How to keep them from knocking over the xmas tree?

[Satori]

My mom picked me up a 6ft artificial xmas tree and we set it up yesterday knowing it would keep the kids entertained for hours a day redecorating it. I had my reservations, I risked my mothers wrath and asked if we could exchange it for a 4 ft table top one since I was worried the kids would knock it over. She understandably got PO'd that I wanted to exchange it for a smaller tree and said it was impossible for the kids to knock it over (this from a women who's cats regularly knock over xmas trees!) and just accept the tree. Well the tree has been up less then 24 hours, I turned my back for less then a minute and I have no idea how but the 3 yr old knocked over the tree. There's nothing breakable on it but I don't want to have to keep reputting up the dang tree! I don't have a way to gate it off, the only thing that comes to mind is putting sand bags across the feet to keep it from tipping.

Any other ideas? Where would I even get sand bags?

[jenfl]

When I was little, my parents set up our tree inside an empty kiddie pool and that was the fence line -- nobody inside the pool. It doesn't actually keep the tree from tipping, though.

If you wanted to do that, maybe anchoring it to the wall with wire?

[Dee-Groovy]

Someone suggested that I wrap fishing line around it and anchor the line to the wall.

[Boot]

We have a hook that we put in the wall behind it and tie it with a piece of string.

[crittersmum]

My SIL used to get boxes, weight them down with books and wrap them up to look like Christmas presents and surround the tree with them. I'm not sure why the kiddos didn't just climb all over the boxes, but it worked for her!

[lolar2]

You could put it in a pack and play/ playpen.

[leanbh]

yup, we always anchor ours to the wall about two thirds of the way up the tree.

[AllisonR]

Put a decent, stable hole and hook in the ceiling. Tie the tree to this.

FWIW - our kids are not knocking trees over anymore, but we still do this! It's great, just in case other kiddies come over. It also helps to realign and stabilize a crooked tree.

[bettyjones]

Originally Posted by Dee-Groovy

Someone suggested that I wrap fishing line around it and anchor the line to the wall.

This is what we did when i lived in a house w/ 7 cats. They were always climbing the tree.

[milliemom]

We use an octagon baby gate to surround our tree. It keeps our 3-kids out and the presents in! We got the idea a few years ago from another family with 4-children.

[StrawberryFields]

We screwed a plant hook into the ceiling and we tie the tree to it.

[HeatherB]

We have this gate that we have put around the tree several times:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...CV23ZND1EWG91A

Depending on where the tree is set up, we don't always get it fully around the tree, but it does protect the tree, the gifts, and is easily removable when it's time! (Which includes, for us, watering the tree and adding more gifts!) We use breakable ornaments as well as non-breakable low down, and this has been a good solution that is multi-purpose.

[Satori]

Well we figured out why the tree fell over, the stand was broken to begin with. I noticed it was pretty wobbly when we put it up but I figured its a cheap tree. I took it back this morning and they exchanged it, I'm not to worried about this one, its much more stable, plus we left off one of the rods that give it an extra foot of height at the base which really helped too.