You are joining us on the first day of the When Decorating for Christmas series.  Stay tuned all week for Christmas decorating ideas aimed at families with small kids.

Mike and I aquired our Christmas tree (sight unseen) from my parent’s neighbors when they upgraded to a new pre-lit tree during our engagement.  It’s an old artificial fir that you have to assemble branch by branch – but when it’s done it’s absolutely beautiful.  We’ve schlepped it to every home we’ve ever lived in and every year it still faithfully cheers our living room the entire month of December (and admittedly a few days in November).

Then we had kids.

Because I couldn’t bear to part with our weathered and beautiful tree we came up with a plan to childproof it against the antics of our boys.  I now affectionately refer to it as our high-heeled Christmas tree.

Instead of starting to add branches at the bottom, we start half-way up the tree.  After our half-tree is assembled we add our regular decorations from the top down and wind the remaining ribbon, beading and lights around the “trunk” to coordinate it with the theme of the rest of the tree.

It’s tall enough that Elijah can almost walk underneath it without hitting the branches.  Instead of loosely hanging ornaments, I now fold the branches over them to keep them safe.  Once the tree is done, the skirt hides all our excess decorations nicely.

This is the second year of our high-heeled Christmas tree and it’s working for us really well.  Everybody’s happy.  I still get (part of) my Christmas tree, and I know Elijah is less likely to run into it and knock it over.

What do you do to childproof your tree?