Protect a Christmas tree from pets: the tree and the cat
A real tree that smelled of home, an apartment kept at twenty-one degrees, and a cat who thought it had been delivered for him.
The tree arrived on a Tuesday evening, wrapped in netting, and for a few seconds the whole apartment smelled of Hannah’s grandmother’s house in Trondheim.
That smell is why so many families in Dubai still choose a natural Christmas tree, and why so many of them, sooner or later, have to work out how to protect a Christmas tree from pets. Hannah is thirty-nine, an architect, and mother to Aksel, who was five that December. They share a ninth-floor apartment with Mango, a ginger rescue cat with very firm views about anything new. This is the story of one real tree, one cat and one very long night, and of how Hannah kept both the scent of home and the tree upright.
Along the way you will find what she would do again, what she would never do again, and how she changed things the following year: a pre-lit tree, dressed with fresh fir stems for the smell. If there is a cat or a dog in your house, the practical list is near the end. We think the story explains it better.
Early December, the first year
A tree that smelled of home
Hannah grew up with real trees. In Norway the tree came in from the cold a day or two before Christmas, and the house smelled of resin until January. Her first three Christmases in Dubai had been spent with a small artificial tree from a supermarket, and every year she missed the smell more than she expected to.
So that year she ordered a real one: a Nordmann fir, sold from a garden centre where the trees stood in rows under shade sails. It was taller than she had planned. It went up in the service lift with the building’s maintenance man holding the top, and Aksel walked beside it the whole length of the corridor, as if it were a pony.
Natural trees in Dubai have travelled a long way before they reach a living room, shipped in from Europe and North America, so the fresher the delivery, the longer the tree lasts. Hannah bought hers in the first week they were on sale, which turned out to be the one decision she got entirely right.
The same evening
Mango meets the tree
Mango had come from a shelter two years earlier, thin and suspicious, and had since become a large, confident animal who supervised everything. He watched the tree come through the door from the back of the sofa and did not move for an hour. Then, when everyone had gone into the kitchen, he crossed the room very slowly and pushed his nose into the lowest branch.
Cats are interested in Christmas trees for good reasons. A tree is a new smell, a climbing frame and a hiding place all at once, and a decorated tree adds things that swing, glint and roll. Dogs tend to be less interested in climbing and more interested in what is underneath: the water in the stand, the presents, anything that smells of food.
Hannah laughed and took a photograph. It is still her favourite picture of that Christmas. It was also the first warning.
Day three
Lights, glass and a five-year-old
They decorated on the Friday. Hannah wound warm white lights from the top down, a long string with a plug at the bottom and a cable that ran across the floor to the nearest socket. Aksel was in charge of baubles and hung nearly all of them on the same three branches, at exactly his own height.
Most of the baubles were glass. Some had been her mother’s, carried out from Norway in hand luggage, wrapped in socks. There was tinsel, because Aksel had chosen it in the shop, and a string of dried orange slices the two of them had made the week before.
Looking back, she can list every mistake in those two paragraphs. Glass at cat height. Tinsel, which cats love and which is dangerous if swallowed. Food on the tree. A loose cable across the floor. And a tall, top-heavy tree in a basic stand, with nothing holding it to the wall.
Day six, 2am
The night the tree came down
The sound woke all three of them. Hannah found the tree on its side across the living room rug, water spreading from the stand, the lights still glowing underneath it. There was glass in the rug. Mango was on top of the bookcase, entirely calm, looking at her as though she owed him an explanation.
Nobody was hurt, which she still counts as luck. She shut Mango in the bedroom, put slippers on Aksel and sat him on the sofa under a blanket, unplugged the lights, and spent an hour on her knees with a torch and a damp cloth, picking up the pieces of her mother’s baubles.
In the morning she found a tuft of ginger fur caught halfway up the trunk. Mango had climbed into the middle of the tree, which a full-sized fir will hold for a moment, and then leaned towards the window. The stand did what a basic stand does with an uneven tree and a five-kilogram cat. It tipped.
The next afternoon
How to protect a Christmas tree from pets, learned the hard way
The tree went back up that afternoon, and this time Hannah treated it like a piece of furniture that had to be made safe for a toddler. She bought a heavier stand with a wide base and a deep water bowl, and tied the trunk to a small hook in the wall with clear fishing line, high up where nobody would notice it. Her building was happy with one small hook. Ask yours before you drill.
The decorations went on again in layers. Nothing breakable on the bottom third of the tree. Glass only near the top, and only the pieces she could bear to lose. Wooden, felt and fabric ornaments lower down, tied on with knotted thread rather than wire hooks, so a paw could not flick them off. The tinsel went in the bin. The orange slices went on the kitchen window instead.
She covered the water in the stand with a circle of card and a tree skirt, because tree water can upset a pet’s stomach and Mango had already shown an interest. She ran the light cable through a cord cover along the skirting board. Then she put Mango’s favourite blanket on the window seat at the other end of the room, which was the cleverest thing she did all month.
Mid-December
A natural Christmas tree in an air-conditioned flat
The second problem was quieter. By the middle of the month the tree was dropping needles every time someone walked past. Dubai apartments are not cold in December, and the air conditioning that keeps them comfortable also dries out a cut tree quickly, especially one standing near a vent or in the afternoon sun.
Hannah learned to check the water every morning before the school run, and to top it up whenever the level came near the bottom of the trunk. A fresh tree drinks a surprising amount in its first week. She moved it a metre away from the vent, kept the blinds half closed in the afternoon and switched the lights off whenever they left the flat. The tree lasted into the first days of January, rather sparse by then. Needles kept turning up in Aksel’s socks until February.
