christmas trees

[Guest guest]

Hello all,

Have any of you had trouble with Christmas trees and your autistic

child? I have a 3 year old boy with autism. He's getting better

that he is noticing his surroundings. Last year, he did not care for

anything with Christmas except the wrapping paper and the shiny

garland hung on the stairs.

This year he is noticing more. With Christmas trees he sees he wants

to touch the globes and lights on the trees. We have to tell him no

and redirect him. We bought an artificial tree for our house and put

lights, a few globes, and beads on the tree. I guess that I was not

thinking it through because he already pulled the tree down and broke

the stand. Our son loves beads and balls. He could not resist

playing with the stuff on the tree.

I just bought another artificial tree with a heavier base and nothing

on it yet. Any suggestions you have to prevent a child to play with

Christmas trees? I fear when we go visit relatives over the

Christmas holiday it is going to be much harder unless we can teach

him now to stop playing with Christmas trees.

Thank you for your help.

Cecilia