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My thought exactly :rofl::
Teeki my DS is 14mths... Today he went quiet and when I went looking for him he was sitting next to the tree holding a string of lights! He looked at me and went "Dis! DIS!!!" And I was like "Put down the lights!!!" :lol: He knows what he is doing, cheeky ratbag. We don't have breakable ornaments down low, in fact I only have a handful of them at all, all the rest are plastic cheapies but the kids still love taking them off al doing stuff to them! Gah!
Lol maybe I'm more lucky with placement! We have our family room with the kitchen and dining room so we're mostly there, but at the front of the house is another lounge with the tree in it, we don't go in there very often. Hopefully I can avoid any mishaps next year!
I feel your pain ladies - this is the first year we've had to put the playpen (which hasn't been used in years!!) around our tree to block off access. DS3 grabs the tinsel, baubles ... pretty much anything he can lay his hands on. And he puuuuuulllllssssss.
Third child (almost 16 months), first gated tree - ever!
Our family day care lady had a fabulous solution for this. She had the regular tree, then she had a much smaller (ie kid-sized tree) that was the "touch tree". She had a whole set of cheap but sturdy decorations for it & the kids could fiddle with it all they liked. Worked a treat.
When I bring the real Xmas tree home from kinder next week ( I'm recycling it for home) we may just put it on a table where DD can't reach it. Problem solved!!
Your house sounds like ours!:
Our first Christmas with DD, she was 6-7 months old, and tree was in the lounge. she used to lay and just stare at it a lot - there was only one decoration that really caught her attention, so we let her play with it (supervised) - and would move her away if she got a bit rough. She was keen on only one present too - no idea why (it was just a dvd!) - thankfully it had foil paper so it didn't really make a difference if she slobbered a bit! lol
second Christmas we had moved into this house, and she just didn't go into the formal lounge/bar without us - we had a few non-breakable decorations down low for her, but she barely touched it. she was 18-19 months old and barely showed any interest in it - maybe our christmas craziness helps though - we have soft toys at DD level - always have - so she plays with them and leaves everything else alone!
Last year we used this idea - she has her own tree with non-breakable decorations - it cost maybe $10 for the tree, a few dollars for battery lights, and then decorations - she decorates and re-decorates all the time, and doesn't touch the tree:
This is the first year I haven't had to redecorate the tree (yet!). Last year, I refused to do it more than once a week so I just had a basket full of baubles they had pulled off. I only have super cheap or free decoarations so I couldn't care less if they get broken. In a few years time, I will look at getting a bit fancier. Just can't see the point with little kids around and since christmas really is more for the kids, I figure we need to make it fun for them. Not fun trying to teach them not to touch it and constantly keep an eye on it.
Took teeki's idea and made it work for us ;) glued green felt on a backing cardboard (4 bits of cardboard joined together) in a Christmas tree shape with lots of different decorations (stars, circles, vaguely bell shapes, hearts) with strips for tinsel. Currently have it sitting on the floor at the grandparents house where we are today, going to take it home tonight and use 3m poster sticky things to stick it on a wall for them to redecorate tomorrow with DH. I've ended up with far too many decorations for the tree though :D
DD1 couldn't get to ours during her destructive, curious days as it was in another room with a baby gate in the way :lol: We had to 'DD2-proof' the tree last year though and stuck it in the middle of the playpen, worked a treat!
This year neither of our girls seem interested in undressing our tree, they are more keen to rehang any runaway baubles. Their decorating skills are a whole other thread though ;)
Playpen around it or make them a felt one that they can decorate