Okay ladies, this is our 1st christmas with a toddler that pulls everything down she can reach. So, I know when we put up the tree, we can't put up the breakable balls but if we put on non breakable ornaments, she'll take them all off every night. What do we do???
Thanks ladies for all the suggestions! I put my tree up last week and decided to put my nice ornaments on top and bought the plastic ones for the bottom. I just put a few around the bottom so it wouldn't look empty. Alicia, just wanted to let you know my children and probably most of the others moms would say that their children don't run their lives and my kids don't run around all crazy at the store but as most people know, children are children. One of my twins only needs to be told twice to not pull stuff down or reach into drawers, etc. However, my other twin will listen for a little while and then a few hours later, she'll have an ornament in her hand. All children aren't the same. People handle situations differently that's why we have this forum, so we can get everyone else's ideas and see which fits each of us the best. By the way, I do have most of my breakables out of reach and I'm fine with that. Everyone, thanks again for the advice, can't wait till christmas!!
I always just decorated my tree half way and then watched them around the lights so they didn't pull the tree down when they grabbed the lights. You could just do lights. Last year, my older kids made paper snowflakes, so if the girls got them and ate them it wasn't that big a deal...and it was pretty.
Good luck!
Well, what you do is pretty much complain and pull your hair out everytime she pulls one off, then you end up w/ a tree w/ no ornaments on the bottom and lots on the top, then when your precious child is in bed - you and your husband will look at that sad tree and laugh :)
We finally got out of that stage w/ our kiddos, just this year though - they're now 3, 5, 8, and 11) -- then we got cats and now I can't keep them out of the tree, lol.
When ours were younger, once we put the tree in a playpen, then one year we put in on a card table where kiddos couldn't reach it.
Then we stopped fighting that fight, just put the tree on the ground and anchored it to the ceiling (we put a hook in the ceiling, then tied a string from the top of the tree to the hook so that no kiddo could pull the tree down on themselves - or knock it to the ground).
Even last year my littlest was pulling ornaments off, so all that we could do was smile everynight when we put the kids to bed and looked at our poor bare-bottomed tree and remind ourselves that the toddler years go by so quickly and how truly blessed we are to have experienced them with our four precious kiddos :)
And every time we clean the house for the next few months after Christmas and find an ornament under a bed, or under the couch, it reminds of how much joy our kiddos have each Christmas and keeps the spirit alive for us all year long :)
Merry Christmas :)
I bought a bunch of those ornaments that look like glass but are really plastic. I got mine at target. I used those for most of the tree and put any other unbreakable ornaments I had on the tree also. My boys are now 3 & 5 and we still do that!!
Well I have been through 2 toddlers now. We put only Non breakable items on the bottom such as the soft pillow kind of ornaments, small little sticking that are like ornaments. If they took them off it would be ok.
Then the breakable ones at the top.
Also as a safety around the tree we wanted to make sure if they pulled on the tree it wouldn't fall on them.
So we used a gate around the tree which we put in the corner and keeps them safe. I decorate the gate with Xmas bows so its nice to look at.
We put a few on the bottom of the tree (hardly any) and put most on the top. The tree looked silly but hey, Martha Stewart was not coming over. :) My girls looked at the tree but never really pulled on it. We kept telling them "we don't touch the tree" and the listened. Last year, my 3yo. was more curious and really thought the tree was so pretty and loved the ornaments so she took a few off. We still put the breakables and "special" family ones up top and I am sure we will continue to do that for years but now at least our tree looks "normal". Good luck.
For our first Christmas with a toddler we just put lights on the tree. No garland, no ornaments, just lights. Well, and the tree topper, of course. It was actually kind of cool. AND, it was the easiest thing ever to put up and take down :). Several of our friends did the same thing (we all had kids about the same age).
I used handmade ornaments or unbreakable ones and showed mine how to take them off and put them on. Kept them happy and busy for hours. It was funny how they liked to hang several per branch.
My daughter is the same age and I was trying to figure out what to do. I decided not to put all the decorations up. I decorated only HALF the tree and put the decorations that meant the most to me on the tree and OUT OF REACH to her. I did light the whole tree but left off the garland.
I did consider putting a gate around the whole tree but decided aginst it. I just put the tree in the corner and big items next to it so she has access to only part of the tree.
If you want to decorate the whole tree...try the plastic ornaments that you can find at walmart. Instead of hooks hang it up with Yarn instead. I have a box of these and considered doing that but ...was lazy and only did half the tree. :-)
Hope this helps.
seems like everyone is letting their toddlers run their family's lives! i have a 3 yr. old and an 18 mo. old and i've never done anything different to my xmas tree! i always decorate it with the same ornaments, breakable or not. i've never even CONSIDERED putting a gate around it! i'm guessing all of you also take everything else out of your toddler's reach that you don't want them touching? what ever happened to just teaching them not to touch? from the time my kids could scoot themselves around on the floor i've taught them what they can and cannot touch. it takes LOTS of patience and LOTS of time, but it's worth all the hard work in the end. my kids are the ones you see in the store who will walk next to me and not pull everything off the shelves! do you want to have your kids grow up not respecting other people's stuff? if not, then you need to teach your kids NOW what they are allowed to play with! i personally used a light swat on the back of their hand to teach them not to touch, but you can do it without spanking if you prefer. it will just take a little more effort on your part to pull them back and hand them a toy. they may try to touch the same thing 30 times in a row for several days but eventually they will learn! and then think of the peace of mind you will have when you take them to someone's house and you don't have to worry about them breaking everything in sight!
