Christmas with Savannahs

[Sue]

I do not have any breakable ornaments on the tree. To protect the tree skirt, I bought a piece of clear vinyl /plastic at a fabric store and cut it to the proper size and place it on top of the skirt. That way Ii can enjoy the beauty of the skirt ( handmade with sequins, beads, embroidery) and I don' t worry about any accidents. Sue

 

[Jeni]

By all means, try the stockings and mini trees...they may or may not get pulled off or batted around! Try using museum putty under the mini trees. I hung a few stockings on the fireplace, and for the most part they were left alone.

My most important suggestion is to not use anything that might be dangerous if ingested: small ornaments, hooks, garland, icicles, etc.

I actually have some museum wax that I've waxed down all my decorations and it has held up....so far! I'll have to apply that concept to Christmas decor as well now!

 

[WitchyWoman]

I tried a tree when Juba was a baby. He broke a few ornaments, otherwise no problems. Then came Taji and it didn't go so well -- two of them hot in the chase of each other slamming into the tree. Then came Maliik who was barely a year old last Christmas. I debated about getting a tree and decided that with all of the other sacrifices we've made for the cats, the tree wasn't going to be one of them. I didn't use ornaments -- just decorated with a lot of lights. They never touched it. We decided that we like the tree better with hundreds of lights and no ornaments, so we'll do that again this year.

 

[SV Dad]

Don't be surprised to find the cat either climbing the tree or attempting to nest over some limbs!

 

[Nicolette Kearns]

This will be our first year also. I had started to wonder how this was going to work. She loves to climb the door frames for the light switches right now. I can only imagine how this will be with a tree.

 

[Angie Panczak]

We had a 5 ft plastic tree and it ended up in the garbage after Christmas, the girls decided to use it as a race track, see who could run up to the top the fastest and dangle off the star, next they would nick the plastic balls off and chase them around the hardwood in the middle of the night.

 

[Angie Panczak]

 

[Nitro]

Uh oh. I fear for my parents place when I bring the kitties by.

 

[Anne]

last year was our first Christmas with Keegan and I knew he's be totally amused with the tree so I put up my tree very slowly I put up just the tree and left it empty for a couple of days - novelty wore off of it so then I put lights on it, left it again for a couple of days and slowly added the rest of decorations ... over all it went good but there was no ornaments for about the last foot of the tree around the bottom I'm sure we'll be going thru it again this year, laugh

 

[Kristine]

I decorate and do it all out! I have a Christmas village, a nutcracker collection, a snow globe collection, a tree complete with ornaments and have always decorated like this. Mind you I have been sharing my home and life with Savannahs for over 10 years now, every generation from F1 to F7. Adults and kittens. I have a tried and true system. First, we use an artificial tree. I bring it upstairs and do not put it up, I just leave it on the ground for a day or two and let the cats play in it. Then I set it up. I leave it up and undecorated for another day or two. The cats play in it. By now the thrill is rapidly dissipating and the cats are starting to ignore it. So I decorate. Non-breakable ornaments on the bottom portion and nice ones on the top. The cats occupy themselves with the lower ones for a bit, but eventually get bored with those too. For the tree skirt, I just use a heavy one and straighten it daily. The cats like to sleep on it under the tree. For the rest of my ornaments and displays, the cats tend to just leave them alone. I try and give them extra play and mental stimulation during the holidays so that they are not tempted to mess things up. This works. Here are some pictures of my decorations from last year (-: