my father told me that when we were little, they would buy the trees that hurt - there are soft needle pines and pricky needle pines ( i dont know the names of them, sorry, but maybe you can test feel? :-p).

when little hands reach in to grab the tree, OUCH!!  those needles are sharp.  only takes once or twice and they learn.

now, this will save the tree from toppling, but not really ornaments or tinsel on the edges of branches

this is our own plan for this year - i’m hopeful!

We also have a curious little one (12 months old) this year and were concerned about what she would do with the tree. She’s pulled a couple of ornaments off the bottom (unbreakable ones), and up until this afternoon that was all she did. Then, I heard a cry coming from the living room—there she was stuck under the tree! She saw the cat sleeping under it and had to investigate. Since that adventure, she hasn’t been too interested in the Christmas tree!

Our second married Christmas our daughter was eleven months old.  To keep her from pulling the tree down, my husband tied the tree to the inside the house part of the door bell on one side and the rod of a nearby closet on the other with some fishing line.  Since the fishing line is clear, nobody noticed unless we pointed it out.  We have done this every year since, sometimes to a curtain rod, sometimes to a hook put temporarily in the wall.  We have never had any one of our eight children pull down the tree, and not from lack of trying!  We also only put non-breakable items on the bottom of the tree.  we usually omit the tinsel or just put it up high.

When I was a kid, my parents tied the tree to the wall to prevent it from being toppled (though I think this was more because the cat tried to climb it than for the sake of baby or toddler related mishaps). I think they used twine (tied on one end around the trunk). If the tree is against a wall, a small hook screwed into a stud could be used at the other end without doing too much damage.

I just remembered one more thing my parents have done to stabilize their tree—placing the tree stand on a large piece of plywood, and screwing the tree stand to the plywood. Makes it nearly impossible to tip over—and the tree skirt covers the plywood. When Christmas is over, just take out the screws and save the plywood for next year.

Well, we have an artificial tree that’s lit with fiberoptic strands—no pullable lights (any more than the tree itself). We have two or three color wheels that can be used with it, but it’s pretty without any of them—I think it looks like streaks of starlight interspersed within the branches. I love a real/live tree but we have opted for this one for a few years, for various reasons, one being it’s more kid-friendly/less maintenance.

For a few years now, we’ve put a small fake tree on a little table and use pretty much only kid-friendly ornaments (with a few special delicate ones up high). I put on the lights, but the kids do the rest (6 and 3; our 16 month old wasn’t very helpful). We’ve actually never had any problems at all with the kids bothering the tree, but I like to think if it tipped over I wouldn’t mind. It’s more important to have a tree they can really enjoy than to worry about the damage they might do.

Next year we’ll be having a real tree (and hopefully a big one) and I think we’ll anchor it to the wall with fishing line, as suggested above. Just as a safety measure since the bigger tree might actually hurt if it fell on a little person.

By the way, our dog has ignored it completely, but I think we’d have problems there if we didn’t avoid edible things like candy canes and popcorn strings.

My parents did both the tying the tree to the wall with fishing line *and mounting the tree base to plywood “tricks”—looking back, I guess they wanted to be extra-safe!
The one year we had a curious crawling baby, we used one of those multi-sided playgates secured with bungee cords to the surrounding furniture.

I love trees, too, Arwen, but I am at a loss as to what to do.  At 11 months, Teddy is still pretty easy going and wouldn’t go after the tree too much.  With us - it’s the cats.  They’ll view the tree as an indoor climbing challenge.  Gah!

Anyone have tips for dealing with cats and artificial trees?  I may just have to put it up in a room that I can close off…

We have bought shorter trees and placed them on a dresser.  That worked out pretty well.  This year, our four and six year olds decided that they were going to flock our tree with a roll of toilet paper.  At least we only had the lights on.  LOL

Whenever we have a little one (every two years or so), we put the tree up on a table. Our ceilings are pretty high, so we can still get a 5 foot tree. We also have a very small metal cup hook permanently attached to the corner where we usually put our tree (you can’t really notice it the rest of the year) where my husband attaches clear fishing line (about halfway up the tree) to secure it to the wall. Last year we had a full-sized tree and forgot how much more expensive it was to buy an 8 foot tree! We’re glad to be going back to the 5 foot version this year because of a rambunctious toddler.
If we put our “touchable/playable” Nativity set at the floor under the table, the little ones play with that and it distracts them from trting to get to the tree a little bit. We also run a toy train set under there. I have bought a couple of those metal tree-like hanging frames to hang my really special ornaments as table/piano decorations, further away from little hands.
Whatever you do, have a Blessed Christmas in the light of your tree!

My mom wired the tree to the wall after my sister pulled it over on herself. At the time it was scary, but looking back my mom always giggles when she thinks of my poor sister’s startled face poking up between the branches. We kept wiring it to the wall even after there were no kids to knock it down because our cats would try to climb it. It worked!

Our tree doesn’t go up until Christmas Eve, and stays up until Epiphany.  Christmas Eve is a long day of waiting for my little ones, and I don’t have to cook/clean since we go to my parents’ home for dinner on Christmas Even and my in-laws’ on Christmas Day.  So, we make homemade paper ornaments with the kids and hang them on the lower branches, and put a few of the less fragile ornaments on the upper branches.  The kids (6,4,3 and baby) love it.

