Christmas tree disaster

[TheVBs]

Last night we came home from DD14's choir concert to find the tree had fallen down. We were all set to blame the new kitties. We adopted a 2 year old boy in the spring and a 6 month old boy just a couple of months ago. This is their first Christmas with us. The tree had been up for days with no issues and as we got it back up, it looks like it just wasn't tightened at the base enough.

Because we didn't know what the kitties might get up to, we made sure no glass ornaments were on the tree. When I told the girls the plan, they wanted to do an entirely Disney tree. We have tons of those Storybook Ornament sets and lots of other Disney ornaments. I knew they weren't unbreakable, but as we picked the tree up, I was stunned to see how many had just shattered. And it mostly landed on the rug! We're going to try to fix what we can. Our DD10 was devastated and crying. I think every single one of my Tinker Bell ornaments broke.

The gifts got soaked too. But, thankfully, nothing was ruined! Of course, I had just wrapped a ton of gifts that day.

Oh well. It's just stuff. Right? Sigh.

[Pirate Granny]

I'm so sorry...I know as a child I was famous for pulling the tree down, so much so that my father screwed bolts into the ceiling to be able to tie the tree up to the ceiling.

We are off to disney tomorrow...is there something special I can purchase to make DD smile. I can have it mailed to your house from disney.

Please, take me up on my offer...today, I truly need to make someone else smile. It's been a long few days ...........

[Mrs Bus Driver]

I am so sorry about your tree. Over the years it seems every cat I ever had has tried to climb a Christmas tree at least once. I think my worst Christmas disaster was when my Rottweiler peed on the tree. We had to take the tree outside to hose it, wash the ornaments and rewrap most of the presents. In the end it became one of those memorable Christmas stories, point is ornaments can be replaced even if it takes some time. As long as you pull together you and yours will still have a good Christmas.
Your story got me to thinking about Christmas past. When my kids were little I used to have a lot of crafting supplies, so one year I bought a lot of cheep ornaments and let my DD and her friend decorate them. They weren't Disney quality but we used those ornaments for many years and it made my DD very happy. Maybe you and your DDs could make a few memories.

[Mickey'sGirl]

So sorry for your daughter!

Growing up we had a cat who liked to sleep in the tree. One year he had toppled the tree one to many times, and my parents packed it all in. We refer to it as "The year of the Christmas chair". It is now an amusing story. It wasn't at the time.

I hope your tree remains standing through the rest of the season.

[cspenc28]

I'm so sorry about your tree.
Growing up, my mom was so particular about our tree. No one could decorate it, except her. Well, one year she thought she was being smart, and only decorated the half of the tree you could see (it was in the corner of the living room). In the middle of the night, we heard this loud crash. It woke all four of us from a dead sleep. We ran downstairs and our tree had fallen over. We were lucky, it didn't damage any ornaments, and she hadn't wrapped gifts yet. But, it still was a mess that we had to clean up in the middle of the night, water, pine needles, it took forever.
We now laugh about it, but at the time, we weren't too amused. Now she just puts the plains balls in the back, and all the special ornaments in the front.

[TheVBs]

OMG! I love these stories! You've all made me laugh so much and I really needed that this morning. Thank you all so much. I'm still a little fragile, but feeling like I can face the day now.

And, Pirate Granny, that is so incredibly nice of you!

[PirateLover]

I'm so sorry! We've had some tree mishaps over the years. One year we had a lopsided tree and had to tie the top of it to a hook on the wall to keep it standing. I have a vast ornament collection- mostly Hallmark. I do have a fair amount of storybook and special WDW park ornaments as well. One good thing about Hallmark is that they are very well made. When they do break, they tend to break at joints and are easy to super glue back together. I would be so upset if my ornaments shattered. The Storybook ornaments do seem well made so that is surprising to me. But you are right, in the end it's just stuff. I always try to look at the silver lining... what if one of the kids had been sitting around the tree when it fell, that kind of thing. Try to fix what you can and maybe (if you have the $$ to spare) make a special trip with the kids to the Disney Store or Hallmark to pick out a few replacements together? Also a lot of the sketchbook ornaments are currently on sale on the Disney website. Not sure if they are on sale in store as well.

[disneymom15]

We are off to disney tomorrow...is there something special I can purchase to make DD smile. I can have it mailed to your house from disney.

Please, take me up on my offer...today, I truly need to make someone else smile. It's been a long few days....

Pirate Granny, what a nice offer

[faline]

I'm so sorry!! It's such a disappointment but it will be a family memory for many years to come -- remember the year the tree fell over???

[bleukarma]

My fiance and I don’t have a Christmas tree this year. We had a little table top one but when I plugged it in only half the lights work. I was so frustrated I took it straight to the dumpster.

