Toddlers and Christmas Trees

You might try a table top tree this year, unless she is also a climber. they can be very pretty and festive also, and you could set even a card table up and put a pretty cloth on it for the tree to set on. I know this wouldn't be as pretty as a big floor tree, but from the sound of it, you couldn't really enjoy it with little miss busy bee. I have also hueard some people can show their child something and tell them with one finger they can touch and see pretty, but can't get it. and go to several things and show how youcan touch with just one figer and say pretty. If she will do this great if not, go back to plan one.

Glad to see this question posted...I'm enjoying all of the responses. :) We have a 14 month old and put the tree up this weekend. So far, no disasters! But lots of "be gentle!" and "Noooo Natalie!". :)

From reading the responses, I did a little bit of everything people are suggesting. We put the tree up and are trying to use it as a situation to teach her about boundaries, but at the same time I didn't put any ornaments on the tree that are made of glass or breakable, etc. No balls on the tree this year, no hooks. That's easier said than done...I have a "themed" tree that makes that easy (85% of my ornaments hang from the tree by a string - so those are the ones I used.)

My tree wouldn't fit inside a pack-n-play, but I guess that also means it's too large to be pulled over. I hope!

Good luck and congratulations!!!

My granddaughter was born a week after Christmas so at her first Christmas she was a toddler. What we did was involve her in the entire decorating process. We let her help by placing all the unbreakable ornaments on the tree. This put them all at her level and anytime she wanted to play with them she could. The tree at times was a little "unbalanced" because she would put them all in one place but is was pretty to us. This will be her third Christmas and she will be helping again. Sorry if I repeated someone, I did not take time to read the other responses.

Hi D., just some simple advice... take it or leave it. When a baby is old enough to be mobile they are old enough to learn boundaries. She can definitely know that no means no and some things are off limits. I raised both of my kids this way and had such an easier time than my friends who moved everything out of reach. I could take my kids anywhere at anytime and not have to move things or fight with them over leaving things alone, they knew what no meant.

You can give your daughter some ornaments, garland, string of beads, etc to play with. Put them in a spot just for her, then teach her that the tree you put up and decorate is off limits. Anytime she goes close enough to touch it tell her no in a firm voice and move her back some. Another alternative is to teach the 1 finger method, teach your daughter to touch and explore anything she wants by using 1 finger. This works great in stores and at Grandma's house full of nick knacks too!

A MUST read book is "To Train Up a Child." It will teach you how to put a tree up and your toddler to not touch at all! It's awesome actually, I can put a glass of water on a wobbly table and my 16 month old will stay completely away and simply play around it! It's a $5 book, every parent should read it! Their website is nogreaterjoy.org. Take Care! =)

my daughter will be 2 in two weeks so i have the same issues last year we just decorated the tree from where she could not reach and it worked out great now that she nows what stuff is hot she keeps telling us the lights on the tree are hot hot so she will not touch them. but last year went great she could look at them but they were not close enough for her to touch.

I did not use any glass ornaments the first year or so. I also saved teh gift until the night before but mainly i jsut stayed on the girls with 'no, we look do not touch' that is something i continue to use at 8 years old. Have fun you shoudl ahve some memories and pictures too...keep the camera close. Enjoy their excitment!!!!

squirt with water! seriously, it doesn't hurt them and after a few times, they will never touch the tree again. it works on cats and dogs too. actually, i've always had more trouble with my cats than kids, and my kids are curios ones. you should be fine, but yes please put the very valuable stuff high up.

First lest me say congratulations on the arrival of your 2nd baby! I too was a first time Mom late (my birth child is now 5 and will turn 41 in January).

The biggest problem I remember with my little one was that she wanted to and DID eat the popcorn garland right off the tree! Stay away from Tinsel, Keep ornaments with small parts or that could be a choking hazard up high. Don't make the tree "off limits" that will make her more determined. Instead keep things at her level toddler friendly and allow her to explore the tree supervised. Letting her help you decorate the tree will also help take away some of the curiosity of this "new addition" to the room.

Something that I did for my kids was give them their own tree (4ft fake)in their room. They could decorate it anyway they wanted. My little one and I made paper and fun foam ornaments together for her tree (no lights). We also make a paper chain garland. She could touch her tree, remove the ornaments, it was HER tree. Oh, use yard for the ornaments on her tree for hanging, no hooks.

