HOW will I keep kids out of my Christmas tree?

[SaraElise]

We let the kids decorate the bottom half with non breakable ornaments and put anything special up at the top.

In the 6 Christmases we've had kids the only issue we ever had was last Christmas our (then) 3 year old thought it was hilarious to throw toys at the tree and try and get them stuck in it.

We ended up taking down our breakable ornaments after he broke one. I'm hoping we don't have anymore issues this year. Mostly they understand after a day or two that they are in no way allowed to touch.

[Mom2Connor]

We put the baby pen around our tree the second yr (DS was only 5 mo his 1st Christmas).

I heard an old quote, maybe someone has already said it here (I didn't read sorry). The first year you put the baby in the pen, the second year you put the tree in the pen. It definitely applied for us. This yr, DS has left the tree alone for the most part but it's only been up for two days and all that's on it so far is the lights. I expect it to get worse as soon as the decorations go up.

[meeshkasheeba]

This is the first year in 6 that we have breakable ornaments on the tree. It is a nice change, but when I was concerned that my kids would break the ornaments we just used plastic. It was reasonable. I couldnt imagine not having a tree up.

[babymakes3.4.5....]

I have the kids draw, craft, and bake (play dough) ornaments and use this to decorate our tree right now. Not quite the picture perfect tree but they take a lot of pride in helping with the Christmas decorations and enjoy doing it, so it's a good trade IMO

[knodceo]

The kids have a fake tree that they can play with. It is maybe 2 ft tall and bright pink.

The adult tree doesn't get touched by kids..we also don't put expensive ornaments on the bottom

[kanga1622]

Last year we put up our tree with the integrated lights. Then we put plastic cookie cutters on the tree instead of ornaments. 100 cookie cutter set was like $10 at Walmart and made for a very colorful tree. Then I didn't worry too much about DS touching them since they couldn't hurt him and any strays found after the decorations were put away were easy to put away in the kitchen.

He loved them and several became his favorites and made regular disappearances from the tree.

Sent from my iPod touch using DS Forum

[Brooke789]

We have a gate around our tree again this year. I was hoping our 2.5 year old twins would be able to stay off of it but it didn't work out, so we drug the gate down. I was really looking forward to selling that gate on Craigslist!

[Mom2Connor]

Ok, so I decorated it last night while DS was sleeping and DH was at work. I left off all the shiney breakable glass balls, and just put the other decor up. Anything breakable went at the top, and everything else from the middle and down.

He's been poking at them all morning saying "ooo, wow." We've already had the talk a few times about looking but not touching, so we'll see how things go over the next few days. LOL

[crunch!910]

We bought a table top tree, 2-3 foot tall. The 7 month old can't get to it,a nd the 3 year old knows not to mess with it, and we still get a "tree" and pretty lights.

[Terra]

Originally Posted by kanga1622 Last year we put up our tree with the integrated lights. Then we put plastic cookie cutters on the tree instead of ornaments. 100 cookie cutter set was like $10 at Walmart and made for a very colorful tree. Then I didn't worry too much about DS touching them since they couldn't hurt him and any strays found after the decorations were put away were easy to put away in the kitchen. He loved them and several became his favorites and made regular disappearances from the tree. Sent from my iPod touch using DS Forum

Too cute, you'll have to post a picture if you have one.

OP, I've also found that after a few days the novelty wears off and only every now and then my boys would go touch it.