Hellobee Boards

the baby gate is a good idea! one of the play-yard types that can wrap around the tree.

we didn't have a toddler last year, but we had a puppy with lots of curiosity and energy, so we elevated the tree. we covered an old wooden bench with pretty fabric, and plopped the tree up there. then we just put the gifts around the tree on the bench and the floor in front. it actually looked really nice, and the pup couldn't reach!

oh I have also seen (fake) christmas trees set up INSIDE of a pack n play. Saves money if you don't want to buy multiple baby gates or a playyard gate. Maybe we'll do that this year!!

DD has never touched our tree so we still put it up. She's so good sometimes. Woohoo!

My family had live trees every year and the only precautions my parents took were warning us to be careful, and pulling us away if we tried to put needles/ornaments in our mouths. There were never any problems with the kids (only the cats!).

In my experience, toddlers realize that Christmas trees are special and will treat it as a sacred magical object! You could also get a more prickly tree, so that there's less incentive to grab onto it... *evil*

Just make sure they don't touch it! Tell them not to. Get the Elf on a Shelf and make the tree seem veerrrry important and a no-no to touch!

If you can't keep your LO away from the tree, it's no reason to not put one up- it's a time to practice listening skills

No LO one yet but I don't have any family or friends that didn't put one up cause they were scared of the LO's touching the tree. I think that my SIL just didn't put any ornaments on the bottom one year, with her first, but just did the whole tree last year with her 2nd. I don't know anyone that had issues after telling them no a couple times.

We always get a real tree, and we haven't had any issues with DD. The first Christmas (she was 6 months, so crawling), we mostly were able to keep her away from the tree or practice touching it gently, which seemed to work. Last year (she was 18 months) she was soooooooooo into Christmas, so it was very easy to convince her to be gentle with all of our decorations. She didn't want to break them. Oh, we also only put lights/ornaments on the top half of the tree, which looks a little weird, but keeps curious hands off of the more breakable stuff.

We'll see what happens with DS this year. He'll be 9 months and probably cruising by that time, so we'll just have to watch him carefully around the tree.