D.
SAHM Mom of three: 19,18,and 5.
Home Baker and Candy Maker (see Momasource Perk). Married to the same wonderful man for almost 12 years.

Put it in the Pack n' Play.

I have twin boys who are 19 months. What we have decided to do is to put the tree up and have the boys help us so that way when they see it, it's not like "oh, new toy". We are also going to use a small string around the tree tied to the wall very similar to a furniture strap to secure the tree to the wall incase one of them decided that he wants to climb it or pull on it.

Mine is 13 months old and is already climbing/running, getting into the fireplace, the couch, the coffee table, climbing onto her highchair, etc. She's a total handful. And I babysit a 10 month old and a 19 month old! Yikes! We have one of those gates that snaps together to make a cirle, and we are planning on surrounding the tree with it. My baby, no matter what I do, will not listen to the word "no". So, to make my life easier, we are just not tempting fate. If it can be reached, it will be, so we are just putting the nicer things where she cannot find them with her curious little hands. :)

Hi D.,

We allow the children to hold, touch a few ornaments that are at the bottom of the tree. I don't necessarily put ALL the others up high, but we talk about where their ornaments are and if they touch the others they have to either go to the playroom or sit on the couch for a few minutes for 'time out'. The love having ones they can touch and hold. I feel it allows them to really enjoy the season. Two years ago, we kept the ornaments to one type to make it simple for the child to remember---only the snowman ones, or only the blue ones....something like that. We keep presents up for most of the holiday....I did bring them down last year and to my surprise they did not open them....not sure we will be that lucky this year (they are almost 4 and almost 3 years old).

Congratulations on your new one coming soon. You will be busy but it is rewarding--I love that mine are SO close in age.

My son is a very active, curious 2 year old, and this year will be our first tree. Last year we didn't have one, not because we were altering everything in our lives but because we were in a one bedroom apartment packing up and actively looking for our first house. We went to a B&B for Christmas because there was NO ROOM in the apartment (we even lost the dining "nook" to store all the baby stuff in there). Now we have a great home, and look forward to having our first Christmas here. What we're doing this year is this: I love my son and he's a good boy, but I don't want to have to "fight" with him constantly, or nag him with the "don't touch don't touch don't touch" stuff. He's practiced not touching at the store when we go by every tree, but it excites him SO much I think it would torture him to not touch right now if it was in his own home. We're putting the tree in the front room (formal living room or dining room). We're putting a safety gate in the hallway just outside the room so he can see it and "oooooh" to his heart's content, but while I'm cooking or cleaning, I don't have to stress out over "where is he". Then when I'm not actively busy, we can go in there together and he can play with his trucks or I can read to him in the room TOGETHER. That way he has the chance to see it all and lay under the tree for the blinking colored lights, but it will be with my supervision/guidance.
In defense of the first poster, I totally understand where she's coming from with not putting some valuables out. The fact of the matter is that you can teach and teach, but why not teach all year with stuff that is replaceable?? Unless you want to stress everyone out (yourself, the baby for nagging her, and your husband for having to hear it)it's just easier to skip the stuff that can't be replaced or is very sentimental, OR put them up high. There's no reason to risk it or to make your child miserable just because you may like to put some expensive or sentimental breakable on the coffee table. It's just common sense, so I agree. I've got a few things that I love dearly, and they will be placed on the mantle, entertainment center, and kitchen bar. That's life with wee children.
Congrats on the upcoming baby too! Have fun.

I have 3 kids, 8,5 &3 yr. old boy! We have always put out all of our Christmas things and just taught them not to touch. We always say look but don't touch and we let them have certain things(Christmas Decs.) that they can touch and play with and it has never been a problem. Sometimes, I think we protect our kids from so much that they don't know how to react. JMHO. I must say though that when they were just walking, we did do the breakable ornaments at the top and the non-breakable at he bottom, just in case but it was never an issue honestly. One last thing, each of my kids have their own trees that they can look at, decorate or whatever, in their rooms-and they always have since they were a yr. old-kinda like a tradition for us. I guess all of that to say,just do as you've always done, give her things she can touch and play with and then have your things as well. HTH

I do not remember this Christmas since I was only 2 at the time, but we have pictures and my mom loves to tell the story of putting the Christmas tree in the play pen so that I couldn't reach the bottom part of the tree or ornaments. Good Luck!

