Dear Toddler - Leave the Christmas Tree alone or I'll....

..... Have to take extreme measures!!!

DD is driving me bonkers, she continually takes the decorations off and no removing her, stopping her, distracting her etc is working. DS never touched the thing. DD is all over it....

I've redecorated the bottom branches a few hundred times, its now rather top heavy as the bottom is empty of deco's - so it looks terrible. If it wasn't for DS I'd take the flippin' thing down 'cos she is annoying me to much LOL

However today I found this idea on FB.... so freaking tempting!!!! :rofl:

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:lol: love it

i feel your pain!! DD1 loved looking at the tree and knew not to touch the "pretties". DD2 on the other hand, cannot help herself and has already broken two baubles :wall: thankfully they were only the cheap ones which i made sure were on the bottom of the tree!

love that idea of glad wrapping the tree :lol:

Funny. I know someone who puts their tree in the middle of a play pen so the kids can't get at it. My cat was way worse than the toddlers were :rofl:

Lollll

My xmas tree only had decorations on top too!!

Spock was very excited about the "ball tree", I just havent decorated the bottom half of it.

I did see a photo on fb today that had a xmas tree wrapped in glad wrap so the children couldnt get at it...


pmsl! i didnt even see your link to the picture!!! ...now dont i feel stupid =P

Lol! I must have gotten lucky with DD's age, she was 6 months first time so couldn't get it (it's in a separate room than we're normally in), then 18 months so past the destructive stage. DS though will be 14 months next year, I'm guessing he may take a crack at it!

This year to give DD something to do I've made a huge tree out of green felt on one of the walls, where we always are. I just cut circles out of different coloured sheets of felt and she has "baubles" to decorate her own tree with. Could that be an option for your DD?

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Funny. I know someone who puts their tree in the middle of a play pen so the kids can't get at it. My cat was way worse than the toddlers were :rofl:

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My mum used to do that when my brother and I were kids!

DD2 doesn't go near the tree. But I think it's more because she's petrified of the train that circles the bottom of the tree - that is outweighing the wow factor!

I have tied all of the ornaments and baubles etc onto our tree.

Lol my cat scaled the inside of the tree and managed to take out the star on the top! She is driving me crazy everytime I look the tree is wobbling because she is inside it. DD is watching with excitement but at almost 10 months can't get mobile so it's all funny to watch only.
I use a water spray bottle with my cat I wonder if this would work for your DD..... Lol
Im joking!!! Of course! Get out the glad wrap!!!

We have ours on a table with a baby fence around the bottom yet she still reaches through and has broken two baubles. She literally stands there all day trying to climb the gate and grabbing any scrap of tree branch, it drives me MENTAL, just leave it alone!!!!

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Lol! I must have gotten lucky with DD's age, she was 6 months first time so couldn't get it (it's in a separate room than we're normally in), then 18 months so past the destructive stage. DS though will be 14 months next year, I'm guessing he may take a crack at it!

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your dd was past the destructive stage by 18 months? lucky you! :lol:

I haven't got mine yet, but thinking about getting a tree today. We will have it on a table, but i don't think this will stop DS from playing. He was attracted to the kinder tree and decorations.

I've been dealing with the removal of decorations since our tree went up a week and a half ago, but today tops it all off.....

My terrible twosome - who are 2 1/2 - schemed together and actually pushed the Christmas Tree over, luckily we have no fragile or breakable ornaments and the lights are switched off and unplugged until the evening (and are LED so no smashed globes) but how am I going to cope with 2 more weeks of running interference.

A friend used a blow up Santa as 'guard' - her DS was petrified of it so wouldn't go near! Think I was lucky as DS is very gentle and although he liked to rearrange the decos, he wasn't obsessive and never broke anything.

Love Teeki's felt tree idea :)

A friend of mine was looking into an upside down tree - you hang it from the roof

I like the felt tree idea - might steal it next year if I survive the tree this year

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I like the felt tree idea - might steal it next year if I survive the tree this year

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I'll put a pic on fb soon when I get the photos off the camera, if you wanna check it out :)

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I'll put a pic on fb soon when I get the photos off the camera, if you wanna check it out :)

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I think I need to see as I'm not going to survive the tree this year - no room for it anywhere else than where we've put it and both boys play with it and I bump if every time I turn the light on/off (:wall: DH won't consider anywhere else or other semi practical solutions)

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your dd was past the destructive stage by 18 months? lucky you! :lol:.

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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!!

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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!

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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!

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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.

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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