Christmas Tree Fun!

I know it's after Christmas, but it is never too early to plan for next Christmas. Wal-Mart brings things out earlier and earlier. I thought I would get a jump start on them this year. My mom has been an inspiration in doing things in a different manner during the holidays. She has had beautiful decorations and since she collects teapots, one of her Christmas trees was topped with a teapot and then cups glued to saucers were placed around the tree.  I love decorating the tree but wanted something different. One year I did a book tree. I love books and thought it would be the perfect theme for me, but it was A LOT of work. It took a ton of books just to do a small one.  When finished we wrapped lights around it and topped it with an angel.

The following year, my folks were going to visit over Thanksgiving. We decided to have an early Christmas with them. Again, wanting to make it special and different we decided to have a turkey tree. Oh! Did we have fun with that!  We collected fall-colored decorations and orange garland and a turkey topper.  Instead of stocking we made paper sack cornucopias. We didn’t think we could do any better than that…but we did!

The next year, I was looking up ideas on Pinterest….(dramatic pause to reflect on how much I LOVE Pinterest). I started seeing pictures of ladder trees. People are so creative! I rarely can come up with ideas on my own but once one gets planted in my brain, I can go with it from there. This particular year, I also had the help of my older son and daughter-in-law who added to the creativity.   We were going to bring in a metal ladder until my daughter-in-law spotted an old wooden one out in our garage.  It was too tall to set up inside the house so my husband sawed off several feet from the bottom. We had gone to town with somewhat of an idea of what we wanted and were thrilled when we found giant Christmas balls. We rounded up some fishing string and started attaching the balls and stars. Then the guys decided it would be cool to have a couple of rifles strapped to the legs. We topped it with a cowboy hat. Again, my son’s wife suggested we use gunny sacks for the tree skirt. We contacted the country café down the road, who just so happened to have some and she went to work with needle and thread gathering some sections to make it more decorative. We finished it with some soft white  lights.   It was the highlight of my evening to shut the lights off and sit in front of my ladder tree!  

We have NOT been able to top that one yet. I love that there are no real rules as to how we have to decorate. I love that we can create our own traditions with our families.  My husband has been bugging me for years for a real tree so I may have to do that this year. It would definitely be something different! I would love for you to comment on here some of the ways you have decorated during the holidays!