Not sure if you ever watch Jon&Kate, plus 8. You could always get a stand alone baby gate, it makes a circle or so, and place it in front of the tree. Then she is out of reach of the tree and presents are safe. If you can't get or afford one of those, which we never could. You could just buy or use plastic or unbreakable ornaments. We learned that with our first son. I got cute little animal and soft star ornaments at Pier One. I put them on the bottom of the tree and made most of the ornaments. If you have special ornaments you like to put out each year, I always put those up top where they can't reach them. That way it doesn't take away from the decoration of the tree, and if they pull them off they won't get hurt and the ornaments still stay nice. Don't do paper mache ones though. Learned that with both of my kids and dog. Good luck.

why not put a fence around it? There must be some cute ones that you can find .. maybe from home depot or someplace like that.. just a thought ..

Maybe you could put the tree on a platform or table that elevates it out of her reach.

You could also get safety gates that are free standing and make a "corral" around the tree.

Be sure to teach her why you are doing these things. You need to encourage her to keep her hands off the tree and presents.

I would ony put non-breakable ornaments on the lower branches of the tree. I would also let her help wrap the presents so it will be fun to her for the presents to have paper on them. We've also learned that they aren't unwrapped as easily if they have lots of ribbon which is tight---we use curling ribbon.

She will inevitably touch something she shouldn't, then I would just remind her that we like the presents to be wrapped or the ornaments on the tree and re-direct her. Try to keep it as positive as possible. Her curiosity is a sign of good brain health, so we can't really complain about her being inquisitive. Believe me, there are many mothers of brain-injured children who would be overwhelmed with joy if their child had the ability to tear up the Christmas tree.

Keep it happy and use this as a teaching time as much as possible.

My daughter is 15 months old and i'm having the same concerns this year. I think i'm going to decorate my tree in (don't laugh) baby toys and maybe some bows. That way, if she wants to chew on the ornaments they won't hurt her. Good luck!!!

Ditto! I decided to get a very small artificial tree (maybe 3 feet) to put on top of my dining room table. It looks beautiful! And my little munchkin can't get to it!

We've always had our regular Christmas decorations and just taught him how to be around them. We haven't had any problems. Most of our ornaments are glass, too. He has been interested, but he knows not to touch. He will be 3 next week. I think if you just teach them, they'll be fine. Good luck with it.

We had a one year old at Christmas last year; however, she was not walking yet :) Also, we had our tree in the formal living are where she is not allowed to play. However, we do have two baby gates this year that keep our now almost two year old out of the Christmas tree area. However, you can also buy gate partitians that you can put in a circle around the tree. It probably won't look very pretty, but it would be safe.

Best wishes on all your blessings!!

When my boys were little, one year we put the Christmas tree in the playpen. The playpen was a yellow gingham, so I wrapped some small boxes with silver paper, and bought some yellow & white poka dot ribbon, and wrapped them, then hung them on the tree. (like empty jello boxes, etc.) I still keep a couple just to remind me of that Christmas.

Another year, we just used the very top of the tree and put it on top of the piano. Both worked well.

Then another idea I read - skip the ornaments - just get some Christmassy ribbon and tie bows on the tree. (I actually used that idea as my ornament hangers, and I love the effect.) So, if baby pulls the bows off -- so what, just put them back on.

Re: Skirt - maybe just get some fabric and wrap around the tree -- so she won't pull the whole tree over when she pulls off the skirt.

Re: Gifts - maybe you don't want to put them out until time to open them.

Best wishes -- and remember there will be many more years when everything will be perfect -- those baby years have lots to be said for them too.

A.

I put my Christmas Tree in the playpen. It works well for keeping small hands out of presents and away from things that aren't necessarily safe, while simultaneously letting everyone enjoy. Wal-Mart has a set of plastic balls for $10... they're all I use.

S.

I put a 3 ft live tree, laddened with ornaments and lights, up on a table so my son couldn't reach it. Actually I did that until he was 4 because at 2 & 3 he couldn't resist it either & by that time I also had a daughter

We still have the tree and are all nostalgistic about it.

