I hide a couple cans of Ssscat under the tree to keep the curious boys away.

https://www.amazon.com/PetSafe-PDT00-13914-SSSCAT-Spray-Deterrent/dp/B000RIA95G

My cats were maniacs as kittens and laughed at my attempts to constrain their behavior. Their first Christmas the family celebrated out of town so I skipped a tree. The next year, when they were about 20 months old I decided, what the hell, I want a tree. I always get a 4-ft. Noble Fir, set it on top of an upturned square laundry basket covered with white towels ("snow") and pretend it's a full-size tree. Works for me.

B & Z were fascinated and agog over the TREE! in our house, but they didn't do a kamikazi on it. They couldn't leave a couple of cat ornaments alone, but they rose to the occasion and the tree stayed upright. I found it helped to set it up and leave it for at least half a day undecorated so that they could get used to its presence and smell.

If your cat can knock over a tree that's in this stand, she belongs in a zoo!

It's the best Christmas tree stand I've ever had...very stable. It's available in two sizes, I believe.

We have a maniac new kitten, too. I'd totally forgotten about the tree. I'm thinking the first pic fun2bhere posted might work :)

My DD still attaches a length of clear fishing line from near the top of her tree to an inconspicuous eye hook.

We use to have a hook in the ceiling at our old house. The tree was tied up to the hook with fishing line. Basically not only was the tree in a stand, but also hanging. My cat or the kids never knocked it over. You could put some eye hooks in the post and tie it to the post. Now I just put it on the sun porch in front of the sliders. You can still see it from the living and dinning room, but no one can get to it.

We've tied our tree to the curtain rod.

Okay, I do now recall getting a more robust tree stand somewhere along the line. Gee I need to find all this stuff. I've moved since I last put up a tree. Not sure what's at home and what's at the lake. Fishing line. I've got some of that. I suppose that would do the job.

Set it up on the porch outside and enjoy the view!

I have had a tree in my screen porch at times but this year I want to pull out all the decorations and have the full Christmas tree experience - inside. Since this will be at our lake cabin we'll probably only put it up the weekend before Christmas and take down over the new year. I don't think I can leave it up long since we aren't here to water it though I could probably get my neighbors to stop by to water mid-week. I haven't had a real tree in many years.

I just moved to an apartment and miss my garden so I started a house plant area. There is a supplemental lighting stand and also a couple of stands for hanging plants, all of those are vertical structures that I do not want tipped over by my pets including a cat or my toddler grand baby.

I went to Walmart.com and they had some Velcro leg weights on sale, so I got six sets of two, each is ten pounds so 20 lbs a set. I attach a few to the bases, the hanging basket stands for instance got 40 lbs of weights each. This has really helped with their stability.

Each vertical structure is also independently tied to the freestanding plant table/shelf via Velcro straps.

After struggling to get a large tree in a stand and get it straight for decades (my late husband always swore it was a true gift for me to always be able to choose a tree with a crooked trunk!), I finally gave in and bought a VERY expensive Christmas tree stand several years ago. <https://www.christmascentral.com/swivel-straight-1-minute-christmas-tree-stand-for-real-trees-up-to-10-5572292/>; I have no idea where I bought it locally, but it's exactly like this. Once you have one of these, you will never again go back to an old fashioned stand. Don't be fooled by cheaper imitations! Only the real thing will do and you'll have it forever. It is SO easy to use, it swivels to straighten the tree and then locks in place. It also holds a TON of water - no daily Marine-crawl under the tree to keep it from drying out. I do add a "Waterhog" round mat under it - I know they are available from Orvis and also other places. It's an "insurance policy" that water doesn't get spilled while the tree is being watered. Don't ask me how I know about this...

For many years, we had 5 cats. I will never forget awakening in the night to a very distinctive sound, like no other...the sound of an 8 ft, fully decorated Christmas tree crashing to the ground. Now this was with our old Christmas tree stand, but let's just say that the lights and ornaments looked like they'd been put on by drunken elves until we took the tree down (right after Christmas - it was that bad).

We would have had far more broken ornaments if we hadn't learned with our first Christmas tree to TIE ON the ornaments with narrow red satin ribbon. It lasts forever - many ornaments still have the ribbon from 51 years ago. You can buy it by the bolt quite cheaply at places like Michael's or JoAnne's - just buy it now - sells out quickly.

And yes, we use the fishing line/eye hook method of attaching it to the wooden built in bookcase in the corner where the tree goes. No cats, but I still do this "just in case".

Many decades ago, before I was married, I had a cat named Mehitabel (yes, named for the famous Archie and Mehitabel characters). At that time, most people put foil icicles/tinsel on their trees, a tedious task if done properly, one piece at a time, and an unholy nuisance when the tree is taken down. One evening we walked into my parent's living room, and there were two eyes glowing from INSIDE the Christmas tree. There sat Mehitabel about 3 feet up in the tree, on a thicker branch near the trunk. Not a single thing was disturbed - not even one piece of tinsel. She just sat there, looking like the famous Cheshire Cat in Alice in Wonderland! We never saw her get into the tree or exit it - she had her mysterious ways!