Themed Christmas Trees

When I was a child my Mother's best friend, Lois, would have us over for Christmas. Every year she would do a fabulous tree that had a theme to it. It Usually had a color as part of the theme and then she would always do something special and different with ornaments. Her treesa lwaysl ooked like they belonged in Macy's window. So, if you've been doing the same tree every year, putting on the same old ornaments think along new lines this year.

Beach theme: All those shells you've dragged home from the shore or vacation can become wonderful tree ornaments. You can spray them gold or silver and glue gun matching ribbon to hang them on the tree with. You can also cover each shell with Elmer's glue or spray on glue and then dip the shells in gold , iridescent or silver glitter. You can do this shake and bake style by putting the glitter in a zip lock bag and shaking a few shells at a time. Craft stores sell small shells on string you could make this the garland.

Nature Tree:Of course a back to nature tree is nice. You can do someting to put outside for the birds String cranberries and popcorn for garland. Roll pine cones in peanut butter and bird seed. Hang dried apple and orange or fresh apple and orange slices onthe branches. Make little suiet balls to tuck in here and there. It will be a lovely decorative outdoor tree and the birds wil appreciate it. A giving tree.

One color only:You can choose a color and do all the ornaments in that color, blue, pink, everything is always red and green at Christmas you can veer from that.I've seen trees in white and pink and light blue. Soyou can buy one of thes colored trees and stick with the ornaments to match look.

Mitten trees can be very sweet. They can be very charming. All those little mittens that don't have mates can be hung from this tree. Or go to The Dollar Store and pick up a dozen or two of those little mittens. These are adorable hung from a tree and can be used to hold a gift as well. Tuck gift certificates in the mittens.

Animal Tree:Because I do Wildlife Rescue people would often give me animal ornaments so one year I did a strictly animal tree. All the ornaments were little animals. You could do this for yourself by buying one of those large bags of plastic animals. Michael's sells them . Spray them one color, gold, silver, white and glue a hook to each This same theme could be done in a very small scale for the kids as a Dinosaur tree or a truck tree trucks and cars, whatever you children ar fond of and they can decorate this tree themselves.

Bird Tree: You can make a tree decorated completely with birds. Again, the craft stores are excellent for this. You can buy little fake birds at the craft store and perch them on the branches. You can buy a bag of feathers at Michaels and glue them to thick cording and use this as garland or gowith cranberries for a little splash of red. Buy a dozen of those little 2" grape vine wreaths and alternate those on the branches. If you live where there are pine cones pick up a bunch and attache them to the tree with thin wire. String small white lights on the tree for a nice back drop for the birds. tThis is very inexpnsive to throw together and will look wonderful.

Beanie Baby Tree: Have you collected about a zillion Beabie Baby's? You could do a Beanie Baby tree. I've been using the Beanie Baby as a tie on for kids gifts but you certainly could decorate a tre with them. They're cute and colorful.

Kitchen Tree: A kitchen utensil themed tree can be cute if you have a real Cheffie in the family. Wisks, Mixing SPoons, Small graters, Timers, any of these can be hung from a tree. This would be cute if you have a Pampered Chef party around Christmas. you could decorate with cooking tools and clip recipe cards filled out with your favorite for guest to take. Bake up ornament cookies and hang them Stained glass ornament cookies can be made with rolled out prepard sugar cookie mix. Use a cookie cutter to cut an open space in the center. FOr example a large star cookie with a small star made with the small star cookie cutter for a center area.Crush life saveres and sprinkle enough to fill the space up and when baked these look like stained glass. These are wonderful hung on a tree. Don't forget to poke a little hole in the top for hanging.

Cookie Tree: Make a tree with edible ornaments. Put all your favorite cookies on the tree and guests can take one each time they visit. Nothing to store when Christmas is over. Stained glass cookies work verywell with this theme.

Music Tree: Buy a bag of plastic ornaments at your local craft store and buy some sheet music. Cut the sheet music in 8" strips and make connected loops for a muscial sheet garland for the tree.

McDonalds Tree: When you've accumulated those boxes full of MacDonalds giveaways what do you do with them? Well, you can make them into ornaments for a tree. Whimsical, cute and the kids will love this.

Christmas Present Tree: You can take all those little wrapping paper scraps and wrap them aruond small boxes or square pieces of styrofoam and deck your tree with tiny boxes that look like Christmas gifts. You can also fold them to look like little shopping bags and completely cover the tree with these little shopping bags. You can make them out of plain paper and label them with a marker, Bloomies, A & F, Nordstrom's. It's an easy fold, just a little rectangle with a little white wire for a handle. You fold a strip of paper so it makes a tiny rectangle and glue or tape the sides together. You can make some bigger and some smaller. This also works as individual tags for gifts, little shopping bags with the receipient's name on it.

Your tree doesn't have to be the same each year. It's fun to think up a theme and prepare it. You can start now or go to after Christmas sales and plan a fabulous, or funny tree for next year.