Question of the day 20/11/2011

Yeah we have a christmas tree, Smooch likes to climb the mothers christmas tree (fake) he pulls the baubles off to because they are great cat toys ;)

 

Flash and Sooty wernt to bothered by the tree we last had just lay underneath it no climbing or pulling at anything on it 

Yes, we have a fake tree. Abby likes to sleep on the tree skirt. I have some cheap plastic ornaments that I wire onto the tree on the lower branches so she can bat at them.

We have 2 fake trees.  One is only about 3' tall and I don't always put it up.  I got it when Mooch and Noodles were small because they were chewing the branches.  Last year we put the big one up with this huge gate thing to keep our daughter from grabbing stuff.  Mooch and Noodles like to hide in there.  They still chew some; but I keep a can of compressed air that I squirt into the tree if I hear them.  It helps scare them off from it.  Last year when we took the tree down there was a whole section of tree skirt that looked like Noodles left a layer of herself behind.

We used to have a fake Christmas tree that we decorated to the nth degree, but now we use a wooden tree that doesn't take much decorating.

No trees, fake or real, no plants, flowers or ribbons.
My cats do not tolerate those kind of things in "their" home.

We gave up on Christmas trees about 20 years ago. We hang lights in our windows, a ribbon garland around the fireplace, hang some ornaments off the cabinet knobs, and have some nicknacks that I place around the house.

When we used to put up a tree, I'm not sure which species was more destructive to our tree - the dogs would knock them over when they wrestled and the cats would climb them and knock things off of them, where the dogs would pick things up and chew on them.

We tried real live trees for a while - the kind you buy in a pot and can plant outside when done. They didn't fair much better, cause the cats would dig out the dirt from the pot.

We usually decorate three trees: our traditional tree in the living room, our Tacky White Tree (TWT) in the kitchen, and our Santa tree in our bedroom. They're all full trees and are artifical. When we can find time and find the room, we will sometimes put up a small tree just for the cats....it has no lights, but it's decorated with all kitty ornaments. So that's four trees.

 

The TWT in the kitchen is a white tree, decorated with blue and white lights, and blue balls; that's it. The Santa tree in the bedroom is decorated with red lights and all of our Santa and reindeer ornaments. And our traditional tree in the living room has a myriad of lights and decorations, not only from our 40 years of marriage, but also from my parents and from my grandmother. It's pretty much a hodge-podge of stuff.

 

We haven't decided about the TWT or the Santa tree this year. Mollipop broke a lot of the blue balls on the TWT last year and Tabby is, if anything, more of a trouble-maker than Molli was...Tabby gets into everything. And Molli still has a lot of kitten in her, too; honestly between the two of them....well, we wonder sometimes just what they're going to get into next. So it just seems safer to just put one tree up this year.

 

Here are some pictures of earlier trees:

 

Tree in the living room (it's a hodge-podge)

 

 

The TWT at night. Rick has strings of both blue lights and white lights with separate switches. Sometimes I'll turn both lights on, but sometimes, we like to have dinner with no lights except for the TWT's white lights. It's very pretty. I bought 3 boxes of blue balls this year; last year, Mollipop broke quite a few balls....it looks pretty sparse. Like I said, we're thinking of not putting it up this year. But geez, I dearly love my TWT.

 

When we were kids, my mother always had a TWT and my sister and I hated that thing. We both vowed NEVER to have a TWT in our houses. But several years ago, out of the clear blue, I told Rick I wanted a TWT of my own.  And off to Home Depot we went. When everybody came to our house, they started laughing. And they still make fun of my TWT. But this year? My sister is thinking of getting her very own TWT! (Although she would do hers in red lights and red balls.)

 

 

Here you can see both trees....

 

 

Here's the smaller cat tree that we've put up for quite a few years. We've been thinking of putting it in the computer room this year. The spot where the cat tree was is now where the TWT is usually put up.

 

 

And the Santa tree.....it looks pretty sparse in this picture. We weren't completely finished with it yet. But it seems to be the only picture of the Santa tree that I can find right now. Now we put the Santa tree in the bedroom and we'll turn the red lights on at night while watching tv. It's pretty. This picture was taken when it was still in the computer room, not the bedroom. (Amber likes to hop up into the back branches and nap there during the day.)

 

 

You know, I really miss putting tinsel on our trees. It seemed to add a bit of a finishing touch and it would take us hours to drape each strand of tinsel on the trees. But tinsel? With seven cats? I don't think so!

 

Thanks for looking!

 

We always used to get a live tree in a pot, use it for a couple of years, and then plant it out back. We started running out of room, even though many of them died, and switched to a smallish artificial Christmas tree, a.k.a. the frame for cat toys. It's the absolute highlight of Jamie's year. I get to redecorate it every day, because he takes down the ornaments every night. We have glass and china ornaments that haven't been unpacked in twelve years, and I usually have to replace some of the cloth and wooden or straw ones every year.

The tree goes up either the weekend before Christmas or Christmas Eve, and comes down the day after New Year's. I don't think I could take searching for all the hidden ornaments every morning for longer than that.

We have a live tree that we choose and take down ourselves. I love to take the trip and choose our tree, sit down afterwards in the forest (best if its snowy) and have hot chocolate and Christmas cookies.