When my daughters were young, I also ran a daycare/preschool from my home. I always put our tree up. I put decorations the kids would like within their reach, and the rest higher up. The ones within reach were either not breakable, or I didn't care if they were broken. Either way, a child wouldn't be injured if they broke. We spent time looking at the decorations, and I either let them touch them on the tree, or removed the deoration so the child could hold it and look more closely. I found if I didn't hurry that process, the children's curiosity was satisfied. They then enjoyed looking at the decorations on the tree, and knew it was ok to gently touch. We didn't have any problems.
Gifts....yep, I agree with you that the chances of them staying wrapped will be slim to none! I didn't put any at all under the tree until Christmas Eve until they were a couple years old. As I recall, the first couple years I put empty gift bags under for the look. Even if the kids "opened" them, they weren't rewarded with a surprise. By the time I started putting the real gifts out, I don't recall there being an issue (to remove some temptation, I never put their names on the gifts. I used a number system so only I would know which gift belonged to whom.) Sidebar: Our policy has always been that if you try to open a gift early, it goes back to the store. No second chances.
I hope this is some help. The holidays are far to special of a time with our kids to let stress ruin it! Enjoy!

My oldest son was hyper, and teaching him not to touch the tree simply didn't work like it did for my other two children. We bought an inexpensive smaller artificial tree and put it on a table, where it was out of his reach. We only used non-breakable ornaments, and none of the ones we'd be heartbroken to lose, since he had a way of breaking even seemingly unbreakable things!

After a couple of years, we went back to the regular tree. Then, the tree was used by a series of other people (e.g. my grandmother in a nursing home) and eventually donated to a needy family. We got a lot of mileage out of that cheap tree.

You'll enjoy Christmas more if you aren't worrying about the tree and your special ornaments.

Remember, if it is a decoration of any type that you do not want broken, I would consider not putting it out for a few years until your children are a little older. Takes away the stress for everybody, and congratulations, btw, that is a wonderful blessing. Think win win with the tree and everything else. I imagine you are tired right now anyway, go for the traditions but not if doing them is going to exhaust you. If you bake cookies, for example, do it but maybe just the chocolate chips instead of the five different cookies.

This may sound stupid but just teach her not to. My daughter amazed a woman at that age because she went to her house at Christmas and got right up to things to look at them but didn't touch. I taught her not to by being right there with her and stressing how important it was to look and not touch the pretty things. One of the decoratons we have are these boxes, they open one by one and the little characters twirl around with a different xmas carol for each box. My daughter would sit there and clap while they twirled and when the box started to close she would wave goodbye.

She enjoyed it immensely without "trying" to destroy it. I would show her all of our different musical snow globes but I would let her know that mommy had to wind it up so we didn't break the pretty things. Thank God she wasn't a boy, they look at things and they break. I don't remember how we managed the boys, probably daughter helped me by playing watchdog while they were small (they are now 9, 13, and 16 and I have slept since then).

Just keep telling her over and over again not to touch, it is dangerous and can fall on her and not to touch, because it is pretty and we don't want to break it. I would recommend buying non-breakable ornaments if you don't know if she can do this and if you are like me and have ornaments from my own childhood that are breakable.

Ironically, the kids wanted a dog a couple of years ago, she is huge, 110 lbs, and she would take out a tree in a nanosecond with her tail. I still haven't figured out the xmas tree question with her because I have so many breakable ornaments and had a tree incident 13 years ago when we moved; I was lucky because what did break had no sentimental value.

The little kid, seems like a total nightmare but let her see things as you put them out, don't try to do the tree when she is asleep or gone, have someone to manage her while you do stuff and then the curiosity factor is not quite so big.

My son is now three. He has always been very active and in to everything. For our tree, I put it in the corner of the room. That way he could only get to the front portion and not all the way around it. I never had any issues with him trying to climb it or pull it over, but we were pretty careful to watch him. Keeping him away from the ornaments was impossible! He understood not to touch the tree, but he couldn't resist yanking the ornaments, especially anything that resembled a ball. We tried moving breakable ones to the top, but the bottom half looked bare and then he discovered that shaking the tree branches could make some fall - which to a one year old is apparently hilarious! We have hard floors and after losing a few glass ornaments, I had to take them all off. I went to Big Lots and found some simple plastic ornaments. I was disappointed in having to box up my pretty ornaments, but oddly enough we have gotten more compliments on our tree since the switch. I used diaper pins to keep the tree skirt on, and he seemed to get bored with that pretty quickly. We haven't put presents under the tree yet, I tried last year, but he opened one. Happy Holidays!

