Toddler Friendly Christmas Tree Decoration Ideas

Bloggers are quite outspoken creatures. Well, you can’t really be a blogger without this quality.

So I was a little bit disappointed that my little girl, who’s 18 months old at the moment couldn’t keep her tiny hands off the already decorated Christmas tree and kept stealing and hiding the ornaments thinking it’s a hilarious game. I kept saying ‘no’, then put the piece of decoration back on the Christmas tree theatrically, telling her look how pretty is this and it should remain right here, hanging on the tree. She didn’t take any of that. Me, not having a plan B, I had to migrate all the ornaments to the top third of the Christmas tree.

This is how eye-catching it looks:

Both my children are climbers. They scare me to death on a daily basis with this habit of theirs. Climbing on the furniture, so that they can reach the Christmas tree ornaments will lead to falling I have no doubt about it and that can result in a broken wrist or other injuries. We don’t want that.

Kept wondering at the same time if there was a better solution. So I asked some of my blogging buddies, how did they solve this problem. Turns out, they had quite quite a few good ideas, so I’m going to share them now.

First of all, to my great relief, I wasn’t the only one with my Christmas tree design. Both Becky from The Mummy Adventure and Lisa from Mumma Scribbles used this technique.

“We’ve gone for the top three quarters decorated here! Any non breakable ones are on the bottom just to keep him happy but everything else is out of reach!” – said Lisa

Another popular trick is to section off the part of the room where the Christmas tree is located. Normally by using a baby play pen. This looks a very good toddler proofing idea to me, shame we already have got rid of the play pen!

Renee from Close Enough To Kiss says: “We sectioned off our room as everything we tried our son destroyed! He even pulled the tree into himself!”

Cara from Moments Of Mum thinks the same: “This is ours each year because my toddlers think they are tree parkour champs.”

Make edible ornaments are also a good option. By the way, as far as table top Christmas trees go, ceramic Christmas trees are great! Just put them out of reach for toddlers because if these fall, they’ll break for sure. I love the first Lenox ceramic Christmas tree in this blog post.Two years ago I made Lebkuchen Christmas Tree Decoration (German honey and ginger cookies) and decorated the whole tree with them. It looked absolutely fantastic and it was safe of course. However, I had to keep baking for four sodding weeks to replace all the ornaments my son (and my husband…) ate straight off the tree. (I only had one child at the time, so I had the extra time to do things like this. I’d probably won’t attempt to make these again for a few years.) Here’s the recipe: Christmas Lebkuchen Recipe 

Clare from The Happy Weaner had the same idea but she made cute little gingerbread men (I do like the popcorn garland too!):

Hollie from Thrifty Mum however, had a different (probably slightly better idea than mine) and made inedible ornaments: “We’ve made ours out of salt dough so they can be easily replaced if my little ones decide to knock them off the tree!” They look very cute and would make a lovely handmade gift idea for the grandparents for example.

Debbie from My Boys Club also made their Christmas tree decoration together with her boys and they used pine cones. They look absolutely gorgeous in different colours, they are eco-friendly and cost next to nothing.

Nadia from Scandi Mummy suggests to use “Chunky wooden ornaments that can’t easily break.” Combining a few pieces of statement ornaments made of natural material and these chunky wooden stars will guarantee a Scandi style minimalist Christmas tree look.

Others casted their votes by a minimalist tree.Becky from Incredible Isla Blog said: “We’ve bought a slimline tree that we’ve shoved down the side of the sofa so they can’t get to it!” I was very impressed when I read that, but wait for the photo:

But Emma Ann from The Cheshire Wife has definitely won the Most Minimalist Tree Award. She said: “This is our Christmas tree – no mess and it’s dog ( I’m guessing cat ) friendly ?” It’s basically everything friendly. Cat, dog, kids, grandpa, pet alligator.

Ultimately, you can also turn your whole house into one big sensory Christmas experience for the kids. I adore this idea of Star from Autism Kids On Tour: “I have a small tree the kids can decorate and un decorate as they please. I also have a pool full of Christmas sensory fun, a Christmas card and Christmas list writing station. I have sparkly snowball bauballs to play with, movable Christmas stickers on the mirror and Christmas books to read. Christmas decorations in my house are child friendly and fully playable with!” With having all this for themselves they will hopefully leave the big a Christmas tree alone!

How did you child-proof your Christmas tree?