Wednesday, December 12, 2007

WFMW- childproof (petproof) your tree


I've been putting off decorating our tree this year. We've had the actual tree up for a couple of weeks, but have hesitated with the ornaments because of our two new kittens. I keep having visions of broken ornaments being batted around the living room. I also worry about the metal ornament hooks being eaten or choked on. So this year we're going back to a technique that we used when we had toddlers in the house and we needed to childproof our tree.

It's a very basic solution- secure the ornaments on the branches instead of simply hanging them. When my kids were little, we did this using red ribbons to tie each ornament securely on the tree. You could also use twist ties (green would blend in with the tree) or colored pipe cleaners. This year we are going to use small, clear plastic electrical ties. It does make it a little more work to take the tree down, but it's worth it knowing that everyone is safe.

Secure your ornaments- it works for me. Head on over to Rocks in my Dryer to find more WFMW tips!

3 comments:

Kim said...

When my son was small - we always put red plastic balls on the bottom half of the tree - they blended in well with the other decorations but if he got ahold of one (which he never did) they were safe and unbreakable.

My nephew once grabbed a red glass ball and bit into it like an apple - we managed to get it away from him quickly without him being hurt.

Jodi Jean said...

they just showed something similar on martha the other day, she attached her onaments with 3" of floral wire (its green wire you can find it at any craft store). she secured it to the ornament, and then wrapped it around the tree branch, plus you can leave it on the ornament and use it over and over, this is what i'm planning on doing this year

Christy said...

That's a great idea! My one-year-old is so proud of herself whenever she pulls an ornament off!