10 Genius Ways To Toddler Proof Christmas Decorations

Christmas is coming! And with Christmas comes the joy of the holiday season.

I’m both looking forward to and terrified of Christmas.

Why?

Mainly because I’m a mother of a toddler. Preschoolers are a destructive force.

There is no longer a secure location in my home for anything.

Children of this age will use whatever they can get their hands on as a climbing, jumping, or throwing object.

What am I supposed to do with the Christmas stuff now?

Why not just skip the Christmas decorations altogether? But unfortunately, that’s not going to take place.

I’d like to be able to put out all of my lovely, fragile decorations without worrying about children breaking them.

It’s time to reevaluate your holiday decoration strategy!

If you’re worried about your Christmas decorations this year, here are ten ingenious solutions to salvage them.

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1. Upside Down Christmas Tree

A Christmas tree has never been decorated quite like this before. There’s a new fad of putting up a Christmas tree upside down on the ceiling.

Of course, this is only applicable to artificial trees, but it is still quite creative!

By positioning the tree out of reach of curious toddler hands, you can rest assured that no ornaments will be tampered with.

You can find artificial trees that are designed to be placed upside down off the floor.

Here you may find instructions on how to invert your Christmas tree and hang it from the ceiling.

2. Surround Your Tree

Baby gates and playpens serve a dual purpose beyond providing a secure space for your youngster to play.

An inexpensive playpen can serve as a barrier to safeguard your Christmas tree and its ornaments, as well as any presents that may be nearby.

This is a quick and simple method to toddler proof your Christmas tree and keep your precious ornaments safe.

If your kid is an expert climber, that’s the only problem I see with this temporary solution. If your child is a climber, you might want to try one of the other 9 methods for keeping Christmas decorations safe for toddlers.

3. Make Use Of High Shelves

Now that your toddler has reached the age where he or she can climb, you may find that you need to continue elevating fragile items out of reach. I certainly do.

Everything of value, including books, sculptures, and table lamps, has been broken in our home. It is exhausting to outsmart a child every time by trying to change the look of your home.

Clearing off top shelves makes it easier to rearrange and adorn with fragile holiday decorations.

During the winter months, my grandmother’s Christmas town has its very own special spot on a high shelf in my home.

Take a look at this photo of the village from this year!

Valuable holiday decorations are another great choice for a prominent shelf.

Using a Metal Tree Ornament Display Stand is the finest solution I’ve discovered for showcasing fragile decorations.

Hanging glass decorations and sets of ornaments look beautiful on metal tree stands. The best part is that even your biggest decorations won’t topple over because the display stand can support so much weight.

While a tree stand is wonderful during the holiday season, my husband and I are Disney and Christmas fanatics, so we leave certain decorations up all year.

All year long, you can check out our Hallmark Star Wars collection.

I omitted the metal tree in favor of tiny hooks put into the shelf’s underside.

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4. Try A Toddler Felt Tree

To prevent your young child from damaging the real tree, you may want to substitute a felt one.

Like me, you have undoubtedly seen this concept in a million different pins on Pinterest.

I would say this is one of the best tips I’ve found to use as a parent.

Felt Christmas tree kits for toddlers are an easy and fun way to involve your little one in the holiday preparations.

For the sake of your toddler’s sanity, consider hanging a felt tree on the wall in place of the real one.

Felt tree sets also include a wide selection of ornaments made from the same material.

There will be no more heartache over broken or misplaced Christmas tree decorations.

Just give your little one a piece of felt and let them go to town decorating it.

This is just another fun and simple way to keep kids safe.

5. Use Christmas Wreaths & Garland

Wreaths can be used wherever, not only on the front door, to make your holiday decorations more child-friendly.

To display holiday cheer and utilize as a safe place to display fragile decorations, wreaths can be hung anywhere in the home.

For the ornaments that are part of my several specialized collections, I have two long garlands.

I drape one garland over my bedroom door and another around the top of the China cabinet.

Hanging ornament collections from garland and wreaths is a beautiful way to show off holiday decorations.

6. Install An Alarm System On Your Tree

Toddlers are little rascals. When you turn your back, they’ve already damaged something they had no business touching.

Keeping an eye on a child 24/7 is impossible (you have to go to the bathroom at some point), therefore you should set up an alarm system in your tree.

But how does one go about setting up a security alarm? Easy!

Include chimes!!!

The entire tree, from its trunk to its branches, can be decorated with jingle bells.

There’s a good chance you’ll find out if your toddler messes with the Christmas tree or the presents underneath it.

You can keep your tree safe from curious toddlers by installing a jingle bell alarm system.

7. Only Decorate Half-Way

One of the best ways to dissuade wandering hands is to decorate only partially, much like the jingle bell alert system.

Thus, your tree would be decked out only from its top down and its middle out, with the branches in between being left unadorned.

One minimalist option for Christmas trees is to forego decorations completely.

This is the least difficult of all the suggestions for keeping Christmas decorations safe from toddlers.

8. Buy Shatterproof Ornaments

One of the best ways to dissuade wandering hands is to decorate only partially, much like the jingle bell alert system.

Thus, your tree would be decked out only from its top down and its middle out, with the branches in between being left unadorned.

One minimalist option for Christmas trees is to forego decorations completely.

This is the least difficult of all the suggestions for keeping Christmas decorations safe from toddlers.

9. Replace Metal Hooks

While rummaging through my Christmas decorations, I had this brilliant notion.

The ornaments I plan on hanging on the tree are shatterproof, but I’m not sure about the metal hooks.

Accidental bumping and the loss of metal ornament hooks are both possibilities.

It’s not easy to pick them up off the floor if they fall off. Your baby or young child can then pick them up.

The next logical step is for the metal hook to end up in his or her mouth.

In my perspective, there are some threats when metal hooks are used around young children.

Then why not hang up your holiday decorations without any metal hooks?

But then, how do you hang Christmas decorations?

If you’re using metal hooks, try wrapping them with thin ribbon instead.

Certainly, threading ribbon through each ornament hole and tying a bow can take some time.

It may be difficult, but I believe the results will be worthwhile.

In an effort to make my tree safer for my toddler, I intend to shortly replace the metal hooks with ribbon.

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10. Place Stockings Up High

To toddler proof your stockings, you have two options:

Hang them high with nails in the wall
Buy a Christmas stocking weight to put on a high shelf

We use the old method of hanging our family stockings with nails.

The reason being… I can’t find a stocking weight that weighs enough to hold a stocking with anything in it.

But if you find an awesome stocking weight, I’d place it on an upper shelf along with your other breakable ornaments.

Final Thoughts

In their early years, children tend to break things. All year round, not just at Christmas.

However, special care must be taken to safeguard fragile but priceless jewelry.

Having a young child over the holidays doesn’t mean you have to completely forego decorating.

However, what would be the joy in that? You shouldn’t be a Scrooge when it comes to Christmas decorations.

Take advantage of some of these holiday-specific suggestions to toddler proof your home.

Your child can glance at the holiday decorations without risking damage to the family heirlooms.

Works Cited

10 ways to toddler-proof your Christmas tree

7 tips to kid-proof the Christmas tree