Christmas Baby Proofing Ideas

I know someone who puts a little white picket fence around their tree so the little ones can look but not touch. She was concerned about the tree falling on someone if the pulled on it too hard.

We gave up on the glass ornaments, or at least put them at the top of the tree where the kids can't get them. We have a couple of plush ornaments (bears, santa, snomen...) ant plastic ornaments that we put where they can reach. Needless to say I get to redecorate the tree quite a bit, but the kids love it, and it makes them happy. All of the "off limits" decorations for around the house are up where they cannot reach them, but we also have some decorations that they can play with. We keep stuffed Christmas toys and books under the tree (putting presents under the tree is just asking for trouble at our place, so they don't get put out till Christmas Eve) and bought some other cute things to put out so that the kids can play with them. One Step Ahead has a kids manger scene that you can put down for them to play with. We also have a small collections of holiday rubber duckies (the ducks are dressed up like Santa, etc.) that may sound silly but the kids love it. We try to make Christmas as kid friendly as possible so that it is fun for the kids and us. I don't want to spend the entire month getting onto the kids for wanting to touch the pretty things that are out, and Christmas is supposed to be fun for them!

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superyard gate. it'll be on sale at BRU on friday and saturday for $49.99. we got that last year and it helps a ton. we actually found that it works better to open it up and tie it to other stuff and have the tree in a corner so that there is more space around the tree. we have one side of it zip tied to the kitchen gate (which is hooked into the wall) and the other side zip tied to the kids train table. it leaves a bunch of room around the tree so that they can't just reach over and touch it and its working great (we've had our tree up for 2 weeks now). they also sell a 2pk extension kit so that you could make an 8 sided pen and that might work better.

I packed away all the breakables. You can hang fabric, plastic, wooden, etc. On the lower limbs I place small stuffed animals that the kids are allowed to play with and decorate as they wish. They loved that. I liked letting the kids enjoy the tree but some moms are more pacticular and use a baby gate. You could hang any special breakables on a small tree or stand placed on a mantle or high shelf.

Wal-Mart has a box of "tree trimmings" that look like the metal bulbs, but they're all plastic. I think we had to buy our own hooks, though. If you're worried about hooks and kiddos, you could use fishing line or ribbon to hang the ornaments with.

We have always anchored our christmas tree with a string to the wall. It makes us not worry about it falling over. We also provide several "age appropriate" chrstmas decorations that they know they could touch. Fisher Price Little people have an adorable nativity scene we bought last year. We have an almost 4 year old and almost 2 year old. We have already had out tree and decorations up for 2 weeks, and our 22 month old has done great with everything. Best of luck, and hope you have a Merry Christmas.

My parents put up a baby gate/fence around the christmas tree. Then we didn't have to worry about the little ones getting ornaments, lights, garland, etc. It also prevented them from tipping it over or getting to any gifts underneath. HTH!

After a few irreplacible ornaments were broken, we decided to buy the jumbo cheap assortment of plastic ornaments at target and wait a few years to bring out the special ones. You can always look at them while you're getting everything else down and put them back.

We used a baby fence too. I can't remember what it was called (they don't call it a fence, of course), but I think we got ours at Babys R Us.

Good luck!

J.,
Baby-proofing for the holidays is certainly an adventure. One thing I have done, and I get given grief about it every year, is I eliminated the big christmas tree. It cuts down on the dog, the cats, and the kids trying to climb it or play with the ornaments, many of which are breakable. Instead, I have the christmas garland greenery stuff with lights in it and I hang it up around the entire living room. Then as a family we all go shopping and everyone gets to pick out a new ornament every year. Then when we get home, we hang up the new ornaments, and then the rest of our ornaments from the lighted greenery hung around the living room. We do have a small tree, about two feet tall that's predecorated (my oldest insisted on it a few years ago) that we put on top of the entertainment center up high where the little ones can't get to it. It's not ideal if you have your heart set on the traditional tree, but it eliminates the need for extra baby gates and late night crashes and worrying about what the baby might get ahold of or eat or break, lol. And it still looks cool and it's nice and festive. I hope this helps!
S.