I agree the stand up baby gate that was on Jon and Kate Plus 8 is a great idea. We put our tree up in the corner and the sofa was on one side and the tv stand on the other...so she could only have access to one part of the tree. As for decorating the tree I only did the part half.

You may be amazed at how well behaved your daughter will be. My littlest girl was 1 last Christmas and I had the exact same concerns. Yet interestingly enough she didn't touch anything. This year, however, I expect to be the problem year . . .

Anyway, I am a mother of 3 and I never once shirked away from having the Christmas decorations out, because it is an opportunity to teach your little one her boundaries. That being said, you still want to keep her safe! For Christmas trees I believe they make wall anchors so that you don't have to worry she'll pull it down on herself. For ornaments, either leave the bottom empty or put soft, unbreakable ornaments. We actually have Ty Beanie Bear ornaments from a few years ago and that is all I'm putting at the bottom of my tree! Don't use tinsel because it could wind up in her mouth. And for all other decorations, just put them out of her reach and leave sentimental items packed away for now.

Congrats on baby #2!

Hi ! When I had my first (9 now)I put the non breakable ornaments on the bottom part of the tree. That way I still had my good stuff on the tree but where he couldn't break them or get hurt. We worked on looking but not touching or touching with mom there. I also took all the hooks off my ornaments and used ribbon. That way if one fell off, he wouldn't step on a hook or get hurt. I still do that now - especially with a 4 year old ! I know this can be a little stressful trying to keep a toddler out of the tree but it can happen ! Oh - and I didn't put any gifts out until Christmas Eve day. That way I didn't have to worry about the presents getting unwrapped. And again - that's something I still do so I don't have to listen to the whining to open "just 1 present now". One other suggestion I had been giving was to put the tree in a playpen. That way you still see it but it can't be gotten to.

Sorry this is long but I hope some of it helps.

I am sorry but I had to giggle when I read you post! It brought fun memories of my now 8 year old girl and the X mas tree. Years ago when I was a teenager my dad never bought a X mas tree, so when I had my first job and had money I bought one from Eckard and went to Dollar General and purchased my first ornaments. One particular set were plastic covered styrofoam ones of the 12 Days of Christmas. I still have these but now they are forever marked with little bite marks from when my daughter was just about that age. I had put up the tree that year and didnt think anything of it and the next thing I know she pulled off a few and tried to take a bite out of a couple of them. ( I still put them on my tree as a memory keep sake, even if they are damaged ). So lesson learned the bottom half of the tree got the indestructable cheap plastic ornaments that were hung by short pieces of yarn, string or ribbon ( no hooks ) the very bottom was bare and the nice keepsake ornaments were at the very top. I know that it dosnt sound as pretty but hey, it got us through the season and years later you can giggle about it. This might be a good lesson time in trying to teach her not to touch, but for such a small little and curious one it is easier said than done. As for the presants, I used to nanny an autistic child who loved to tear paper so we had to wait until chirstmas eve to put the presants under and kept the wrapped ones up on the mantle or on a table close by. Good luck with the tree skirt unless you devise a covering for the tree stand. Here is an idea, take a large shoe box or card board box and decorate it with paints or something and use it to cover your base. You could put your little one's hand prints on it in pretty non toxic paints and add glitter gel or plastic gems or what ever you think would look cute!

I hope this helps!

J.

When my kids were little we wrapped up the box that the Christmas tree came in and used it to block off the tree. The baby or toddler at the time was able to pull up to the box and look at the tree, but the box was big enough that it served as a wonderful boundary and decorated like a giant present. As they got older, the kids are allowed to play with and look at their ornaments (they get a new one each year) as well as decorate the tree. A lot of times the tree is zoned with each child putting their ornaments on the branches they can reach. Sometimes we would make our own, or use happy meal toys or hot wheels as ornaments they can look at and play with. I love Christmas and my tree and ornaments and I wanted my kiddos to have that same joy.