[isabel41206]

I bought all non brakeable ornaments for the tree last year during the after christmas sales. got some very nice wooden and metal ornaments for next to nothing. I am also using less ornaments and I love our tree this year. Isabel has touched it a few times and she loves her new job of turning on the tree every night.

[drjeanne]

SKL! Sorry I just HAVE to be the one to ask but, why oh why on earth would you have a tree up all year? and where do you keep it? The curiosity is just killing me! teeheehee

Jeanne

[gwenrenee007]

I put the plastic ornaments on the bottom so if they do play with them they don't get broke. Of course they aren't as pretty as the others, but they don't look that bad! Now that Mia is 2 she really doesn't bother it much.

[SKL]

Originally Posted by drjeanne

SKL! Sorry I just HAVE to be the one to ask but, why oh why on earth would you have a tree up all year? and where do you keep it? The curiosity is just killing me! teeheehee

Jeanne

Well, originally we intended to take it down (about 13 years ago), but it got later and later and we just weren't finding the time to do it. It's kinda big and you have to re-bend all those branches every year and the idea of putting it back in the box and finding a place for this big box (currently still "waiting" in our garage) seemed so daunting. I was working 2 or 3jobs at the time, as usual. So one day I got the idea to call it a "blessing" tree and just leave the darn thing up. In our home, we have one orthodox Christian who celebrates Christmas on January 6, and one Hindu who celebrates non-Christian holidays, so it seemed appropriate. The tree is pre-lighted and plugged into an outlet that is powered by a light switch. So whenever we need a little cheer, we just flip the switch and we have a lighted, rotating "blessing tree."

The tree is in the corner of the family room, which is where all the kids' toys are. We do get questions and funny looks when we have summer parties and such, but really, who cares if we want to have a fake, festive tree in our house all year? It works for us.

[Evansmommy]

We switched over to the plastic bulbs when our first was little and I actually like them better! The kids (now 6 and 3) can help hang them and I don't have to worry about them breaking . We also switched all of our hooks over to ribbon at the same time. Again, I don't have to worry about hooks getting lost in the carpet and swalloed, etc. The ribbon is actually easier from year to year. There will be plenty of years for the fragile stuff to come out again in the future!

[adoptnky]

I have two trees. One is 6 1/2 feet and in my "piano" room (actually supposed to be a dining room, but my piano is more important to me then a dining room set) I needed new ornaments this year, so I bought the shatterproof ones from WalMart. We have hard wood floors in that room, and I can say that so far I've been pleased.

Alex has pretty much left this one alone - except to go in and look at "his angel"

I then have a 4 1/2 foot one on the end table in our family room/Alex's play room. This is the one that I have all our "other" ornaments on. Alex helped me decorate this tree. He has done really well with this one, also. He likes to look at the ornaments and occasionally asks me to take an ornament down so he can play with it.

I think I'm just lucky.

Kim

[2forus]

We have a lot of ornaments. I normally put up 2 trees, but not since having kids. I don't have many ornaments that have sentimental value on our tree this year. Only safe and inexpensive ornaments are within the kids reach. We also tie our tree to the wall with a couple pieces of fishing line just in case. It's definitely been a challenge this year, more so than last.

[robandjulie]

We put our tree up in the last few days and were debating on what to do. On one hand we want a tree (duh) but on the other we were worried about the kids destroying it/getting hurt and really just about freaking Jorge out. He got upset when we took down the halloween decorations, upset when we put out some turkey/harvest, upset when we put those away and put out some winter stuff...etc. tossing a tree in the living room and covering it with forbidden toys seemed a sure disaster.

But DD is 3.5 and it was a tough sell.

So we put the tree up without any ornaments and had the kids help. It's prelit and turned on and off throughout the day and it was interesting but not alarming to him. We left it naked for a few days and by day 2-3 he was no longer remotely interested.

Saturday we did the ornaments and I had the kids help me open them and hand them to DH who hung them all. He put all the most special and breakable at the top and the bottom are mostly sturdy. Every ornament on our tree has meaning to us--no plain balls or anything--so it would be sad if one was destroyed but DH clipped the hooks on really well and bent the tree tips up a bit so they're really really well secured.

So far almost no worrisome interest in the tree. This morning we celebrated St. Nick's day a day late and each of us got our new 2008 ornaments in our stocking. The kids each helped me carry them over and pick a hanging spot and they go back and point to them but that's it.

one thing we do and always have with DD is keep a basket of little toys near the tree on a bookshelf a few feet away. If the kids are drawn to the ornaments we hold the kids and talk about the ornament or have htem help point out something ("Can you find a bear on the tree?") for a few seconds and then distract them by offering them one of the little toy cars or whatever from the basket. These are just their usual old toys but they are fished out of the bottom of the toy bins about a month earlier and set aside so they are exciting alternatives to the tree toys.

[shelbydog]

When our kids were really little we put up on of those play yard baby gates around our tree. You can decorate it too so it doesn't look so "plastic!" We didn't care how it looked but were more concerned with safety and ornaments breaking. It worked great.