Cats and Christmas trees

[Asta Kask]

How many of the cat owners here are putting up Christmas trees? And how often do the cats help with the decorations?

[Eldan]

It got rather dangerous with the candles, so I had to throw my cat outside when I light it up. My cat seemed wholly uninterested in anything but the candles, actually.

[thorgrim29]

you have avtual candles on your tree? That does not sound safe

[Eldan]

you have avtual candles on your tree? That does not sound safe

Yes? Who doesn't? I don't think I've ever seen one without candles. Or do you just put them in bright rooms? That sounds like it would ruin half the effect.

[Asta Kask]

We have electric candles in Sweden.

http://images.styleroom.se/image/scaled/full/ermz/1/575939-ljuslyktor.jpg

Yes, even indoors.

[sktarq]

Most often the cat seems interested in glass balls - and she helps decorating the floor with Xmas ornaments. . . For which she finds the tree a good source of material. And candles are considered to be far too high risk to popular here.

[Castaras]

We always use just sparkly lights rather than candles. Easier to deal with and come in pretty colours.

My parents cat never did much with the christmas tree. Just got grumpy that her perfect grumping spot by the window had a tree near it.

[BannedInSchool]

Little blinking colored lights here in the States.

[Duck999]

I'm not a cat owner, nor do I put up christmas trees, but I have a story from a friend.

Their cat once jumped up, grabbed the top of the tree, pulled it back, and let it go. Hilarity ensued.

[Asta Kask]

Cats are great at causing hilarity.

[TheThan]

Cats are great at causing hilarity.


A cat almost knocked a Christmas tree on my head one year while I was staying with family (sleeping on the couch). I was not amused.

[thorgrim29]

Yes? Who doesn't? I don't think I've ever seen one without candles. Or do you just put them in bright rooms? That sounds like it would ruin half the effect.

Electric lights mostly and glass decorations, less of a fire hazard.

[Asta Kask]

A cat almost knocked a Christmas tree on my head one year while I was staying with family (sleeping on the couch). I was not amused.

But the cat was! Or at least some members of the family.

[Razade]

Yes? Who doesn't? I don't think I've ever seen one without candles. Or do you just put them in bright rooms? That sounds like it would ruin half the effect.

I have never seen a Christmas Tree with actual candles in 29 years. Even the old non-LED Christmas lights were dangerous, let alone a dead tree.

[TheThan]

I have never seen a Christmas Tree with actual candles in 29 years. Even the old non-LED Christmas lights were dangerous, let alone a dead tree.

Woosh! (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xB6XPmW1y3k)

(surprisingly it doesn't quite ignite; however with drawing so much power it'll probably spark and then woosh.)

[Gwynfrid]

Yes? Who doesn't? I don't think I've ever seen one without candles. Or do you just put them in bright rooms? That sounds like it would ruin half the effect.

I have to admire your respect for tradition, but I would never dare, even though I don't have pets in the home. Especially not here in Ontario where fire alarms in homes are mandatory, and there's always some talk of making sprinklers mandatory as well...

[Eldan]

Interesting. I've seen electric lights on trees now that I think about it. But I associate them with tacky garden decorations and shopping centres, not people having them at home.

http://schokoladen24.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/Weihnachtsbaum.jpg

They are just nicer. Warmer. Fascinating to watch, too.

[Grinner]

Interesting. I've seen electric lights on trees now that I think about it. But I associate them with tacky garden decorations and shopping centres, not people having them at home.

*snip*

They are just nicer. Warmer. Fascinating to watch, too.

Is this common in Switzerland? Because I've only ever seen electric ones.

[thorgrim29]

I guess I can see using actual candles if your tree is either artificial or very small and freshly cut, but we usually have a 8 feet (2.4 meters) tall tree in the living room for a month so real candles would definitely burn the house down.

[Scarlet Knight]

Candles and live trees were more common when I was a child, but that got pushed aside for electric because of the annual tales of fire.

I have cats and I put up a tree and sadly, we had to make adjustments, such as placing only non-breakable ornaments near the bottom.

[Shekinah]

I had dogs growing up, but every time we put up the tree, we had one dog who seemed to think that tree was for her to pee on. Every year, she did it... oy.

We had another dog who seemed to think that anything that was soft and on the floor was hers, so she ended up claiming the blanket we would lay under the tree for presents. It was pretty fun to move her and put down a present only for her to walk back onto the blanket and lie on another spot.

