Your Christmas Tree Mishaps...

**many houseapes** · 12-22-2009, 11:35 AM

Over the years, what have been your funniest "Christmas Tree Mishap Stories"..I have a few to share & I'd love to hear yours

When I was in 2nd grade, my mother's big fat tabby cat climbed the Christmas tree & knocked it over,breaking some ornaments - I got blamed for it - stupid cat.

When ds #2 was 3, we had just finished decorating the tree. I went down to the basement to put some boxes away and came up the stairs just in time to see my son clinging to the back of the Christmas tree( he had tried to climb it) while the other Houseapes, hearing my footsteps ,scattered like a bunch of arrows hollering "Benny did it!"

6 yrs ago, we had this puny "Charlie Brown Christmas tree". On more than 1 occasion, that silly tree would just fall over without warning. It would always fall over on dd#3(11yrs old) while she was watching t.v.- everytime. That poor little girl thought that the tree had it in for her & she was afraid to go near it.

**baxjul** · 12-22-2009, 01:20 PM

Not really a mishap, but our old dog used to be just the right height to walk around in circles under the tree, and it would scratch her back. So, when you where sitting looking at the tree, it would slowly be turning around in circles, with a black and white dog walking in circles around the bottom of it. LOL

**Debbie-cat** · 12-22-2009, 01:38 PM

I have too many to count. With cats, it is a never ending job of repositioning the tree and putting the ornaments back on. Now with the dog, I am happy if the tree is still standing in the morning!

**Grainlady** · 12-22-2009, 01:49 PM

We used candy canes on the tree for decorations (inexpensive and edible - the BEST kind....). We had friends visiting and their young son was invited to have a candy cane to take home with him. Instead of lifting the cane, he pulled it and pulled the whole tree over onto him when the candy cane got caught on a limb. It was one of those slow motion moments that ends up with LOTS of laughter and one very surprised child.

**MaryCarney** · 12-22-2009, 02:08 PM

My grandma and aunt - many, many years ago- decided to go cheap and buy one TALL tree and cut it down into two short trees. It was the slender kind of tree, and when they finished, Grandma got the slender, pointed 'top' and Aunt Jean got basically a cylinder of evergreen. We laughed ourselves into apopolexy at the time, and even now, anyone who was there remembers it.

**shoiji** · 12-22-2009, 04:47 PM

Growing up when ever the christmas tree shook that meant a cat was climbing it. Dad always had the tree wired to the wall so it would not fall down because of them.

Fortunately my christmas ficus tree does not accomodate my cat.

**dcompton** · 12-22-2009, 11:03 PM

The last time I put up a tree - years ago now - I was cured of it forever. I had two cockatiels who flew free, and, of course, they thought the gods were smiling on them when a tree entered their lives. It was artificial, and they just blissed out sitting on it, biting off the needles and dropping them on the floor. I would go over, return them to my shoulders, after a few minutes they couldn't stand it and were right back harvesting plastic needles.

I put a sheet over it when I was at work and couldn't ride herd on the birds. After a time or two it was too much trouble to keep messing with the sheet, and I ended up sitting for two weeks with a beautiful tree covered with a sheet. Ghost Tree of Christmas Pointless?

**Molemommy** · 12-22-2009, 11:36 PM

This year I have been finding those cute little house that you put under the tree to look like a village... Well I brought them home and put them under the tree I started with 4 and later in the day I go into the living room and they are all rearanged....I scratch my head and wonder but I just put them back and this keep happening. the next day I went to the other goodwill and found a set of 6 houses with little things to go with it like a snowman and 2 light posts. I put them under the tree also and later noticed that they were all rearanged... At this point I am like WTH..... are these houses haunted and dont like where I put them so I put them back and I decide to sit there and watch tv for awhile... Well to my amazement here trots in my 8 month old black lab pup and trots to the tree and procedes to rearange the houses. WHAT! I just watch in amazment as she gently picks up a house and moves it to a different location..... So after several times of moving them back to where I want them I decide maybe she just likes them in a certain spot so I leave them be... nope she just likes to move them around.... It truley is the funniest thing you have ever saw I am going to try and video tape her doing it...;..) to funny.

**WV_mom_of2** · 12-23-2009, 06:36 AM

My parents used to live on a large farm that had Christmas trees on it. The first year dh and I were married I was so excited when Daddy told me to come up and pick out any tree I wanted. We drove around for probably two hours while I looked for the perfect white pine. I finally found it and we took it home. That darned tree was so big that we had to take down the dining room table to have a place to put it LOL. It took up the entire dining room! And if you needed to use the microwave you had to push the tree branches aside to get to it LOL.

I was standing there warming something in the microwave one day and talking to my friend on the phone. I heard a noise and turned around to find the tree falling over on top of me! Dh was outside and I had to drop the phone, catch the tree and scream for him to come and help me!

Every single time we got a real tree after that it would fall over at some point. Dh finally started putting one of those screw in hooks into the corner of the wall and tying the tree up!

