If you live in a household with furry companions, keeping those Christmas lights up and fancy Noël decorations in place can be tough. The toppling over of Christmas trees and pets getting entangled in fairy lights, might make for funny Just For Laughs Gags videos and memes, but these mishaps can be distressing for pet owners, and dangerous for pets. Especially if this is your kitten or pup’s first Christmas, they will be overly curious about each decoration, tree and tinsel.
Here are some tips for having a fancy, yet safe, Christmas with your pooches:
 
1. Lay it out
Lay out each component of your decoration—tree, stand, wire, decoration—out for a few hours so that your pets can sniff them out well. If your animals—cats and dogs—are in a super marking phase, here’s a hack: Take a hand towel and run it over your cat or dog. Especially the muzzle and the paws. Now wipe each element with this hand towel to transfer their scent to it. Now that it smells familiar, and like them, they are less likely to mark it.

2. Shatterproof ornaments
Traditional glass ornaments are pretty, but they can be hazardous around pets. If your pet gets the zoomies, they can knock down the tree easily, causing injuries from glass shards. Opt for shatterproof ornaments. Luckily, most shops in Mumbai sell plastic or fabric ornaments that are equally aesthetic as glass counterparts; they’re also easily available online. They can be reused for years and are easy to store, too! However, prices may vary for a more realistic-looking ornament. Hang them higher on the tree to reduce the risk of accidents—guess the out-of-reach limit as per your dog/cat’s standing-on-hind-paws height.