I have a great, retro shiny silver, 6-foot Christmas tree from the 1960s – bought it on eBay from an antiques dealer. I have the cool spinning, 4-color wheel that makes it sparkle. (Admit it, you oldsters know exactly what I’m talking about!) It wasn’t too expensive for a decorative item, but it WOULD be heinously expensive as a cat toy.

My question for you: how did your cats deal with one of these trees? Did they savage it? Disdain it? Fear it?

My fuzzy monsters have been fairly well-behaved for the last two Christmases when we had a cut pine tree. There was some drama with the ornaments on the lower branches, but that’s about it.

Well, the tree isn’t going to have the smell of pine, so the smell of the outdoors won’t attract them. The reflection of the aluminum tree itself isn’t as tempting as the long tinsel hanging from a tree either.

The shiny objects on the tree might attract them, but I don’t think you’d be taking any more chances than you would with a pine Christmas tree. If you are worried, you might want to do as I did one Christmas and tie it to a stairwell or something else sturdy. If you use fishing line it won’t show. (And put unbreakable bulbs on the bottom of the tree.)

BTW I love the idea of the retro tree.