Trouble with the Tree?

[Mummy deer-est]

I'm sure we have all had mishaps -- from kids, or pets, or bad placement.
Mine goes like this:


Our first year with a tree, we let the tree water run out after the first few days, not realizing how often we needed to water it. Since they don't take in water after they are left dry for so long, it all went down hill from there. The tree became more and more dry, losing needles everyday. Finally, we decided that although it wasn't the day the recycle company would p/u the tree, we had to get rid of it. Only thing is, hubby had the briliant idea of putting it on the deck! :confused: Well, on the way out, it dropped half of its needles everywhere within a ten foot radius of its path. We were vaccuming and picking up needles that stuck in our socks for *months*. It was really bad.
Then, hubby said we couldn't take it back through house (duh) so he left it there. :mad: On our little townhouse deck, the tree sat for a few more days (weeks) dropping the rest of its needles. :eek:
Finally, realizing how ridiculous it was that the tree was outside on the deck, in mid January, he dropped it down to the backyard and pulled it all the way around the row to the front of the house. :o
He soon realized, that if he had only put it in the front yard for just the day until p/u our lives would have been much easier! Oh, the lessons we learned! (And the laughs we have now!)

[Frosty]

Our cat every year if you turn your back will crawl all the way up the tree knocking ornaments everywhere pops his head out of the tree about mid way through. He drives us crazy! When the tree comes out of the box you should see his face he gets this evil grin! and we do the dont think about it look. Imagine a 20 pound egyptian mau scaling a christmas tree its like watching king kong climb a building LOL!

[bethene]

Years ago(25 or so) we heard a big crash in the middle of the night, a cat we had then did the old king kong climbing thing (he was pretty big too, not 20 lbs. but at least 15!), only the whole tree went over, at about 3 in the morning. Not good! Thank goodness it happened to be under a plant hook , so we tied it up, the rest of the year, a few ornaments broke, had to redo the tinsel garland, etc, but we tied the tree up every year that we had that cat. (i still miss the sweet guy though, I probably always will) Ps, Frosty Egyptian Mau's are beautiful cats!!

[childofthenight]

our cats (5) used to terrorize our tree! come out in the middle of the night and see eyes in the tree. then we tried a live tree and they wont go near it (go figure) but now I got a 200$ tree that makes you sneeze cauz of black pepper experiment!LOL! so it just sits in storage.

[Sickie Ickie]

gee, I feel left out! heh My cat never climbed the tree or bothered it. Now the golden retrievers on the other hand were different stories!

[Nancj]

my parents always put asprin in the tree when watering it I think it was to keep it from drying out but I'm not sure. (maybe it had a hangover)

[Sickie Ickie]

Here's a link to the National Christmas Tree Association's faq http://www.christmastree.org/faqs.cfm

Admit it, did ya even know it existed? LOL

[Nancj]

Admit it, did ya even know it existed? LOL[/QUOTE]

sickie, you always amaze me with your knowledge.
Good info to know, I never know what type of tree I'm getting only that its big and fat.

(I guess my tree didn't have a hang over after all:))

[Mummy deer-est]

Mythbusters did an episode on this....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MythBusters_episodes:_Specials#Special_10_.E2.80.9 4_.22MythBusters_Holiday_Special.22

FYI!

[Secret Santa]

My philosophy on real christmas trees ... the day you vacuum up the last pine needle from last year's tree is the day you need to buy a new tree for this year :D

[NJWilk]

Then there was the time the family weimaraner - who usually lived outside - was allowed into the gameroom, saw the not-yet-decorated tree and did what comes naturally. We took it out to the patio, hosed it off and started over. Max spent the rest of the holiday in his own comfy house with tasty soup bones and warm old blankets, but no Christmas tree.

[Sickie Ickie]

My philosophy on real christmas trees ... the day you vacuum up the last pine needle from last year's tree is the day you need to buy a new tree for this year :D

LOL That's funny, but probibly also very true! :D

[Sickie Ickie]

Admit it, did ya even know it existed? LOL

sickie, you always amaze me with your knowledge.
Good info to know, I never know what type of tree I'm getting only that its big and fat.

(I guess my tree didn't have a hang over after all:))[/QUOTE]

I know a little about a lot and a lot about nothin'! :rolleyes:

[Elvira]

We normally do not have a real tree, I know, I know, whats x-mas without a real tree? Its probably a good thing!

Well....as usual every yr, I take hrs and hrs to decorate it. put one decoration, stand back 10 ft, look to see if it looks just right and continue on. This whole process takes forever. The kids, DH and even the dog where always asked "what does Santa say?" Most would expect "ho ho ho" nope not in my house, it was "don't touch the tree" :) They all knew it, and knew it well.

Everyone thinks I'm nuts, including the dog we had at the time. (Hes since passed on to the rainbow bridge :( ) At first he would follow me everytime I would move back and forth to look at the tree. He soon realized that that was a waste of time, I wasn't going anywhere and he would be far better off to just sit planted in his spot. The very good boy he was, he was not in the way at all, he would sit off to the side and not interfere with my path taken to stand back and admire the one decoration added each time.

Later that night, when the tree was done, lit, and admired... exhausted I unplugged the tree and we went to bed. The next morning, I awoke to a toppled tree, decorations smushed, beads and bows mangaled. I was horrified. Who had done this to my hard work. There was no way the kids did this, they were in bed and fast asleep, I thought. The dog, no, can't be, hes such a good boy, he would never do something like this. DH? DH! omg, I'll kill him, this was a sick joke! Salt in my coffee on aprils fools day was one thing, but killing my tree..... oh surely someone was gonna die! :)

I picked up the tree, and stuck it back in the corner, it looked so pathetic, and after realizing it would take nothing short of pulling the whole thing apart and redoing it to make it look at least decent, I decided forget it. Whoever did this, this was what our christmas would be like. Someone was going to be punished. Later I lit the tree, and closed all the drapes. (Yes I was ashamed of it) LOL

The next morning, I awoke to the tree toppled again. I picked it up, and plunked it back on its stand. This was now starting to look like a Charlie Brown tree. I'm no longer horrified, I was over the intial shock and now it was pick it up and carry on. When DH and the kids got up to go about their day, they looked at my tree, and asked if I was gonna leave it the way it was or fix it. X-mas was still about 2 weeks away. Leave it of course. I think they all thought I had snapped at this point. hehehe Until someone confessed to the tree mangling, it was going to remain just as is.

The final time the tree toppled, was during the day, and the culprit was busted. It was my ever so good boy! His ball would roll under the tree, and he would fly across the room, come to a dead stop and try to slither under the tree to retrieve his ball. In the far corner we found "his cookies" and 2 balls. I guess he thought he would leave santa some cookies and 1 ball to play with, because obviously one ball he was NOT leaving there. The tree crashed down on him, he would panic and try to get out. One can only imagine the state that tree was in the last time it fell.

Moral of my story, if I could have him back to play ball again, he can knock over my tree anytime. :)