Long story short I no longer have a Christmas tree, lights or unicorn explosion/vomit ornaments (those I don't miss). I've been looking on Pinterest to get ideas for alternate Christmas tree ideas, because I have no plans on purchasing another fake tree (or a real one b/c they don't last when you live on the suns surface) this holiday season. If you don't have a stereotypical Christmas tree, I would love to see what you've done! Ever since the first time I've seen the decorated wooden ladders a few years ago I've loved them and I'm leaning towards that...but finding a decently priced one is proving to be more difficult than I thought.
When I was little, my mom had 3 kids within 4 years. When I was in the 4 to 6 age - we had a paper tree. Literally. Mom cut out green construction paper about 4 feet high, and taped it to the wall. We kids made decorations for it out of paper. It was fun! I actually look back fondly on our paper tree. Mom never got mad at us moving ornaments on the tree, because it was recycled after Christmas! And I have no idea why we didn't have a real one. I never thought to ask!
When my kids grow out of the house. I am going to do an upside down tree over my table. Small and sweet. pinterest makes me happy and the tomato cage is way cool too
I loved your unicorn ornaments... Yesterday I saw an awesome DIY tree as part of the xmas decoration in a shop for kid's clothes. It was pieces of wood on the wall, along with lights and some ornaments. Something like that: (found on pinterest)
I have small 2 foot trees instead of a large one. I got the newest one last year at Hobby Lobby. It is white and I put purple/lavender ornaments on it. I don't take the ornaments off... just put a plastic bag over them and store them in the basement. Many years ago, my mom had gotten hold of a crocheted Christmas tree. It was about a foot tall. I used it for decoration in my apartments right after college.
I did a paper tree one year! I want to say it came from the Target Dollar Spot!! I knew I should've run to JoAnn's before Black Friday and stocked up on green cardstock when it was on sale and I could've used the 20% off coupon on top of that! GRRRR!! She was smart that's why LOL!! I actually really like the upside down trees!! Only problem is, hubby and I are both terrified to get on ladders in order to reach the ceiling ROFL!! The tomato cage is so cute!! I don't think I saw any of those on Pinterest! They just didn't remind me of Christmas I was eyeballing that style of tree on Pinterest too...but it's so hard to find thick branches here, even finding twigs is hard LOL!! Then I saw one like that made out of copper pipes, and remembered I don't have a way to cut pipes LOL! I have a little tree, maybe it's about 2' tall that I put out that we normally don't decorate, but I broke down and bought some red, green and gold ornaments and a tree topper...but man I miss the big tree LOL! I'll probably leave the ornaments on stick in a bag too! That way the ornaments don't get lost!
Several years ago I found a green metal "German type" tabletop tree which I use every year (we are always out of town on Christmas). I decorate it somewhat differently each year but my favorite is with the crocheted snowflakes. Here's a layout I did which shows the 2016 version. I know it looks "spindly" in the photo (and, of course, it really is) but we love the touch of whimsy it adds and always get lots of compliments from guests who have never seen anything like it before.
I just want branches wrapped in white that I can hang ornaments on. Unfortunately youngest would not be impressed so it will have to wait a few years ....
I am going to remember these suggestions for next year. We put up our tree the day after Thanksgiving. My daughter and son-in-law will be here for a few days over Christmas and she WANTS the tree! My son and his sweetheart are visiting her family this year. Perhaps next year, we will go to my daughter's place for Christmas and I won't feel the need to put up the big tree! I was also thinking of getting a group of smaller artsy trees and putting those up next year. However, my cat may be sad. She really likes to nap under the tree. I'll do a layout soon of her sleeping!
I don't think this is what you have in mind...our tree during the renovation in 2005...but I must say I really liked that tree and may look for one next year. Right now we have dh's mistake aka known as the tree he bought but didn't notice it had bubble gum colored lights. AAAAAARGH. Somehow the man thought they all came in white lights now...
But that would be so pretty!! Kids...always having to be *extra* LOL!! OMG that is really cute! I wish I would have seen this before I tried my failed Pinterest pin ROFL!! Awww!!! My dumpalump 23 lb cat loves laying under the tree too!! That always makes for a cute photo! I like the artsy tree idea too! I totally have one of those!! I don't remember where it's at right now though...I can't even remember what color ours is LOL! I saw that on Pinterest and was like "WOAH!! That's so beautiful!!"
we have a Jesse Tree. It's a bare branch tree and we read a bible passage from the Jesse Tree plan each day of December leading up to Christmas day (should be easy to find a list of you google it). Then an ornament (normally hand made) relating to the bible passage is put on the tree. I have the bible passage references written on tags, so the children normally put them on the tree too. This is a photo taken last year. My children found a small string of lights in baubles that they added to it.
Oh! I forgot about that! We do something similar. Only ours is nowhere near as pretty! It's just paper circles with digi supplies. Mostly from a retired designer from TLP.
We use a bright blue table top tree we use for our Jesse Tree... my daughter picked it out and she loves it! 5 years ago, a group of friends and I got together. We each chose 1 day and made 24 of the exact same ornament to represent the day we chose. Then, we had an ornament exchange and swapped to get an ornament for each day. So, the ornaments are incredibly special because they represent some very special families. I should do some LO of the ornaments because they are really beautiful. It is also special because during the devotional on the fifth night in 2012- our first year doing it- my daughter asked Jesus into her heart. We still do our Jesse Tree every year, even though she knows almost all of the devotional by heart now.
I decided to make a mess ROFL!! I kid, I kid...I bought a couple oversized glass vases from Hobby Lobby that have skinny openings but get wider at the bottom, grabbed some free tree clippings from Home Depot and some glass ornaments...however they're pretty much in unicorn vomit colors again...sigh I'm going to use the photos for the journaling challenge this month LOL I have never heard of this before, but I really like the idea behind it! I love that simple white tree branch though, it's so pretty! Those are so cute! Love the fish! That's so cool! I bet that was the best ornament exchange ever!!