Kitties and Christmas trees!

[All Creatures Great And Small]

Well, it's almost that time of year, when some of us decorate our houses for Christmas, and then the kitties try to un-decorate!
Let's hear some stories and hopefully see some pictures of how your kitties behave during the holidays!

We've always had real trees - I remember when I was a kid, having at least 2 Christmas trees tipped over by kitties. (We finally started putting a screw-type eye in the wall behind the tree and tying the tree to the wall with some twine. One kitty, our big 25-pounder, got almost to the top of the tree before it tipped over.) If I remember correctly, this usually happened in the middle of the night. My mom started spraying the trees with that Hartz Indoor NO stuff - all my childhood Christmas memories involve the horrible smell of that spray! (Which never worked, by the way)

Then, when I got married and got my own kitty, we had to put metal rabbit-type fencing around the base of the tree to keep the kitty away, because she was very young and goofy. The year after that, we had a kitty AND a toddler in the house, so we skipped the tree altogether and just had a lighted wreath hanging on the wall (LAME! ) When girl kitty got older, she stopped knocking ornaments off the tree and just liked to lay under it like the best Christmas gift ever, after having a refreshing drink from the tree stand. One year I wrapped up some especially pungent catnip mice for my mom's kitties, but as soon as I put them under the tree, my girl kitty started batting the package around. I had to put it away until Mom came over for Christmas. Even then, my kitty sat right at her feet while she opened the box, and then "tested" the catnip mice for Mom's kitties (they passed inspection). The Christmas just before she died, when she was 14, I woke up one morning and found one lone ornament sitting on the floor next to the tree, and some chew marks on the edges of some of the gifts - she wanted to have one last fling, I guess.

Now, we have this fairly young and silly boy kitty, and we didn't even give him a chance to get at the tree - before we even put it up, we went to Home Depot and bought an actual wooden interior door with glass panels, put some "feet" on it, and stood it in the opening between the hallway and the living room, since there's no door there. It was kind of a pain to have to slide it out of the way, but we figured it was better than having a tipped tree. When he was allowed in the living room, he would immediately start drinking the water out of the tree stand, and then he would rub his nose against the tree branches and try to chew on them. This will be our first Christmas with an artificial tree, but we have all glass ornaments on the tree, and a lot of them are family heirlooms, so I'll probably still have to put up the "holiday door".

[neko1]

We cannot put up a tree anymore cause my kitties are HORRIBLE with it!! The first year we moved into the house and put up the artificial tree, we decided to leave the house for a couple of hours. When we returned their were shattered ornaments as far as the eye can see!! In the living room, kitchen, hallway...So then I decided to supervise them with the tree. Well they like to chew the cord of the lights, eat the fake pine needles, and also eat the garland thus breaking it in different spots so you can't string it across the tree. So one year I decided to put up the tree and lock the cats up in their room when we weren't around but that is not fair to them to have to be locked up for a month! So this year (as well as last year) we have no tree out. OH yeah and they also like to vomit on my quilted tree skirt!!

[All Creatures Great And Small]

NAWTEE KATS! But I know you'd rather have them than a Christmas tree anyway........

[wolflady]

LOL Christmas is one of those times when our feline friends tend to act out. It must be exciting to have a tree...inside! Aren't all those dangly things supposed to batted around the room?
Socks (my mom and dad's cat) really loves tinsel. Every year, we usually put the "icicle" tinsel on the tree, and lately we start it up a little higher in hopes that he won't eat it. It can't be good.

I'll never forget the one year when everyone was at the house for Christmas and Socks had eaten some of that tinsel. We were blessed with not only tinsel-tootsie-rolls in the sand box, but also tinsel butt!! Socks must have felt festive with the strand of tinsel hanging out of his rear-end...and parading around the house!

[Miss Meow]

Originally posted by neko1
... OH yeah and they also like to vomit on my quilted tree skirt!!

Ewwwwwww!!!

Ours haven't had a real Christmas yet, this will be their first. I'm really looking forward to the destruction, cleaning and repairs!

[Sara luvs her Tinky]

I got Tinky for Christmas last year... and our fully decorated tree soon became bald from the floor up three feet in a matter of a week or so. But she was soooooo cute we just couldn't get her in trouble. She started climbing to the top and you could see her little paw sticking out batting at the ornaments and by the time the tree came down we had a big pile of ornaments behind it. THIS YEAR WILL BE DIFFERENT.... seeing how we have two kitties and my Jupiter is a whopping 15 pounds... we WILL NOT be letting them climb the tree this year.... or so we hope...

[Nomilynn]

We haven't really had problems with cats climbing the trees before, but breaking ornaments is a favourite passtime. I don't have a big tree at this house; just a small ceramic one. When I get to my parents, however, it will be interesting to see if we can keep Nutmeg (this is her first christmas) out of the tree and nativity scene!!

