Trim-Spirational
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Three DIY ways to spruce up your spruce for Christmas.
Share photos and stories of your best holiday tree-trimming!
Yule Tools
All that stuff left over from years of projects around the house? Pick out the shiniest, coolest-looking items stashed in the basement, and let's talk home improvement, Christmas style. If you're not a save-it-in-case-you-need-it-someday type, just run over to your local hardware store. This arboreal fixer-upper sits in a 15-gallon galvanized washtub 5 ($26, bucket-outlet.com) that hides the entire tree stand. After the holiday, think inside the box:Store your new decorations in the tub after you take your tree down.
Nuts & Bolts
Okay, let's take it from the top. That shiny, silvery thing Mom is affixing to the tree is a 3-inch vent cap ($7, doityourself.com), used on top of a gas or sewage pipe to keep the rain out. Those icicles dangling down, the wire brushes that look like pipe cleaners on steroids, are micro and trachea tube brushes ($2, justman brush.com). We also hung several of the ever-festive drain covers, a.k.a. strainer replacements ($1 to $2, depending on the size, lowes.com). Try to refrain from stealing these out of your bathroom, lest you have to rush back to that hardware store for a plunger. We think the sparkly garland strung on our tree is particularly inspired. It's 3/4-inch pipe strapping ($5 per 10-foot roll, plumbing.hardware store.com) — doesn't every home have a supply tucked away for just such an occasion as this?
Christmas at the Zoo
Depending on where you live, a white Christmas may seem as likely as the Abominable Snowman showing up for dinner. But a white-themed Christmas tree is within reach of anyone with a playroom full of loitering toys. We narrowed our tree motif to just animals. Those plastic polar bears and white tigers hiding at the bottom of the toy box deserve a more dignified sense of purpose, don't you think? You can find similar animal-print tree skirts for $30 to $55 at christmascentral.com.Animal House
That eye-popping tree topper is a plastic horse barn we bought at Target (Stablemates Red Stable Set, $25). To perch it there, we drilled a hole in the bottom and stuck the top branch through. Then we stuffed twinkle lights through the back door to give it that special glow. We also bought toy animals at Target (mostly by Schleich, $6 and up), although we found enough to decorate two trees just sitting idly in staffers' homes. To hang these critters, we drilled starter holes and twisted in small screw eyes ($7 for 5, doityourself.com). Many of the animals were white (after we dusted them off). Some we made white with a quick hit of spray paint (Krylon Fusion, $7, misterart.com). A few we left alone. Why mess with the stripey elegance of a zebra?Circle Time
In adorning our polka dot tree, we realized we didn't need to buy decorative balls, not with an endless supply of round stuff in the trash, the recycling bin, even those boxes of garage junk. To turn these throwaways into treasures, we used our favorite shake-and-make method: We squirted glue into a ziplock bag, added an ornament-to-be, sealed the bag, and shook. Next we removed the ornament and used a paintbrush to get glue to the spots we'd missed. Finally, we shook the object in a second bag filled with pink, red, purple, or green glitter (all craft items from Michaels). We completed the look with a polka dot tree skirt from christmascentral.com for $45. Find another groovy round-on-round skirt at ladedaas.com.
Dot, Dot, Dot
You may have to buy Ping-Pong balls ($6 for 6) for the tree topper, unless you have a couple of dozen lying around. (We supplemented our ball stash at Dick's Sporting Goods.) First we glue-and-glittered them (procedure above). Then we poked a hole in each with a thumbtack, inserted floral wire ($1 per spool at Michaels), and dabbed hot glue over the hole. Finally, we bunched the wires, wrapped them around the top branch, and bent them into an arrangement. We used the same glitter technique on plastic balls, which come in different sizes ($8 to $10 per packet at Dick's) and are thoughtfully made with lots of holes so they're easy to string up. Next came the recycling bin refugees: We hot-glued buttons on string inside pairs of bottle caps and yogurt lids. Then we glued the caps and lids together and gave them the glitter treatment. The glitter-free garland is 2-inch ball fringe, which we found at Jo-Ann ($5 per yard).