Fir needles are sharp, and a pet who chews enough of them can end up with a sore mouth or an upset stomach. Hannah swept every evening, which Mango treated as a game laid on for him.
The following November
Choosing a pre-lit Christmas tree
The next year Hannah approached it the way she would approach a design brief. She wanted the look and the scent of a real tree, a stand that could not tip, no cable to trip over and no needles in anyone’s socks. No single tree did all of that, so she split the job in two.
For the structure she chose a pre-lit Christmas tree, a little shorter than the first. She looked for warm white lights rather than cold white, branch tips full enough to hide the wire, a heavy metal stand, and lights wired into the branches so there was only one cable, running straight down the trunk and behind the sofa. It came in three sections that slotted firmly together. She still tied it to the hook in the wall.
A good pre-lit tree is an investment rather than a bargain. See one lit in a shop if you can, because photographs online flatter the lights. And it will not smell of anything, which is where the second half of the plan came in.
First week of December
Fir stems for the scent of home
Florists and garden centres in Dubai sell cut fir and pine stems through December, usually by the bunch. Hannah bought two generous bunches every ten days or so. Most went into tall glass vases on the dining table, the way we like to use greenery on a Christmas table, and on the shelf by the front door, where Mango could not reach them. A few short pieces she tucked into the upper branches of the pre-lit tree, so the tree itself smelled faintly of fir.
Fir stems behave like cut flowers. Trim the ends when you bring them home, stand them in deep water, change it every two or three days and keep them away from the air conditioning. They last a week or two and smell strongest in the first few days, so smaller, more frequent bunches work better than one enormous armful.
It is not quite the same as a whole tree coming in from the cold. Hannah says it is close enough that she stopped minding by the second week.
Christmas Eve
The low branches belong to Aksel
That year the bottom of the tree was Aksel’s. He had a basket of wooden and felt decorations, a few he had made at school and a few from his advent calendar, and the rule was that he could hang them anywhere below his shoulders. The glass baubles that survived the first year went right at the top, where his mother could reach them and Mango could not.
Mango inspected the new tree on its first evening, sniffed the stand, found nothing worth climbing in its tightly packed branches and went back to his blanket on the window seat. He spent most of December asleep there in a square of afternoon light, which was all anyone had wanted.
On Christmas Eve, Hannah sat on the floor with Aksel and looked at the tree with the lights on and the room smelling of fir. It was not the tree from her grandmother’s house. It was theirs.
If you share your home with a pet and a Christmas tree
Everything Hannah learned, in the order we would do it.
Choose the stand before the tree. A wide, heavy base matters more than anything else on this list. If the stand wobbles with an empty tree in it, it will tip with a climbing cat.
Tie it to the wall. One discreet hook and clear fishing line or thin wire, fixed high on the trunk, stops a tree falling even when something climbs it. In a rented apartment, ask building management first.
Decorate in layers. Unbreakable wood, felt and fabric on the bottom third of the tree, glass only at the top. Tie ornaments on with knotted thread rather than open wire hooks.
Leave out what tempts them. Tinsel, long ribbon tails and anything edible, including chocolate decorations, sweets and salt dough ornaments, which are a particular danger to dogs.
Cover the water. With a natural Christmas tree, cover the stand so a pet cannot drink from it, and leave out any additives.
Tidy the cables. A pre-lit tree means one cable instead of several. Run it behind furniture or inside a cord cover, and switch the lights off when nobody is home.
Give them somewhere better to be. A blanket, a perch or a bed by a window on the other side of the room does more than any deterrent spray.
Keep a real tree cool and watered. Away from air-conditioning vents and direct sun, with the water checked every morning, a natural tree lasts far longer in a Dubai apartment.
For the tree decoration itself, and the garlands and wreaths around it, our guide to Christmas decoration in Dubai goes room by room.
Let’s sum up
Protecting a Christmas tree from pets comes down to three things: a tree that cannot fall, nothing breakable or edible at pet height, and an animal with somewhere better to be. A natural tree brings the scent and asks for daily care in a Dubai apartment. A pre-lit tree is steadier and simpler with a cat or a dog in the house, and a few fresh fir stems bring the smell back. And if your Mango is part of the family, he can be part of the photograph: your first pet comes free.
Questions about Christmas trees and pets
A pre-lit tree is usually easier. Its branches are denser and less inviting to climb, there is no water bowl, no needles on the floor and only one cable. A natural Christmas tree can work well with pets too, as long as it stands in a heavy base, is tied to the wall and has its water covered.
Fir and pine needles are sharp and can irritate a pet’s mouth and stomach if chewed or swallowed, and the water in a tree stand can upset them too. Sweep daily, cover the stand, and call your vet if your pet seems unwell after eating needles or decorations.
It depends on how fresh it is when you buy it and where it stands. Kept away from air-conditioning vents and strong sun, with the water topped up every day, a real tree bought early in the season will usually look good through Christmas. Trees bought late, or left to dry out once, drop needles much sooner.
Treat them like cut flowers. Trim the ends when you get them home, stand them in deep, clean water, change the water every two or three days, and keep them out of direct sun and away from the air conditioning. Expect a week or two, with the strongest scent in the first few days.
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The Setup Collective builds three Christmas rooms in Dubai each season, the Christmas Room, the Christmas Kitchen and Christmas Morning, then photographs families in them. Candidly: nobody gets told to tuck their chin in. Who we are
