This can often be a routine battle for cat parents during the holiday time and can be not only annoying and frustrating or costly for you, but also dangerous for your pets health if they inadvertently break a glass ornament, or get themselves caught up into a string of lights or garland.  

While it takes a bit of time and effort to accomplish the following tricks will really help you to succeed in keeping your kitty out of your holiday tree!

• Move your ca's cat climber near to your Christmas tree, far enough that they can't reach any parts of the tree, but close enough that they can sit on the top of the climber and investigate the tree by looking closely at it without needing to actually climb up it.  This might take some time and patience to accomplish, but you can reward them with treats using positive reinforcement efforts every time they are politely sitting on their climber near the tree versus in it!
• dry orange peels and place them all through-out the branches of your tree as cat's are repelled by the scent of orange yet it is safe if they happen to chew on the peels. 
• use an orange essential oil and mix a few drops into a spray bottle of water and spray onto your tree, again cats do not like the scent and will steer clear.  Be certain however, that the oil is pure essential oil not synthetic as the synthetics can be harmful to pets!
• If all of these fail you might want to try a more extreme option like placing a plexi-glass shield around your tree, putting your tree into a cage, or even hanging it from the ceiling like we have seen some of our fellow cat-lovers do this year!! :)

Keep those pets healthy and happy everyone!

~PetCoachApril

April Arguin A.S., C.P.N., P.M.H.