Should We Baby Proof Our Christmas Tree?

That is great, yea Joa!! Glad you don't need the gate (trees are more attractive without them

Mikki Hogan
Publisher of UniqueParenting.com

So the tree is up and our little man has not touched it at all. We've had it up since Friday after Thanksgiving. He looks at it, points to it, says "tee", walks right up to it, but does not touch it. He even crawls right beside it and does not touch it. We have shatterproof ornaments and we always keep a close eye, but we didnt even have to put the gate up. I'm so proud of him!

Debra-What? No earthquakes in FL?

It's funny how quickly we forget...I don't remember if we set a gate around the tree or not with Aiden. I do remember being surprised that he didn't get into the things I thought he would. I have a lot of ornaments that are just cross stitched pillows and virtually unbreakable. I put those on the bottom and the breakable ones up top. Like Cheryl, we have some ornaments that have been in my husband's family for many generations. We don't bring those out. And I do remember having to re-wrap a gift or two because someone took off the bows and ripped into the paper. It's so much fun seeing their reaction to everything each year. So far, Aiden doesn't seem to remember from one year to the next, so it's all new each year...

Thank you!
Those are great ideas. I never would have thought about securing it to the wall. Joa is pretty obedient and I don't expect much trouble. But two half days a week I watch another little girl who is 16 months old. She gets into everything. I'll talk to my husband about getting the gate and trying to locate a wall attachment. In FL those may not be popular. Smiley

Debra

I was going to suggest the exact same thing--both the play yard thing and securing it to the wall. I was lucky in that I never had to do any of that--neither boy ever actually went after the tree--but I had friends doing very similar things with their trees.

A couple other things to add. When my kids were little they were actually much more interested in all the pretty packages under the tree than the tree itself. Of course, their stuff wasn't under there. But I would wrap gifts for friends and family and leave them under the tree until Christmas. More than once, the boys pulled off bows, tried to unwrap, or pulled tissue out of gift bags. Just be careful with anything you put under the tree as well.

Also, I know the very top priority is safety for the children. But think about your decorations as well. If you have a special ornament or decoration that means a lot to you, leave it packed away for a few years or put it very high out of reach. I have some Christmas ornaments that were actually my grandmother's, then were on my mom's tree, and then on my tree before I had kids. I haven't put those ornaments on the tree in quite a few years now. I would just be heartbroken if anything ever happened to them. Even though it wouldn't be the boys' fault!

I do remember when I was little our tree always having plastic and other unbreakable ornaments on the bottom half and all my mom's pretty glass ornaments on the top half. She'd basically figure out how high we could reach and everything breakable went above that point!

When it comes to Christmas trees you will find many people telling you to put the ornaments up high on the tree to prevent them from grabbing, what I discovered is the little ones try to "reach" for them which is a little more dangerous than the actual ornament, unless they are glass of course.

My recommendation is to go purchase one of those nifty plastic octagon shaped play yards, they look like a gate but can be set up in the center of the room.  Take this and position it around your tree.  Placement of the tree of course should be in a corner and then you can have the gate in an oval around the tree.  This will be sufficient for the 13month old who becomes fascinated with the pretty ornaments and lights.  (it doesn't help for cats and dogs, in case you are curious  )

Also if your tree can be tipped easy I recommend securing it to the wall or something solid near by, like the earth quake secure straps for trees.  This is probably an unnecessary precaution but it will give the added security if he should manage to bypass the fence, he won't be able to accidentally topple the tree.

Mikki Hogan Publisher of UniqueParenting.com