And in regards to candles on Christmas trees, I love the tradition and think they're gorgeous, but the fire hazard it poses is too much for me to consider. Even lights can do it if they're not too safe (faulty wiring, for example). Good time to remind everyone to have a safe holiday, though!

[Eldan]

I don't know... I've heard stories of fires, but no one I know ever actually saw one. People only have the tree for a few days and in that time, light it maybe once or twice for a short evening. While they are watching it. I don't think there's that much danger. Just put it next to a brick wall on a proper floor and I don't think much will happen even if it does go up.

[Aedilred]

My cat doesn't live with me, but I think she's probably a bit old to be helping with the decorations as she previously did. I've never known cats to be around at Christmas and not try to "help" in some way, though, from just sitting on the paper when you're trying to wrap presents to climbing the tree (kittens are particularly prone to the latter, in my experience), causing maximum destruction en route.

In her younger days, my cat used to eviscerate the stuffed decorations on the tree. We initially had a somewhat eclectic variety from the same batch (a Father Christmas, an angel, a snowman, a clown, etc.) but over the years, incautious decisions about where to place them cost many of them their lives until only the ones that defiantly have nothing to do with Christmas remain.

[Gnoman]

I don't know... I've heard stories of fires, but no one I know ever actually saw one. People only have the tree for a few days and in that time, light it maybe once or twice for a short evening. While they are watching it. I don't think there's that much danger. Just put it next to a brick wall on a proper floor and I don't think much will happen even if it does go up.

That's the big difference. Around here, the traditional time to put up the Christmas decorations is the day after Thanksgiving (Thanksgiving is the fourth Thursday in November, and the day after is a popular time for family activities due to it being a school holiday (and most busniesses that close for Thanksgiving also close on the day after, because it isn't worth the trouble of opening the business for just one day), and they aren't taken down until the weekend after New Years. It makes it more of a holiday season rather than just one day (similar in effect to the Advent calenders that are popular in places). Sure, you keep the tree watered for the whole time (or get a fake tree), but it's still a real fire hazard to use candles or the old-style giant lights (which I've SEEN cause a fire).

Of course, I may be a bit paranoid about the matter because my grandfather had a lot a few times when I was a kid, and the last year he did it, he didn't sell many trees. We burned about 200 christmas trees that March. The birds were annoyed because they thought the 50-foot columns of flame was the sun coming up.

[Eldan]

Ah. That's it, then. The tree goes up on Christmas eve and is kept until Three King's Day on the sixth of January. And usually only lit two or three times.

That's the tradition, actually. My parents still told me that angels brought in the tree secretly and fully decorated on Christmas eve. So I had to leave the house with one parent for a few hours so I wouldn't disturb them.

My parents strongly believed in childhood magic, is what I'm saying.

[Killer Angel]

+x for electric lights on the tree.

That said, my cat likes to chomp the pine needles... and then vomit inside the house. Given that he has a tendency to eat also the thin stripes of decorations (which may be dangerous), we close the room, and the beast can enter only when we're there.

[Heliomance]

Interesting. I've seen electric lights on trees now that I think about it. But I associate them with tacky garden decorations and shopping centres, not people having them at home.

http://schokoladen24.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/Weihnachtsbaum.jpg

They are just nicer. Warmer. Fascinating to watch, too.

Electric lights can look warm and non-tacky. We generally put ours up the weekend before Christmas, and it usually looks better than pretty much any other Christmas tree I've seen - just as good as that one you posted a picture of. If I remember, I'll post a picture of ours when it goes up.

[Eldan]

This one doesn't look especially good, though. I just couldn't find a picture online of one that actually has candles. This thing must be an epidemic. Which makes it even weirder that I've never heard of it.

[Squark]

They've gotten better with LED lights as well, although I think part of it might be I've never seen a tree with real candles* (My uncle has a set of plastic candles with lightbulbs on them, but that's not the same thing). I imagine smaller trees are safer, though.

Granted, American Christmas ornaments might strike you as tacky, too, so different strokes for different folks, I guess.

On topic: Not a cat owner (Entire family is allergic to them), although one of my dogs loved exploring underneath the Christmas tree. The current one is happier under the bookshelf on top of the heating vent, though, so she's ignored the tree so far.

[Asta Kask]

I don't have a Christmas tree, but my Mom has. The cats find that the decorations on the lower branches are particularly interesting. Although they've lost much of their former interest in it as they've grown older. It's just another example of human insanity, like taking showers and wearing clothes.

