 and I'm fine(ish) honestly! We've always just risked it with our two, but I think I may try the rope idea now our son is more of a budding mountaineer.

[snowboarder]

Update: enormous tree up and decorated for a week now and no major disasters...yet. It's very 'this year' to only decorate from 3ft up though, yes?