Cats Vs. Christmas Trees, A Yearly Battle

What's the deal with cats climbing the Christmas tree?  Is it some right of passage that they need to bat around ornaments, pull on the lights, try to scale the thing?

I grew up with 2 cats, and we would always put a bell on the bottom of the tree so we were able to hear when one of them started their journey to sit with the angel.  The bell didn't stop our cats, in fact, I think that they would intentionally ring it because they knew they would have a captive audience running in as they did their thing.

I've had my own cat for more than 10 years now, and while she's still interested in the tree, she's beyond the whole climbing thing (thankfully), and now just finds a spot underneath and knocks an ornament down here and there, all while staring us in the face with that cat grin.

My sister on the other hand, is not so lucky, she's got a dynamic duo that are not so well behaved...

(yes, there are 2 cats in this picture!)

Every Christmas we hear the same "this will be the year we can actually have a tree, maybe they're over the climbing thing" from my sister.  Yet every year as fast as the tree goes up is as fast as it gets knocked down...as you can see below.

She's tried it all, anchoring the tree to the wall, putting a gate up, a bell, a spray bottle with water, motion sensors, aluminum foil around the base, she even left a few of the bottom branches off in hopes it would prevent the cats from getting into the tree.  Nothing seems to phase these cats, they are determined to take down the tree in any way possible.

There's always next year, sis.

Do you have a cat (or another pet) that loves to climb your Christmas tree?