But my childhood tree at my great aunts house also fell. I’m not sure what caused it. The glass blown mickey ornament that me and her picked out at Disney years ago broke. It’s sad. She is 80 years old and she raised me and every year we both enjoyed putting it on the tree. However, in the end, it’s just an object. We will always have that memory of buying it and using it every year.

Cheer up and think of all the nice memories you will make getting new ornaments with your kids! Maybe take your DD to pick out something special for the tree to cheer her up. She will always think of that ornament as “the special one we had to buy when the tree fell.” Lol!

[minnie04]

We are off to disney tomorrow...is there something special I can purchase to make DD smile. I can have it mailed to your house from disney.

Please, take me up on my offer...today, I truly need to make someone else smile. It's been a long few days ...........

what a nice offer. It would be kinda cool to have something shipped from Disney to your DD. So sorry to hear about the tree.

[princessgirls]

So upsetting!!!!

I famously remember staying at my SIL's over one Christmas break week, and her huge great room tree fell over crashing, and thankfully not on top of us either, it went the other way. It was too much tree in too little base.
Boom. Could have hurt us...
Julie

[BrowncatP]

I, too had have a bad tree experience. I only had the lights on the tree when one of my cats knocked the tree over. The tree was new and the cat caused the base to break. I could not find anything that would support the tree. I had to go and get a new tree.

[VWL Mom]

I'm so sorry, I have 3 cats and a very large dog and I am constantly worried that someone will knock it over.

Pirate Granny, what a lovely offer. Truly epitomizes the Christmas spirit.

[tinkwest]

One year, for whatever reason, our tree decided to tip over. Several family members were sitting in the living room and watched it just suddenly fall down. It was after Christmas and we had stopped watering it already so there wasn't too much of a mess on the carpet and as far as I remember we did not lose any ornaments.

I'm sorry you lost some of your cherished ornaments. I know that would make me sad. But as many suggested, I think you should go out and buy a special ornament to mark the year the tree fell. My son was only three when ours fell down, but today - 27 years later - he still remembers it. It is a part of our Christmas memories.

BTW, I'm glad your cats have been well behaved so far.

[John]

I'm so sorry...I know as a child I was famous for pulling the tree down, so much so that my father screwed bolts into the ceiling to be able to tie the tree up to the ceiling.

We are off to disney tomorrow...is there something special I can purchase to make DD smile. I can have it mailed to your house from disney.

Please, take me up on my offer...today, I truly need to make someone else smile. It's been a long few days ...........

It's posts like these that make me proud to be a website owner

[SurferStitch]

I'm soooo sorry that happnened! Our entire 10' tree is Disney ornaments, and I'd probably need to be locked up if I lost them!! Sometimes you can find older ones on eBay (I had to do that years ago when my puppy chewed a dated Disney ornament), so don't give up hope!

We've never had a tree fall, but we had something bad enough. Now, this was just prior to us putting the decorations on, but it was still aweful.

For many years we only got real trees. Cut them down ourselves. One year we went to a new tree farm my dad recommended... never went back.

We got a gorgeous tree, and put it up in the house. I was busy, so I waited several days to decorate it. Good thing. We noticed a small brown spot starting on one side, and thought it to be very odd. Wasn't there when we cut the tree down.

Then I was standing in the living room, looking at the tree, and noticed something move. Then another spot, and another... I stepped back, and noticed MANY little black spots moving. They were little fuzzy, jumping SPIDERS!! SPIDERS!!!

SPIDERS!!!!!!!

I hate spiders. Outside, fine. Inside, they must die.

Hundreds of them. Nasty little buggers that tried to jump at my face when I walked up closer to investigate. I screamed, my husband ran into the room, and I immediately instructed him to get Raid spray. I sprayed that sucker until it glistened and dripped Raid. We then left the house for a few hours (the cats had to fend for themselves. We kept them upstairs in the bedroom with the door closed). The tree got chucked, and there we were, 7 days before Christmas, treeless.

We went to our regular tree farm for a replacement. We were telling the owner of the farm what happened, and he felt so bad for us. He drove us around the farm until we found a tree we loved, and even cut it down for us, and gave us a new tree stand for free. He turned a horrible experience into magic. To this day, we still talk about how sweet he was.

Spiders.

[bleukarma]

OMG SurferStitch I've never had a real tree and after that story I don't know if I want one!!!! That would creep me out for weeks!!!! I probably wouldnt have bothered with a replacement tree that year!

[PirateLover]

SurferStitch, I can relate. We had bugs in our tree one year, and from that point on we started taking them out back and hosing them down really good before bringing them into the house. We switched to artificial a few years ago.

[momef3grls]

This year more than ever our family is remembering the blessings we have. Things are just objects..but people matter. My husband suffered a stroke and the husband/dad/pappy that we all once had is no longer with us...but he is alive and moving forward and we have to believe in that. Yes some days are tougher than others but you have family and that is what matters more than objects. Memories when you bought a specific ornament are significant but when it is not there the memory still is. Treasure the memory you never know when the day will not be there.