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Christmas Decorating with Cats
As you can imagine, decorating for Christmas with seven cats in the house is quite an adventure. If you've already read The Twelve Cats of Christmas, you'll know what I mean.
In fact, for the first couple of years that we had cats, I didn't dare put up a tree, or any Christmas decorations, for fear that the cats (then kittens) would destroy them. After all, I had seen what the kittens did to my couch, my drapes and everywhere else in my apartment.
So what is one to do if one wishes to decorate for Christmas, but can't stand the heartache of having it torn to shreds? Well, Christmas 2002 represented a new start for me, in a lot of ways, and I was determined to decorate for the first time in years. Here's what I did last year, and what I added this year.
- Start the decorating outside. You can make it as simple or elaborate as your personal taste allows. Christmas lights strung along the eaves of the house, winding up porch posts and around doors and windows add a warm, welcoming touch.
- Add a welcoming wreath to the front door (I have a seasonal wreath up on my door all year round)
- This year I added a couple of small painted wooden signs, one of a Santa, one of a snowman, to welcome visitors as they come up the pathway to the porch.
- Indoors, I used natural looking garland (from Hobby Lobby) to lay along the top of my bookshelves and entertainment center. I twined festive ribbon through the garland and added some other decorations to. It created a lovely Holiday look and was completely out of reach of the cats!
- I purchased a tapestry throw with a winter scene, along with a matching pillow, to bring the Christmas feel down to my level.
- I purchased some cheap frames and painted and decorated them. I used them to frame some beautiful Christmas cards I had received over the years and created a Holiday montage on the wall.
- Christmas cards received from family and friends are always displayed throughout the house, strung from red velvet ribbon hanging from the walls.
- A lighted holiday village creates a nice touch, but needs to be kept out of reach of the cats. My entertainment center has two shelves with glass doors at the front, which created the perfect home for my village.
But somehow, all the ideas I came up with last year only seemed to set the stage for this year (2003) my first Christmas in my new house. I decided I was going to try and put a tree up and see what happened. I hoped that my cats (now no longer kittens and much mellower than they used to be) would lose interest in it quickly, like they do with so many other new things.
Rather than get a large tree and set it on the ground at their level, increasing their temptation, I got a 4ft, pre-lighted artificial tree and set it on a table, so it was above their heads.
I was very pleased with the cats, after an initial sniff, they kept away from it entirely. I didn't lose a single ornament and never did I come home to find the whole thing laying out on the ground (something I'm sure would have happened if they had still been kittens).
So you see, there are many ways in which you can decorate for the Holidays, even if you have cats.
© Jayne Pedigo 2003
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