Christmas Archives - Page 3 of 8

Back before the holidays, Caitlin from Desert Domicile (LOVE her) approached me with an idea for a mystery supply challenge. A group of bloggers would buy the same craft supplies and use them to design our own DIY Christmas ornaments. It sounded like a fun project, so I was in immediately.

When we got our list of required supplies, I’ll admit that I was a little stumped. We had to purchase:

A package of clear ornaments (either plastic or glass)
A bag of fake snow (?!?)
A roll of ribbon of any width
A Sharpie paint pen in any color

In addition to those supplies, we were able to use any other craft materials that we had in our stashes.

We made these plans back in October, and I had no idea about what type of ornament that I wanted to create. Besides, we had a few more months until the holidays, so I wasn’t going to sweat it.

And then, this thing called roller derby took over my life.

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I’m not a huge fan of over the top Christmas decorating. At least in my own home, it’s just not practical. Between all of the school activities around the holidays, gift wrapping and just general hustle and bustle of daily life, I just never find the time (or the need) to cover every square inch of my home in garlands and glitter. And honestly, if I’m going to put a lot of work into decorations, they better be something that I can enjoy year around.

Some years I decorate more than others (like last year compared to this year), but I always make it a point to have a good looking Christmas tree. Just like with the rest of my holiday decorations, I don’t think a Christmas tree needs to have tons of fluff. Instead, I like to follow a simple recipe, and my tree always ends up looking nice.

This year, I helped a dear friend get her tree trimmed, and I detailed the steps below. I wanted the tree to look like her, and she wanted to make sure that it had some of my style elements. The end result is fun!

Recipe for a Well Trimmed Christmas Tree

1. Start by setting your tree up and string it with lights (if it is real or isn’t pre-lit). For Olivia’s house, we were working with a pre-lit, artificial tree (we were sent an Oh Christmas Tree from Treetopia). It was really easy to set up straight out of the box. Each of the three sections is labeled, and you literally just stick them together.

Once the sections were put into place and we fluffed the branches out to the desired fullness, we plugged each section’s lights together and plugged them into the wall outlet.

It’s lovely already!

You can choose clear or multi-colored lights. I know that a clear-lit tree is very on trend right now, but I’ve always been a big fan of multi-colored lights. Surprised? No, I didn’t think so. When stringing a live tree or one that’s not pre-lit, I start from the bottom and work my way up, making sure the light strands are equally spaced as they spiral around the tree.

2. Add some garland. I don’t always add garland to my Christmas trees, but I do like the way it looks. I do prefer my garland to be on the thin side instead of extremely wide – that way, it doesn’t hide the ornaments.

Olivia and I found this spiky, icicle garland and thought it would be a fun touch to her tree. We started working from the top and wound our way down the tree.

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