Christmas decorations with cats......?

Grimbal

Ok, so this is our first year with fairly laid-back 2 year old Maisie but psychotic 3 month old Smudge.

Smudge, as most kittens, is curious, fearless, & adventurous. I suspect that a Xmas tree will very quickly become a denuded climbing frame & any decorations on it splintery shards under her cute clown feet.


So, how do we decorate? There are no curtains, pictures or mirrors in the lounge & no windowsills either - we're a bit stuck for ideas on how to decorate in a cat-friendly way (if you can !)

any suggestions welcome, or just feel free to share your own "cat Christmas catastrophes" here

jen007

Last year was my first year with Simon, he was 9 months and I thought 'Oh christ, i'm going to come home every day to tinsel down the hall and my tree on the floor'.
I was quite surprised that he didn't really bother with it, just a wee sniff.But then I decorate mine with cinnamon/vanilla/orange so maybe the scents put him off?

Grimbal

yup, i hear that cats really dislike citrus & did read about spraying the tree/pine cones or similar at the base with citronella.

however, what about the rest of the room - did Simon take an interest in anything else?

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

Tinsel/lights attached to the ceiling/picture rail.


If you must have a tree, make sure the base weighs approximately three hundredweight.

No lametta threads. No ribbons. Certainly no metal ribbons on presents.

No glass or sentimentally valuable baubles. Wired onto the branches.

You may get away with candy canes, but ginger cookies are a bad idea.



Other than that, what else do you need?

jen007

Grimbal wrote: »

yup, i hear that cats really dislike citrus & did read about spraying the tree/pine cones or similar at the base with citronella.

however, what about the rest of the room - did Simon take an interest in anything else?

Not really but I can't remember that I had much else apart from christmas ornaments and lights on the windows.
Maybe I had it good last yeartouch wood I'll get it again, he has only just started wanting to get up higher. The top shelves in my cupboard in the bedroom and hall are his new perches.

Grimbal

Jojo_the_Tightfisted wrote: »

Tinsel/lights attached to the ceiling/picture rail.


If you must have a tree, make sure the base weighs approximately three hundredweight.

No lametta threads. No ribbons. Certainly no metal ribbons on presents.

No glass or sentimentally valuable baubles. Wired onto the branches.

You may get away with candy canes, but ginger cookies are a bad idea.



Other than that, what else do you need?

ta

not that fussed about a tree if I'm honest, just wondering how to decorate the room as we have hubby's family over for boxing day. I could do the ceiling decorations I think as long as it's out of the leaping reach off of a high cat tree by a mad kitten.


So, apart from a few things stuck up on the ceiling, any other ideas ? there's no fireplace, no dado/picture rail/no window or sill, no pictures or mirrors (blimey, sounds like I'm living in a cell doesn't it?!)

Fire_Fox

If you absolutely drown the ceiling IMO it will look amazing and you won't need any other decor. Think a combination of large and small, long and short, different textures and striking shapes. You might purchase some table lamps or other lighting that are made up of loads of tiny LED bulbs, the ones that look 'atomic' or stars or ones with paper shades for a really soft light, you could even use coloured bulbs.

Grimbal

ooooo! off for a quick google now.......

Fire_Fox

Please let us know what you decide!

Deep_In_Debt

I've given up having a decent tree...the cats would either pull it down or bash all the decorations around the house...so now I have a small fibre optic tree that is put somewhere they can't reach.

It's not quite the same but some of the tree baubles i have were from my grandmother and are glass and are too valuable and dangerous to be used as cat toys.

So now, apart from my fibre optic tree, I have some lights around my book shelves and cabinets and tinsel and that's about it.

Grimbal

Fire_Fox wrote: »

Please let us know what you decide!

I'm thinking that the garlands all pulled together could look quite effective in our room. We'd move the cat tree out of the way so we'd not come back to a kitten scampering along the garlands (hopefully)