O Christmas Tree

It's interesting to me that you can always find the things you'll never use, like 3 rubbermaids full of Christmas clutter that I despise. I only own a few Christmas decor items that really like, including but not limited to: my Little People Nativity set, my Nutcrackers from Europe, our wooden manger, and my tree ornaments are decent (oh, I love our other nativity sets too, they are just breakable, so they are unusable in a small place without high shelves to put them on). However, the manger and ornaments are no where to be found. Can't imagine where those 2 things could have gone!

So, while we decked our halls our tree stayed empty. I wandered through stores, longing for the fabulous decor that seemed to be everywhere. Even at cheap spots, after I did the math, to outfit our small tree would have meant no presents for someone this year.

My problem is, I usually know exactly the look I want and I'm pretty unwilling to settle. I'd rather things just stay undone than done in a way I don't enjoy. But, we were having a few parties at our place this year and the tree must have decor! On the other hand, I'm not crafty and few projects I take on turn out well (right, friends?). But, I had an idea for our tree this year that was simple, fast, cheap and fun, and don't look too closely, because perfection is not my thing, but it actually turned out!

I bought white wooden letters that spelled HO! HO! HO! and modge podged  different green/white and red/white paper to them, then hung them with fun Christmas ribbon. I found 70 cent wooden snowflakes at Michael's and my boys and I painted and glittered them, which was a fun family project and one flake even doubled for a star, saving us $15.  I found little snowflakes for 40 cents at Michael's that were already glittery and hung them with minty dental floss, and filled in the holes with cheap candy canes I have to replace every few days, since they always seem to disappear. Then found an old, red favorite blanket that doubles well as a tree skirt and, there you have it...an entire tree for hardly and money at all! Plus, we got a Christmas craft out of it!