Keeping your toddler away from the Christmas tree
When each of the mummified kids were little, a simple "no!" or "it’s just for looking!" usually worked for keeping them from pulling the Christmas tree on top of themselves. They might have pulled a couple of the decorations off but after a while, the novelty wore off.
Last Christmas, Annabelle was nine months old and she was the most curious of them all. At every opportunity, she was trying to get to the tree and eat the decorations. She is the only one that puts everything in her mouth!
So we brainstormed for ideas to keep our baby AND our tree safe:
Get a small table-top tree - wouldn’t work because I’m a Christmas freak and it wouldn’t be Christmas without my big tree!
Getting an upside-down hanging tree - seemed to be popular last year but not my cup of tea.
Put the tree in a room that the baby doesn’t go into often - ummm, if you have been to my house, you would be rofl at this suggestion! My house is a poky little box small.
Put the tree in a playpen - a good idea but our living room is small and it would have taken up too much room.
This is what we ended up doing - we got one of those wooden playpens. Bill took the hinges off one side to open it up and after putting the tree in the corner, we kinda wrapped the playpen around the tree so Annabelle couldn’t reach it. Worked for us!
Some other ideas include:
* letting the toddler have their own little Christmas tree with unbreakable (stuffed toys?) decorations that they can decorate whichever way and whenever they want)
* only decorating the top half of the tree and leaving the bottom half bare
* anchoring tree by tying it to the wall or window frame, etc so the tree doesn’t topple over
* putting the tree in the corner and moving the couch in front of it
This year, she doesn’t seem too fussed with it. She had a ball helping us hang the decorations and when it was finished and the lights were put on, she was happy to sit with me on the lounge and watch the lights flash 
The one thing that I won’t be doing, but I usually did, is put the gifts under the tree before Christmas Day (not the kids’ gifts, just everyone else’s). I think if I put them out, Annabelle would be tempted to get to them!
How do you keep babies and toddlers away from your Christmas tree?
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