Cats and the Christmas Tree

Hi Marcia! We had a kitty who loved the tree, so I got out the water bottle and put it on the sharp stream and shot it toward her when she tried to climb it. If she sat under it, I let her be, but she she decided to play with the decorations or climb up, she got a squirt. She was fine after that! Good luck and happy hoildays!!

cheapest remedy? I put 10 pennies in a beer can and taped them in. When the cat gets close to the tree (or scratches the couch, or bats at the baby, etc...) I shake it. You can also put a few in the tree when you are gone so they fall out and scare the cats if they try to get in and shake the tree!

Rather than try to keep the cats out of the tree, you might consider putting the tree inside an old playpen or using fishline to attach the tree to your wall so that they can't knock the tree over. We have done both. Personally, the fishline is my favorite. It works well and isn't very noticeable.

personally this my first year WITHOUT any cats to make me redecorate my tree 3-4 times a season
to keep the tree standing we actually tied the tree to anyting thats behind it fo example: a window the top part attatch strig to the wall somehow my mom even went to the lengths of tieing the tree with fishing line( its almost invisible) AND nailing the tree to the floor
hope this helps you

I've also heard that cats don't like the smell of pine. Never tried it, so I don't know how true it is. But, maybe making the tree smell like pine might help. But, I love the squirt bottle, except that I've had cats that don't mind getting sprayed.

Another vote for the squirt bottle technique. The first few times, they'll get the squirt bottle and hate it. Pretty soon they'll be responding like a Pavlovian dog to the mere sound of the 'squirt' and dart away. Once they've gotten the hang of it, all you might have to do is sit the squirt bottle out near the tree and they won't dare go near it.

This may not help alot, but my aunt and uncle sort of went around that problem by building acat house in the tree. That might be a fun family project. Like a cat tree in the tree :)

We have the same issue! This year, my husband took twine and made a "spider web" with it on the bottom row of branches. We're hoping it will prevent them from getting into the tree at all. After reading your other responses, I have some other ideas to try. Good luck!

we wired ours to the wall and ceiling for years. it works to keep it from falling. try a spray bottle of vinegar and water and spray them when you see them near it . it should help. good luck and Merry Christmas

We put bells (they are loud) at the bottom of the tree and this has kept our cat out of the tree. Now he only lays under it. Good luck!

I have heard that cats hate aluminum foil. Maybe put foil around the base of the tree? Or maybe put foil where the cats would have to walk on it before they they get to the tree. Good luck.

Hi Marcia!

I wish you could see the smile on my face right now. When my son was 2, we adopted a kitten. That first Christmas, he was obsessed with the tree, and it was adorable, albeit frustrating. I ended up bolting the tree to the wall, using a sturdy cup hook and some fishing line. That way, if he did climb the tree, at least it couldn't fall over.

Put the breakable ornaments at the top where they're less likely to get batted around, and some nice, unbreakable ones on the lower branches that are within reach of the kitties. You can also attach ornaments with twist ties so they're more firmly attached to the tree.

What else can we do? Cats will be cats.

Thanks for bringing me some wonderful memories of our beloved kitty, King Bing, The God Cat, gone for over 15 years now. What I wouldn't give to have him here with us this year, batting and climbing to his heart's content!

Water in a spray bottle worked for us a few years ago when our cat was a kitten but we had to stand guard for a few days and be consistent every time he went under/on it. We also noticed that once presents were under it and it was harder to get to the base he avoided it. We never put breakable stuff on the tree, either, but that's more because we let the kids decorate the tree and they enjoy moving ornaments around. Good luck... I know some friends who put the tree in a room where they could shut a door and another who basically kept the cat locked in the laundry room for 3 weeks whenever they weren't home or were sleeping.

Hi Marcia,

When I was growing up our cat liked to climb the tree and did in fact knock it down (the first year we had her), so your post brought back a lot of memories for me!

A different slant on the idea of tying the tree to the wall--we had several pieces of marble and granite weighing a few pounds each. We wrapped a string around each piece of rock and tied the other end of the string to the tree. If you place the rocks on different sides of the tree it is very balanced and is not going anywhere when Kitty decides to climb! You can wrap the rocks in paper if you don't like the "rustic look". This also can help if your tree is a little lopsided (not an issue with fake trees, but sometimes live ones lean a little bit).

We also noticed that as Tabby got older, she didn't want to climb so much.

I also have heard that cats don't like tape touching their paws, so you could put some masking tape or duct tape on the floor near the tree, sticky side up, and see if they avoid the area. I have heard that as a suggestion for keeping cats from jumping on furniture, it might work to keep them away from the tree also.

Good luck! Enjoy Christmas with the kitties! ;-)

K. Z.

What a WONDERFUL question! I have an 18 mo. old daughter, a 2.5 yr. old Jack Russell, and now 2 kittens that someone left in a box on my front porch (sure wish I could find a home for them!). I'm going to try water bottle training them to keep them off the furniture - and the tree. Good luck to you!

we put boxes under our tree and thats the only thing that works for us! After christmas, we put empty boxes under the tree and that still works. the boxes are to the base and up to the lower branches. We also, dont put any ornaments low and no breakables!

There is a product called scat and cats hate it , it will keep your babies out of the tree.It's a spray and is made of essential oils it is mostly used out of doors but it works good on christmas trees.

Have you tried the water bottle? From my experience, the best way to break a cat of bad habits is to have a water bottle handy and spray the cat when he is doing a no-no.

We just got a cat too, still kitten, but bigger, and the same issue has come up at our house.
A friend told me that they used to wrap Reynolds Wrap around the tree trunk to a certain point because it made it difficult for the cat to climb up and around. I'd never heard of it, and am planning to try. He said they did it on artifical trees as well as real ones. So.....I don't know if it works yet myself. Also, he said spray ucliptis spray on the branches and at the cat as they apparently don't like it. He said it works better than water and vinegar. Again I haven't tried it myself, but those were the suggestions to me. Good luck.

My mom always used a squirt bottle of water to train the cats. Any time they got near something she didn't want them on or they started to scratch something, etc. she sprayed them. It didn't take long for them to figure out what NOT to do.

We used to use a spray bottle filled with water and sqirt them with it whenever they got in the tree or batted the ornaments. For some reason, they didn't like this and eventuqally, they got the idea. Squirt them when they are in the forbidden zone and a loud NO!!!!