Christmas Trees and "Gated" communities

I'm going to say it out loud: I very much dislike baby gates. Yes, they are a necessary evil but, I don't like them. In our house we have exactly 3 baby gates. One blocking off my craft-room, the other at the top of the stairs, and the final separating our kitchen with our dining/living room. And, quite frankly, I hate that we have that many. I get why people have them, obviously. But, I draw the line at the baby pens... or corrals... whatever you call them.

Recently I was thinking out loud about what we were going to do with our Christmas tree this year. I had already been dreading what I anticipated would be a "Toby vs. The Christmas Tree" battle. Finally, a coworker suggested I put a corral around it. Um, have you been to my house? A corral would go great with my décor. Not.

After giving it some thought and talking to Aaron (who is also anti-gate/pen) we decided we would have to help Toby learn that some things were off limits to touch. I mean, we do the same with stoves, phones, dog crap and litter, don't we? Why not a Christmas tree? Now, I'm not a miracle worker, or a magician so, it's a pretty tall order to assume I'm going to stop my curious toddler from wanting to touch a 7 foot tree that suddenly appears in our living room. But, we were going to try.

On Pinterest I found an idea for a felt tree. I thought, (channeling Kevin McAllister from Home Alone) "I'll give it a whirl." Over Thanksgiving, I painstakingly cut out little felt ornaments and a tree.

TOBY LOVED IT. We put the Christmas tree and felt tree up during one of his naps and, when he came down, he was amazed. It was really precious. He made for the Christmas tree once and we simply redirected him by saying, "No thank you. Toby's tree is over here." We let him pull off all of his ornaments and redecorate his tree.

That was last weekend; he has touched the Christmas tree about 6 times since then. Each time we say, "Toby's tree is over here." I'm really amazed that it was much easier than I thought it would be. My biggest fear is that he was going to destroy my Mom's tree when we go to the Farm for Christmas. Further, I can't stand myself when I feel like a "no machine" basically telling him over and over he can't do this or that. So, I like to give him another option. Hopefully, if we bring his felt one to the Farm, it will also serve as a distraction and I won't have to be a no machine.

The felt tree was super simple... and it cost me about $12 to make (but it took me a few days simply because I'm anal about everything.) It has kept Toby busy for hours. If you have that pesky curious toddler who wants to get into everything, I totally recommend making one.


***DISCLAIMER: Aaron and I collect ornaments. Every year he buys me one for Christmas and it's the keepsake we purchase when we travel. We have ornaments from NYC, Alaska, San Fran, Seattle... etc. That said, we did keep all our ornaments on the tree out of arms reach and left many of them off until Toby is older.***

 

 

"Well, well, well. What do we have here?"



"Let's take a little looksy under the hood!"

(He was signing "tree" here)

"Mine! I'm GONNA TOUCH EVERYTHING!"