Crawler and a Christmas Tree

At almost 11 months I would think that your daughter is getting to where she understands that there are things she cannot touch. My son was 9 months last christmas and although we did put ornaments up higher so he couldnt reach them we also just spend the first week or so that the tree was up teaching him that he was not allowed to touch it and eventually he got the point and really pretty much left the tree alone. The bonus to that was that he would also then leave trees alone at other peoples houses as well because he knew they were off limits. Although I am all for babyproofing to keep kids safe I think that in the long run nothing takes the place of teaching your kids what is within bounds and what is off limits (even though that is sometimes a lot of work in the short run). Good luck!

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When mine were little like that we would put the tree in a corner. This way they only had limited access to it, and if they did push it, it didnt fall on thm or anything else. Also we put ornaments up out of reach, so bottom part has nothing on it (except lights if you like). The fun part is keeping the presents safe! Many a time the name tags would be ripped off and or the bows. We would put the gifts in the back part of the tree by the wall, but with an artificial tree you probably dont have the overhang on the bottom to "hide" the presents.
Enjoy the holidays with your baby!!

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We had both last yesr (a tree and a crawler/waddler) and put our playpen around it. Not super stylish but quite safe!
Good luck!

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We just didn't hang ornaments within reach, and treated it like the 1000 other things in the house the baby wasn't allowed to mess with (stove, toilet, tub, cabinets, curtains, electronics, exterior doors, kitchen appliances, etc.). Didn't have any problems until he was 6, and crashed into it wresting with the dog... :) oy. Didn't fall completely over though, even with a 50lb boy and a 75lb dog, just lost about half the ornaments as it got smashed into. Huzzah for oversized bases!!!

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Hi A.,

Ahh, it's always something isn't it! :)

We put soft ornaments that wouldn't get damaged near the bottom of the tree in case my son grabbed at them and otherwise just used it as a lesson of things we could look at but not touch. I was surprised at how quickly he understood the concept.

Good luck!
T.

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My son was 8 months at his first Christmas and we bought some cute, inexpensive felt ornaments to put at his level. This way he could enjoy them, but if they got pulled off it was no big deal...

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The first couple of years with our little ones we got a small tree and set it up on a table, so it was out of reach and so where the presents!

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Secure the tree to the wall with fishing line. You would need to do it in at least two places. Also, although this is really obvious, don't put breakable ornaments on the tree. :)

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We put one of the plastic baby playyard gates around our tree that year. We put the tree on a small side table so you could see it behind the gate. I decorated the gate with some tinsel around the top and a row of lights (which my daughter didn't seem to bother) and that worked good. Not the most attractive option but easy enough.

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Put one of those play yards around it... like this kind...
http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2266978
I have a ten month old and that is what I plan to do. I'm not a fan of just putting ornaments up high... a baby would still have to much access to the cords, outlet, pine needles, presents etc etc.

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Ornaments go out of reach on the tree. If you want, you can put unbreakable type on the bottom. One year we put the little white fence you get to go around your flower gardens around it. We had a train set at the time and put the train around it on the other side too. Just give alot of space so baby can't reach over or through whatever you decide.

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Oh, the joys of motherhood! I have five children and two grandchildren. We never used anything. You constantly have to keep an eye on them. For instance, if your doing laundry, take the child wherever you go. Have them 'help'. This also encourages 'help' at an early age. Crawlers are a lot of work. They need to know their boundaries while still having fun. By using indirect ways that are positive, then they will learn. Redirecting their attention to something else or to 'help' you works great. There will be times that it is tempting, but they are never too old to talk to them about what can hurt them and what-not. This is a great time to pick them up and sit them down in another area and tell them that those things can hurt them if they pull on them.
This strategy, I found, was not only helpful to me but as they got older they understood that when I talked to them they would listen. This is also a great technique in case you go over to a friend's house and they can't touch a particular item. They have to learn sometime to listen to you. The earlier you start, the better.
I hope this was informational.
Good luck.

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For years our xmas tree was bear at the bottom. I would get one plastic ornament and put at the bottom so she could play with that one. After a while of not making a big fuss about it and the new wore off.... she never bothered it.

(I didn't read the other responses.)

We also have a fake tree, about 5 feet high. We put ours on a small table, with the tree skirt hanging over it like a table cloth. It's actually quite cute that way. All of the ornaments are out of reach that way.

Excuse my briefness, but, put it in a play pen.

We put cardboard up around the base of our fake tree...can't remember where we got such a big piece from. My concern was our little one would run into a branch (metal covered in fake needles). We also didn't have any ornaments at the base to attract our little one.

Honestly, what we did was chose the really prickly variety (don't know which one that is) and we put all the ornaments out of reach. Since you have a fake tree, I'd just say keep the ornaments up higher than baby's reach.

We bought a small 4' pre-lit tree and put it on a card table (decorated with a table cloth and tree skirt) for that year. We ended up loaning it to friends when their kiddos were that age too. Worked perfectly! :-)

Put a superyard around it if you have one. That's what we did.

Just place ornaments up high enough on the tree.

My daughter put her tree up on a table. Perhaps yours is too tall for that? Another idea, if the tree is tall, is to put it behind a large piece of furniture. Plastic ornaments on the bottom is a great idea. She'll be cute as she checks them out with your supervision.

You're right to want to keep the tree out of her reach. it would be easy for her to pull it over on herself. I like the play pen idea. You could find a large piece of card board at a store that sells large appliances if you want to go that route. However, couldn't she pull that down?

You could put the tree in a room that you could block off so that she isn't able to go into the room by herself.

I grew up with real trees which were always table top size when my brothers and I were young.

I didn't decorate the bottom third of the tree the year my daughter was in the same stage. It looked kind of funny, but it worked.
If you are worried about it falling over if she tries to pull up on it, you can put one of those superyards around it. ours was fairly close to our couch so my daughter would pull up on that to stand and look at the tree.

I did find that while my daughter was quite fascinated with it for the first week and we had a lot of re-direction, she pretty much left it alone after she got use to it.