Years ago a woman at church gave me a suggestion for my first daughter at Christmas time. A quick idea helped toddler-proof our Christmas tree. It seemed so simplistic at the time that I couldn’t imagine it would work! Yet, here I am. I’ve used this tried and true trick for about seven years now, and it’s worked every single time. Even with my last wild child who helped fill my quiver to overflowing and lock the doors of my womb forever more. Bless her heart.
The simple process that helped toddler-proof our Christmas tree
As a new mom eight years ago I worried how I would keep my precocious toddler away from my tree. I’ve always been the sort who decorated my tree in an heirloom style. I had ornaments my mother had gotten as a young woman in Germany. I had the first glass balls I had ever owned, ones my mom had plucked from her own tree to help me fill my branches. I even had the Snoopy ornament from my first Christmas as a baby. I had gotten most of these from boxes, after my mother’s recent death, and clinging to these memories helped me. So thoughts of my child toppling over my tree filled me with dread, and I expressed such to the ladies at church one day after the service so many years ago.
Just yesterday my spouse found an old photo on his phone I had sent him of our third child enjoying the Christmas tree. And earlier in the day, I had seen elaborate fences and barricades decorated with wrapping paper and bows to keep toddlers away from the tree during the holiday season. The photos I saw were ways to keep young children away from the tree, but the one my husband found was of our crazy toddler enjoying the tree. We had gone through the terrible twos three times, and made it through the Threenager Tornado in triplet. Through that time we had suffered zero tree incidents and absolutely no, I repeat no broken ornaments. So what’s our secret?
We did it without barricading the tree or putting it on a table. We found a way to survive Christmas through the toddler years, and it’s called “The One Finger.”