Ah, the age-old question!

I have a three-year-old, who is careful with the tree, and a one-year-old, who most emphatically is not.  This year, we’ve put the tree up in our little front room (it’s sort of an extended office/entry hall).  There’s a gate cutting it off from the rest of the house; the computer is up there, along with lots of other stuff that we don’t want the kids getting into, so they never get to roam freely there.  It’s a good, safe place for the tree.  You can see it from the living room and dining room.

I do miss having the tree in the living room, but at least we are able to enjoy it without worrying about Lukey eating ornaments.  He would, too.

Our son was 11 months old last Christmas.  The solution we came up with was to cut the tree down and put it on top of our drop leaf table.  Initially I was a little depressed to have such a small tree, but once it was decorated it looked really nice, and we have so many other Christmas decorations that the house still looked very festive.  An added bonus is that we didn’t have to rearrange any furniture.  This year we decided to do the same thing.  My son is old enough to understand instructions, but if he’s curious enough he can’t help himself from “selective hearing”.  Plus, I hate to spend the whole day nagging him, saying no, etc.

We have taken a few baby proofing precautions over the years with our tree when a toddler is in the house. For that 1-1 1/2 year range we put a super yard gate around the tree and didn’t put the tree up until a week or so before Christmas.  In conjunction with that gate, we also did not put any glass ornaments on the tree, and only ornaments that the baby could touch or play with and not get hurt were placed on the branches that she could reach.  For 2-3 year olds I just make sure that ornaments they can’t break are on the bottom branches.  Another thing that helps divert attention from the tree is to put a child safe nativity under the tree.  We have a Little People nativity and my girls look forward to playing with it al year.  My 4 year old LOVES playing with it and currently, I have a pyramid formation of biblical characters sitting under my tree next to the stable where baby Jesus is happily staring back.  And best of all, I haven’t had to remind my 4 year old once to not touch the tree.

To stabilize our tree, we use a thin (but strong!) copper wire that runs from the base of the tree (wrapped around the trunk a few times) to 2 small nails that are attached to 2 window frames that the tree sits in front of.  It has worked thus far…  ...  ...

You can tether the tree to the ceiling or wall to prevent falling.
Wrapping large weighted boxes and creating a perimeter around the tree can be a good way of keeping baby away yet still being aesthetically pleasing.
We have found that while at first the baby is fascinated with the tree after a couple days it loses its allure and they leave it alone.
We’ve had many Christmases with crawling babies and toddlers and we’ve yet to have a tree topple.
The cat is more of a problem :D

I was caught totally unprepared for this exact issue, because my older daughter (now three) was remarkably compliant, and while curious would head our warnings not to touch.  So I was shocked that after putting up our 9 ft tree, my one year old daughter would not leave it alone.  She is like a magnet to it.  And appears out of no where with shiny baubles in had to show off. 
The solution that I figured out yesterday was to break out the baby gates and block of the what ends up being living room/ dining room and entry way.  For the architecture of our house this is actually a very practical solution, since the rooms that she should be in the most are still open to her, she doesn’t even notice, unless of course that gate comes down for even a minute, and no matter where she is, she finds a way to slip through.

When my daughter was 19 months at Christmas, we wrapped several large boxes which were filled with scrap lumber - we had this on hand - anything heavy will do.  We then wrapped the boxes with wrapping paper.  It had the same effect as the baby pen, but looks more festive. The funniest part was that everyone who came in wanted to know what was in the big boxes!

Our kids are about the same ages as your two.  Last year, because we had a new baby, I wasn’t up to the task of keeping my two year old son away from the tree.  So all the breakable ornaments were on top and the others were on the bottom.  My son would take some of the ornaments off the tree, and I lived to regret our decision to let him play with it.  This year, we’ve decided to take a more proactive approach.  My daughter (who just turned one) is walking and into everything, but we’ve decided to tell her no when she touches the tree.  My son is now three and understands no touching this year, and helps to remind the one year old to not touch as well.   We’ve also put the tree in the formal front room of the house, and the kids aren’t really allowed to play in there much anyway.  We do use a playpen, and that keeps her “contained” if I have to step away for whatever reason.  It’s funny, but the playpen is actually in the same room as the tree, so she gets plenty of time to look at it without touching.

As a side note: it’s very cute to watch my three year old’s eyes light up everytime we turn the lights on the tree.  He’s even taken to hugging and kissing the “Chwismas twee wif da lights” goodnight.  So I guess he does touch the tree a little bit.

Skip the tinsel - too dangerous! Everything else you can manage and they learn!

We have an enormous train set and village setup under our tree—-to keep everything safe, but allow all to enjoy it, my hubby actually constructed a giant platform and a fiberglass wall.  It’s perfect to keep those little hands away from temptation!

We decorate only the top half of the tree. I look forward to the day the whole tree can be decorated!
We put our tree up already with lights and garland, but no ornaments. Until Christmas Eve only our Jesse Tree ornaments go on the tree. Surprisingly, my 1 year old tornado has left it alone- it’s the 3 and 5 year olds who can’t keep their hands (or paper airplanes or lightsabers) off the tree!