[Elemental]

We used to put up a Christmas tree every year. For years and years it used to be an actual, real live pine tree from my Granddad's old place (they had pine trees come up in the lawn so it was rather convenient) and then we switched over to a plastic tree when my grandparents sold their place.
Anyways... The cats liked the tinsel and they liked climbing the trees.
As for candles on trees... I live in Australia. Where it's Summer time at Christmas. Thin wax candles don't work in the Summer time over here...

[golentan]

On the topic of candles, please consider removing them. My great grandfather was a firefighter. He hated christmas. Every year for a decade, he had to pull the charred corpse of at least one child from a building.

It's REALLY unsafe.

[Heliomance]

I don't have a Christmas tree, but my Mom has. The cats find that the decorations on the lower branches are particularly interesting. Although they've lost much of their former interest in it as they've grown older. It's just another example of human insanity, like taking showers and wearing clothes.

...I read that as wearing showers and taking clothes.

[Asta Kask]

...I read that as wearing showers and taking clothes.

Very interesting...

*scribbles furiously*

[sktarq]

Ah. That's it, then. The tree goes up on Christmas eve and is kept until Three King's Day on the sixth of January. And usually only lit two or three times.

This was closer to my family. Except that trying to set a tree on Xmas eve was a massive pain because the only trees left were scaggaaly leftovers and many places were already putting them away or not carrying them anymore. So we switched to anytime after the 20th depending on where the weekend fell. Even so fire hazards are taken very seriously here. I've spent Xmas break evacuating people and horses from large wildfires. Many fire risks are just not socially acceptable here.

[Ashtar]

Just to add, as a kid growing up in Switzerland, we had candles on our tree every Christmas up until the early 200X when everybody in the family started getting too busy for a proper family Xmas.

We lit them and stayed in the room.

Our cat liked the tree, but I don't remember her going too wild on it. She did have access to a whole forest, orchard and garden so my guess it was just another tree for her.

[Aedilred]

If it were up to me, the tree would go up about a week before Christmas Day. With my parents that's usually the sort of time it's appeared, although since my sister and I moved out they've started to drift later until it tends to go up now some time around the 22nd - 23rd, usually prompted by either me or my sister's arrival home (Christmas Eve is always a nightmare, so leaving it until then means it probably wouldn't get done).

My housemates insisted on putting our tree here up last week. Which looks nice, but it's a bit early for me.

[EmeraldRose]

Cats are great at causing hilarity.
Indeed.


Woosh! (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xB6XPmW1y3k)
(surprisingly it doesn't quite ignite; however with drawing so much power it'll probably spark and then woosh.)
This was a very good episode. I seem to remember there were several myths about trees and lights they busted...might have to go look.


I had dogs growing up, but every time we put up the tree, we had one dog who seemed to think that tree was for her to pee on. Every year, she did it... oy.
This is my concern for this year, that the dog will either pee on the tree or try to eat it.

Oddly enough, the cats have always left the tree alone. They see the skirt as a lovely place to sleep though.

As far as when we generally put it up, my mom's birthday is this Sunday (the 14th) and that's always been the weekend we put up the tree. Cuts down on the time it is up, and adds a special bit for her birthday...

Not sure yet if we will be putting it up this year. My kids will want it, so more than likely we will put it up. Just not yet...

[Bhu]

Giving a cat an Xmas tree is like handing a 3 year old a stick of dynamite.

[BannedInSchool]

Giving a cat an Xmas tree is like handing a 3 year old a stick of dynamite.
Hmm, I demand proof. Call the Mythbusters.

[RdMarquis]

We have a dog. Since there's no way we're getting her to leave our Christmas tree alone (short of a wall, or something), we're just putting up the lights.

[Scarlet Knight]

Cats are great at causing hilarity.

This story happened in my house; but I got it from my kids.

When my first cat was a kitten, my wife and I went to an office party, leaving my mother to babysit the children. This was the first Christmas tree for him & the kitten decided this tree was for climbing, causing it to topple. He spent the rest of the evening being cursed in Italian by my mother and dodging thrown shoes.

For years I could frighten him by switching to Italian.

[The Succubus]

This sprung to mind when thinking of cats and Christmas trees....


http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=nn2h3_aH3vo

It's the Simon's cat animation and there's quite few other Christmas ones he done too.