[Former User]

Year ago was our first x-mas with cats around, and I was so worried in advance. But, my godness, Casper and Kitty behaved, and counting out the few times they pat a x-mas ball in the tree, they left all the x-mas ornaments alone. I was seeing scary pics infront of my eyes where both of the cats were hanging on the tree and ornaments, but nope, didn't happen. I think I even posted a thread about that, because I was so amazed that the treee was still up . Let's see what happens this year then...

[Vio&Juni]

Well, I couldn't even immagine that there are cats in the world that wouldn't even touch the ornaments. Juni is a fairly well behaved kitty, she only likes to play with the glass globes and the shiny tinsel. Well, it's our merit also that the trees stay almost intact, we have learnt our lesson. Now, we put the Xmas tree on a chair, and far from the couch or any other higher thing, so, she only gets to the lowest branches he-he.
Vasea showed us what a kitty thinks about a Xmas tree. First, the tree was cleaned of globes (all broken in pieces), then the shiny tinsel was chewed up and even after a month I could find pieces in every corner of the house, BUT... it was not enough. And I was absolutely mad that I don't have a camera ready to take a picture of what he's doing. He leaned his hind legs against the tree and with the front paws grabbed it and stated shaking it very firmly. He shook it with such an anger and it was so funny !!! He shook it until there was nothing left on it, just bold branches. We had to throw it away the same day, it was December 25. Normally people here keep the Xmas tree very long, about 3-4 weeks. We had it for one day only.
Naomi liked only a green glass globe and a green shiny tinsel. She would touch them as she passes by and admire how they shine, then mind her own business.

[Barbara]

So what should I say? I've been collecting Christmas ornaments since I was a teenager and have some wonderful spheres and waxen ornaments. I really liked our tree and I put beeswax candles on -real light not an artificial one
This was the past -now we have Tigris and Filou and heaven knows they are better than any Christmas tree. I have no idea whether coniferes are good for them but I guess no. And it's definitely not good if someone steps in broken glass...
I decorate the windows a little and have some branches (and have the water spray bottle close) but I agree it's not the same.

[All Creatures Great And Small]

I'll never forget the one year when everyone was at the house for Christmas and Socks had eaten some of that tinsel. We were blessed with not only tinsel-tootsie-rolls in the sand box, but also tinsel butt!! Socks must have felt festive with the strand of tinsel hanging out of his rear-end...and parading around the house!

LOL!!!!! Back in the "stone age", when I was a kid, the icicles were actually made of LEAD, which would have been deadly for pets. Nowadays they're plastic, so they just add some "roughage" to the cat's diet.

He leaned his hind legs against the tree and with the front paws grabbed it and stated shaking it very firmly. He shook it with such an anger and it was so funny !!! He shook it until there was nothing left on it, just bold branches.

This is cracking me up! I guess he got tired of picking the ornaments off one at a time.

We had to throw it away the same day, it was December 25. Normally people here keep the Xmas tree very long, about 3-4 weeks. We had it for one day only.

This is fun to hear about Christmas in other countries - in the US, most people put their trees up WAY before Xmas, sometimes as early as the end of November. By the time Christmas comes, a real tree is looking mighty limp and you're ready to chuck it out on the 26th!

[sasvermont]

I put up a tree last year and anchored it to a big piece of plywood. It seemed to work. They did not scale the tree but they did play under it and knocked off most of the decorations at the botton. I put non-breakables at the botton. Also non-edibles.

The funny thing was in Feb. of each year they go to the Vet for a checkup (more than what I do for myself most years) and the Vet found a pine needle in Miley's ear canal, left over from the Christmas tree in December! It never bothered her. Go figure.

All in all, my guys have been good with the tree, other plants and flowers. Fingers crossed.

[Barbara]

Originally posted by All Creatures Great And Small

This is fun to hear about Christmas in other countries - in the US, most people put their trees up WAY before Xmas, sometimes as early as the end of November. By the time Christmas comes, a real tree is looking mighty limp and you're ready to chuck it out on the 26th!

in Germany you put it up the 24th of December and you keep it until January 6th (or even longer).
Most people have the Nativity scene there too and you add the camels and the Holy Kings the 6th of January. From the beginning of December you have a wreath with 4 candles, for each week until Christmas.

[Vio&Juni]

Well, most of Moldovans celebrate Xmas on January 7, I celebrate it on December 25. That's why people keep the Xmas tree so long.

[smokey the elder]

I have the great good fortune of having a dining room with French glass doors. The tree goes on my oversized trestle table. The cats are allowed to "supervise" the decorating process and to be in there if we're home. They have been very good.

I see a lot of people use tinsel. I don't because, like any stringy substance, can damage the intestines if swallowed. I don't want to deal with decorated kitty backsides, either.