A couple of years ago, we bought a huge artificial tree, complete with a variety of ornaments, and happily set it up. However, we were too lazy to take it down and to my mother’s great horror, we left it up for an entire year. One fine day, she came over for a visit, took down all the ornaments, dismantled the tree, and packed it all away in our storeroom for us. (Thanks again, mum!) So now you know how lazy we are.
Anyway, C and I decided that it was way too much of a hassle to set the tree up again this year, even though it’s Noah’s first Christmas, because we don’t think he will remember it at all. My mummy guilt nagged at me but it just wasn’t strong enough to overpower my laziness. The thought of setting up and taking down the tree made me feel exhausted.
Recently, I chanced upon a simple home-made Christmas tree online. It looked quite easy, is environmentally friendly and definitely easy on the wallet, so I decided to try it out. Here’s a step-by-step guide, in case anyone wants to make one too.
1. Get a green bottle. I used a 1.5l bottle of Sprite, as I wanted a larger ‘tree’. The ‘tree’ I saw online was made using the smaller 500ml bottle. It was also empty (hence recycled and environmentally friendly) but we’re not really soda-drinkers, so our ‘tree’ is still filled with Sprite. I figured it’s heavier this way and less likely to be toppled by the wind.
2. Use ribbons to decorate the bottle any way you like. This is what I did.
3. Put some stickers on it. I found some old Christmas-themed ones in my stash.
4. Add some chenille stems.
5. Make some ribbon bows too if you like.
6. Cut out a star (I used an old Crabtree and Evelyn catalogue cover for it as it was made of rather sturdy material) and use Blu-tack to stick it on the top.
That’s it! You can use other materials to decorate the tree too, but I worked with whatever I had.
My inspiration for the tree
So our Christmas tree for the year is up and the presents that we’ve received have also been placed ‘under’ it.
Noah seems pretty pleased with it so my mummy guilt has been assuaged. 🙂
Seven more days to Christmas! I’m guessing we won’t need my mum to take down our tree this year. 😉
PS. For an even greener Christmas, I use recycled magazine pages and unwanted flyers to wrap the gifts. Try it out too!
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