One time when my brother and were little he decided to stand up in the rocking chair beside the tree and reach for one of the ornaments near the top of the tree. The chair tipped over, my brother tipped over, the tree fell over LOL!

**lisaflex** · 12-23-2009, 07:20 AM

ours fell over the other night!!!

**wjcalderon** · 12-23-2009, 08:16 AM

With cats in the house, I always tie the tree to the wall.
This year, my youngest cat climbs the tree, flattens out a spot and just stays there. She's tortoiseshell, so you can't even see her sometimes - unless her tail is sticking out.
She takes the ornaments off the tree to play with.
For awhile, I picked them up and put them back.
Now, I just pick them up and put them in a basket.
Before the granddaughters get her tomorrow night, I will hang them back on the tree.

**Lady_V** · 12-23-2009, 10:48 AM

In a city not too far away, in the not so distant past (70's) there was a disturbance to the Christmas.

My uncle bought new 'things' and gave his broke little sister (Mom) his old silver FOIL tree. It was ugly. Real ugly.

Mom tried to make it as nice as she could, but that tree had seen it's better day. She put every ornament she had on it, as well as tinsel and enough lights to put a runway at Logan International to shame.

The tree looked good -- until it MELTED!

**cejhome** · 12-23-2009, 08:08 PM

Our episode is called "The Squirrel in the Christmas Tree". Eeek! One year, a few days after Christmas, I was doing dishes, and, and my husband was going to turn on the gas logs in the fireplace - he noticed the glass doors were slighly opened, didn't think anything of it. So he opened the doors and lighted the logs (old kind you had to turn on gas and light), and....a squirrel comes flying out! I heard him holler, and saw something blur past me, and then THANKFULLY blur back. It was the squirrel. It ran from the den past me in the kitchen and into the next room then straight back into the den and into the Christmas tree. Our two cats were upstairs, so I was able to close of the front of the house so they couldn't help. All our ornaments are glass, vintage mostly, that I have collected over the years. We got off all those ornaments in record time! My husband had a flashlight and would poke at the squirrel to get him/her to move one side of the tree, while I pulled ormaments off the other side and put them on the sofa/chairs, etc.... We got all the ornaments and the star off the tree without breaking anything! We then dragged the tree outside and Mr. Squirrel jumped off.

Found out he had chewed through the wire grate around the chimney cap. We replaced it that Spring with a heavy duty one.

Usually takes me a couple hours to get all the ornaments off, garland, lights, etc... It must have took us less than 15 minutes. Thankfully, too - I think since it jumped into the tree from the fireplace (and then ran through the house), it wiped any soot off him - didn't find any soot anywhere, either.

I still can't believe not one ornament was broken!

Stupid squirrel

**many houseapes** · 12-23-2009, 10:16 PM

Originally Posted by cejhome

Our episode is called "The Squirrel in the Christmas Tree". Eeek! One year, a few days after Christmas, I was doing dishes, and, and my husband was going to turn on the gas logs in the fireplace - he noticed the glass doors were slighly opened, didn't think anything of it. So he opened the doors and lighted the logs (old kind you had to turn on gas and light), and....a squirrel comes flying out! I heard him holler, and saw something blur past me, and then THANKFULLY blur back. It was the squirrel. It ran from the den past me in the kitchen and into the next room then straight back into the den and into the Christmas tree. Our two cats were upstairs, so I was able to close of the front of the house so they couldn't help. All our ornaments are glass, vintage mostly, that I have collected over the years. We got off all those ornaments in record time! My husband had a flashlight and would poke at the squirrel to get him/her to move one side of the tree, while I pulled ormaments off the other side and put them on the sofa/chairs, etc.... We got all the ornaments and the star off the tree without breaking anything! We then dragged the tree outside and Mr. Squirrel jumped off.

Found out he had chewed through the wire grate around the chimney cap. We replaced it that Spring with a heavy duty one.

Usually takes me a couple hours to get all the ornaments off, garland, lights, etc... It must have took us less than 15 minutes. Thankfully, too - I think since it jumped into the tree from the fireplace (and then ran through the house), it wiped any soot off him - didn't find any soot anywhere, either.

I still can't believe not one ornament was broken!

Stupid squirrel

rotflmbo...that's toooo funny. Kinda reminds me of the Ray Stevens tune about the squirrel that went bezerk(sp?)....

**MaryCarney** · 12-24-2009, 07:13 AM

Originally Posted by Lady_V

In a city not too far away, in the not so distant past (70's) there was a disturbance to the Christmas.

My uncle bought new 'things' and gave his broke little sister (Mom) his old silver FOIL tree. It was ugly. Real ugly.

Mom tried to make it as nice as she could, but that tree had seen it's better day. She put every ornament she had on it, as well as tinsel and enough lights to put a runway at Logan International to shame.

The tree looked good -- until it MELTED!

My Aunt Mary Ellen and Uncle Bob had one of those! Theirs had a rotating spotlight that turned the tree blue, red, yellow and green alternately. Hideous!! But Aunt Mary Ellen LOVED that thing because there were no needles to fall out and get into the carpet.