Decorating for the Holidays with Your Cat in Mind

December 9, 2025

or: Avoiding Decoration Malfunctions

Candilee Jackson

Introduction:

If you own a cat, and you’ve survived the holidays with your sanity, your Christmas tree, and its loads of glass ornaments, beads, and baubles all intact, you most likely will relate to this “tail.”

The minute the tree goes up, whether on November 1^st or the day after Thanksgiving, the tree, the mantel where the stockings were hung with care, the gorgeous centerpiece with a Fitz and Floyd porcelain reindeer, or the garland gaily wound down the staircase – these heirloom items become targets for our feline family members. Our cats leave daily reminders that they thank you for all the new “toys,” smells, and textures arranged through your home just for their enjoyment.

The Mantel

Picture a very realistic pine bough draped artfully across the mantelpiece, with small sets of three electric candles placed just so. Next, we add a bunch of burgundy roses on each end, complemented with pink silk poinsettias. In the middle of this work of art is a giant burgundy bow, edged with gold beading, and more silk poinsettias in both burgundy and pink. Along the edge of the mantel hang velvet stockings placed with such care, and strung by beads are little velvet stockings, one for each cat. Enter Fluffy and her crew. Let’s be real here: ANYTHING that dangles is fair game, and looking at the Christmas work of art on the mantel, EVERYTHING is dangling with something!

The Mantel Fixer: You will find a plethora of items online to anchor mantel decorations. My advice is to anchor everything, leaving nothing to chance.

The Christmas Table Centerpiece

Moving into the formal dining room, the dinner table is set with Lenox holiday china, Waterford stemware, and sterling place settings. In the center, running three-quarters of the length of the table, is a centerpiece worthy of Pinterest. Sitting on a bed of “snow,” surrounded by a pine bough thicket festooned with ribbons and miniature snowflake-dusted pine cones, sits a costly Fitz and Floyd reindeer in all its glory. Let’s see … what could go awry here? For starters, how about the entire centerpiece? Picture pine cones and ribbons gone missing, with a cat snuggled in beside the reindeer: enough said.

The Centerpiece Fixer: There are a couple of options. If you can close off the dining room, do it! If not, anchor the pine cones to the pine bough with tiny zip ties. To avoid a cat companion in the centerpiece itself, make sure to leave no “open” areas that will beckon a sleepy feline.

The Christmas Tree

Saving the best for last is my Christmas tree. The collection of glass-blown ornaments continues to grow each year, some from my parents and grandparents from Christmases of long ago, along with some treasures created by Christopher Radko and others. Each one is a memory of adventures, teaching, music … and of course, cats of all shapes and sizes. The gold heirloom beads and pink silk roping offer richness as well as temptation, and the gold mylar icicles tempt as the breeze from any passerby encourages their movement. Surrounding the base of the tree is a burgundy velvet and Battenburg lace tree skirt, camouflaging the tree stand holding water tainted with pine tree preservative. And before you gasp – the tree stand reservoir has a cover, allowing water to be added by measuring cup, and the opening has a cap preventing curious cats from wetting their whistles with preservative.

The Tree Fixer: There are several routes to traverse to solve the tree issue.

1. 1. Use an artificial tree to avoid the water issue
   2. Use unbreakable ornaments … so many options!
   3. Put cat beds IN the tree, using red and green bedding (yes, this IS possible!)
   4. Anchor the tree to a workbench or other heavy object. I’ve heard concrete blocks work well, but a larger tree skirt will be necessary.
   5. Use electric cord protectors to discourage kitty teeth

The Staircase Banister

Wound deftly around every other baluster is a pine bough laced with pink silk poinsettias, miniature pine cones dusted with “snow,” and tiny white lights hidden among the pine branches. At both the top and bottom newel posts are large velvet bows with long streamers. I don’t know about your banister, but mine has been a playground the instant the kittens were ambulatory. And yeah, the older cats often sit on the banister and have even slid down a time or two. Looking at my handiwork, I realize again some things dangle, and the boughs themselves are placed everywhere a cat would perch. I wonder how long this decoration will last this year?

Banister Fixer: Zip ties come in several colors including clear, and many sizes, and these little thingies are a wonderful invention!

The Luck of the Irish

I have had cats my entire life, and never once did a cat climb the tree or bring the tree down to its proverbial knees. I know I am definitely in the minority. The only thing my cats do to the tree is pull on the roping, bat at the icicles, and steal ornaments. I spring clean each year during the week before Easter, and I always find a hidden Christmas ornament or two … or four … <sigh>

But it’s worth it. Finding any of these treasures will always bring back memories.

And the Tail End …

As ghosts, ghouls, and goblins welcome the beginning of the holiday season, enjoy this wonderful time of year with your fur family!

“Merry Christmas to all, and to all a Goodnight!”