When I lived in the apartment, just me and the cats, I had a small artificial tree, about 4 foot. The only thing they ever bothered was the preety tree skirt. Sparkle loved to charge it and get under it to hide. As soon as another cat or I walked by, she would dash out to "attack" (all in play mode). I spent a lot of time retrieving and replacing that skirt.

Since we bought the house, Dad and I put up a live tree, about 6 feet. I brought all the decorations from Dad's house; the ones I grew up with. The glass ornaments go up high, the plastic ones down low. The tree looks just like the ones we had when I was a little girl - except no garland, no icicles. The cats love to bat at the lower ornaments, and I often have 2 or 3 to pick up each morning. The one they love the MOST: a brass bell. They bat and ring the bell continuously. Once it drops off, that is no fun anymore and they move on to something else. I have never had them at the water, nor climbing the tree. Whew!

We don't put any packages under the tree. Again, goes back to when I was growing up; presents arrived overnight when Santa came.So I just never got in the habit of seeing presents under the tree.