 

Feykirófa is too old to bother about the decorations (or anything else!), well, except for the "rug" undernieth the tree, she likes to sleep there and also keeps trying to kill it by attacking it.  Doppa has been interested in the tree itself, the "rug" undernieth the tree and the decorations. This will be her 3rd. Christmas. Last Christmas, son, 16 months at the time, was more hazzard to the tree, he kept taking decorations, shaking them, adoring them and bringing them to us. :D

We have a fake tree. Neko likes to climb up and lay on the lower branches, then when he lets his tail hang down the other 2 go and bat at him.

We had a real one once when I was a kid ... came home and it was laying against the couch with both cats up at the top looking out. Last year for a real tree After that, the cats would bat the ornaments off the fake one, and broke a few over time.

We have an 8ft fake tree,the only cat that bothers is Smartie,as a kitten she used to be terrible and pull the tree down every day well now she isn't the smallest of cats and she still climbs up it,I have to be very careful when geting her down x

Each time we buy a new house (not that often, mind you), we buy a live tree in a pot, decorate it with homemade stuffed decorations, ie catproof , then plant the tree in our "new" yard.  The current tree has been in the ground now for almost 20 years, and overtook the streetlight many years ago!!  After that first year, in this house, we never put up another tree, mainly because we really don't have any place to put one.  Since the only kids we have are furkids, it's not a big deal.  We do put up a lighted tree outside (totally fake, all made of lights), and up until the 1st indoor not outdoor tree got too big, I used to put green lights on it and it looked really neat.  Sometimes I will go all out decorating the staircase and mantel with garland and lights and whatnot and hang all our stockings, but usually I don't.   even do that.   I think I do it every year when we get a new furbaby, for their first Christmas , 'cause I've got to make them a stocking, so might as well hang it!  My mother made hubby and I the cutest stockings years ago.  His is a cowboy boot, and mine is an old fashioned ladies boot, and then all the cats have normal red and white stockings with their names on them.  Sorry, don't have any pix. 

 

 

Oh...I forgot, sometimes, if I'm in the mood, I do have a silver metal tree that I can set on our parsons table, and hang about 5 of my homemade ornaments on.  It looks pretty pathetic that way, but the cat's like to bat at the ornaments, so once in a while, I drag it out!  (not to worry, though, I'm not a complete bah humbug.  I always use Christmas napkins and plates for serving dessert!!)

Most of the years DH and I have been together we've gotten a real tree. Last year however, we used MIL's old artificial tree and honestly I don't want to go back to live. Especially not with carpets (our old house had laminate floors....MUCH easier to clean up the needles!) This tree really isn't bad. It's 6 1/2 ft, had lights already on it, and fits perfectly in the corner of the living room. 

 

Now growing up we always had a HUGE live tree. My parent's house had 11 ft ceilings and mom insisted on having a tree that reached the ceiling. We would usually go to a local tree farm and cut our own. It's funny how something can look "normal" sized outside, but so big once it's in the house. It wasn't uncommon to have to move most of the furniture out of the living room to make room for the tree!

We don't have room for a tree in our little apartment. Nowhere to put it. sigh

We have a fake tree, about 6.5 feet tall. This is our first Christmas with Riley, so we weren't sure how it was going to react it to. I set it up last week, but did not decorate it yet, as I wanted the branches to "settle". When I first set it up, I came home from work the next day and the branches at the very top of the tree were all flattened down, so I fluffed them back up, but alas the next day it was the same. Then the next day I was napping on the couch and I heard a bunch of noise, opened my eyes and there was Riley at the very top of the tree peeking out. So, he seems to love to be in the tree. So we went out and bought a bunch of plastic decorations so nothing will break. I love the holidays!! 

We had a fake tree until last year. We got rid of it because the cat chewed it and when my dog was a puppy he chewed the lights. We bought more lights for it last year but it was starting to look pretty bad so we decided to just throw it out. I want to buy a real tree this year, but I will probably just buy another fake tree. We don't have a large enough vehicle to get a real tree home.

My boyfriend and I have a small fake tree that we decorate and keep in the apartment. It's about 4 feet tall, and Bowser isn't too interested in it other than batting at the ornaments near the bottom. But I stay with my parents for about a week during the holidays, and he LOVES the real tree they get. Rudy and Bowser (and Abby used to, this will be our first Christmas without her in 12 years ) fight over different spots and try to drink the tree water. Bowser also loooves destroying glass ornaments in the middle of the night.

Here are a couple pictures of our tacky tree from last year... we just kind of threw everything we found on it because it was our first Christmas together and we didn't have many ornaments. I also made spongebob stockings out of a pair of pajamas I found at Goodwill.
 

 

 

The mustache is my favorite

 

WOW Pam - Pretty Christmas trees!!!!!!!!!!!

We have an artificial tree also. It is just so pretty. We didn't put it our tree last year because of the three "P"'s. They were only four months old and I was too worried about them chewing the tree and eating it We have a few small lighted trees we put up last year. This year I think we will put up the big tree. I don't care about the cat's breaking ornaments, I am more worried about them eating the tree and ornaments

Is fake... and of course the firts day the cats, are looking so far because seems like something weird...then they get confiance & begins to "catch" the ornaments...

DITTO that for me too. The only Christmas thingy here will be a little stocking I made for Turtle-Dove.

 

We usually don't do a Christmas tree any more because of the cats.