Oh Christmas Tree…

I suddenly had a thought, and a bit of a moment, about a month ago, when I realised that we wouldn’t be able to buy a Christmas tree this year-arrrghhhh! We normally go up to Longleat and buy a cut one from there, and make a thing of going and picking one with the Smalls. We did try a living tree one year, the Christmas after BigSmall was born, and had the lovely idea that it would grow with him, and we could use it each year. But we managed to kill it. BigSmall is still safe and well though, so we must be doing something right..!

So I set about thinking about our options:

• We could borrow my parents tree, which lives in their garden all year around, and they have managed not to kill. But this would leave them without a tree-not that fair
• We could try and buy a secondhand artificial tree from the car boot or a charity shop. But I am afraid I am just not a big fan of artificial trees-sorry!
• We could go without. Boooo
• We could make one. Obviously. On Facebook, and Pinterest and Twitter there have been loads of alternative Christmas trees doing the rounds, so I thought I would share some of my favourites with you!

It seems, that with a little imagination, you can make your tree from pretty much anything that you might have lying around.

How about some bottles?

From packaginuqam.blogspot.co.uk

Or if you are partial to a bevvy or two (or more) you might have enough for this

From dzinetrip.blogspot.co.uk

We did think about something like this, but it is a little minimalist for us!

From abbytrysagain.typepad.com

Books seemed to be a popular theme:

This is from Doanldist on Flickr

I can’t find who to credit for this-sorry! If it’s yours, let me know!

From swissmiss.com

I absolutely love this lampshade tree!

From sarahmoorevintage.com

And this is a great idea too:

I can’t find whose this picture is, if it yours, step forwards and take the credit!

And it seems it doesn’t even have to a 3D structure:

Whose idea was this? It is awesome!

Or just use some old planks:

By wood & wool stool

If you remain uninspired by these beauties,and still want a traditional tree, but in a more sustainable way (and like us, don’t trust yourselves to keep it alive from one year to the next..) then you can always rent a tree! The lovely people at Start UK put me onto Trees for Rent when  I was doing some initial investigations.

And this, in case you were wondering, is what we are going (try and) do!

I’m sure I had the details of who to credit somewhere for this, will try and track them down!

I am sure ours won’t be anywhere near as tasteful or pretty as this, but we are going to have a go. We have collected/been kindly donated a LOT of egg boxes, so now we just need to get painting..!