In May of 2023, we brought the most adorable little fur balls into our home. After the loss of our previous cat a year prior, we were finally ready to share our love with some new furry friends.
These two sweet kitties could not be more adored or spoiled. They bring so much love and joy into our home each and every day. And every day is an adventure with them. We never quite know what they will get up to each day. You name it, they’ve done it: climbing on top of the fridge and cabinets, knocking vases over and breaking them, stealing food from our dinner plates, using my hair ties as toys…But they are the best and we love them dearly.
Despite all of their antics, I really only have one complaint about them. Just one little, tiny complaint…
I can’t put up my Christmas tree anymore.
In 2022, we had an issue with mold in our house and were unable to put up our Christmas tree, or any decorations at all. That was a mess and changed our holiday season quite drastically. It made sense why we couldn’t put up the tree. Both last year and this year we haven’t put up our Christmas tree either, but for an entirely different reason.
Last year our kitties were just eight months old at Christmastime. They were still very little and playful, so it didn’t surprise me that they attacked the tree. In fact, I had prepared for that. I didn’t put up the bottom three rows of the tree, nor did I put up any breakable ornaments. Both of them played with the ornaments and the string of lights. Bruno, our grey tabby, also climbed inside of it and pulled branches down. After two weeks of coming home from work and finding branches and ornaments all over the floor, the tree came down.
We decided to try again this year and see what would happen. Well, it hasn’t gone well this year either.
You’ve probably seen the memes and videos of cats climbing in trees, playing with the ornaments, chewing on the strings of lights, and even knocking trees over completely. That’s my house. Yep. You come to my house and that’s what you’ll see. Well, it’s what you would have seen when my tree was still standing. Now, my Christmas tree is back in its storage box.
Our previous cat was a sweet Siamese. The year my husband and I adopted her, she climbed into the tree once and made a bed out of the tree skirt. That was it. She never bothered with the tree again in the rest of her sixteen years of life. Apparently tabby cats are much different than Siamese when it comes to Christmas trees. At least some of them.
People say that orange tabbies are the crazy ones. I beg to differ. My orange tabby will look at the tree, maybe bite the branches once, but then walks away and doesn’t bother with it again. The grey tabby on the other hand…Well, let me just show you what he does.
Exhibit A:
Here you’ll see said cat sitting in the bin of branches BEFORE we even began putting the tree up. As soon as I opened up that bin, there he was. If you look closely, you’ll notice that he is not just sitting on top of the branches but chewing on them.
Exhibit B:
We got one row up and this is what he did. It’s like he thinks it’s his bed. We are putting up a big, green, bed just for him. Of course we are. But see, this is the problem. Because once the tree is all together, he climbs up in there, lays down, and tries to take a nap. But, when he does this, he ends up pulling the branches out, so there are constantly branches on the floor and gaps in the tree. This, by the way, is in addition to him pulling the ornaments off of the tree and using them as toys.
My poor Christmas tree.
I know what you’re thinking. Why haven’t we tried different ways to stop him from attacking the tree? Oh, we have. We’ve tried ALL the things.
You know how people say that cats don’t like citrus? Well, we tried putting oranges around the base of the tree to keep him out. Apparently citrus doesn’t bother my cat. He just walked around the oranges or batted them out of the way with his little paw.
People also told us that tin foil works wonders because cats hate it. Not mine. He walked right on top of the tin foil and couldn’t have cared less that it was there.
This year, someone suggested putting extra tree branches and a cat bed around the base of the tree. She said she did that and her cat stopped climbing into the tree and just stayed under it instead. So, I tried that. I even added a blanket for good measure. See?
He looks cozy in there, right? I was so hopeful, but about 15 minutes after this picture was taken my hopes were dashed when I found him in the tree. AGAIN. ((Sigh))
I next took to Amazon, thinking that there had to be some type of deterrent spray I could get that would help. Sure enough, I found quite a few of them. I bought the one that had the best reviews and looked the most promising. As soon as it arrived in the mail, I sprayed it on the Christmas tree. You want to take a guess as to what happened? Both of my cats walked around the tree, sniffed it, and walked away. Great, right? That’s what I thought too. BUT…about an hour later guess who was in the tree.
Someone else suggested putting a baby gate or some sort of similar barrier around the tree but we can’t do that either. My kitty cat is a jumper! No gate would hold him back from the tree.
So, this year’s tree lasted an even shorter amount of time than last year’s. In the end, I put up a mini-Christmas tree and a ceramic one that I have and put them in a spot neither cat ventures anymore. And those will be our Christmas trees for the foreseeable future.
We all miss our traditional Christmas tree. It tells such a sweet story of our family and the love we share. Putting up the tree has always been a fun way for us to spend time together as a family too. We all chip in to put the tree together. But it looks like that’s one tradition that will have to be on hold for a while.
Can you relate? Does your cat attack your Christmas tree? 
