Help . Want to make a Christmas tree at home.

HappySad

Do you know any good instructions on making a homemade Christmas tree??? I don't want to spend £20 on a new one and if use junk to make it then its better for the environment. I could do it with my two boys and later decorate.

Thanks

meritaten

could you go on a woodland walk? and look for fallen branches? when my OH was on strike back in the eighties I couldnt afford a tree (we had always had fresh cut ones), so we went out and got this bare branch with loads of twigs! stuck it in a nice big flower pot and OH used up all his old bits of Pollyfilla and decorators caulk to stick it in there! the kids painted the top of this mess brown. they decorated the 'tree' with our lights and baubles and tbh - it looked lovely lit up! a good few years later - I was amazed to see very similar 'trees' going for stupid prices!
The kids also made a coathanger tree with some wire coathangers and a broomstick! lmao - it was totally mad...........they covered the coathangers in green tinsel then tied them on the broomstick (yes we had to buy more pollyfilla to stick it in a (thankfully) smaller pot. they arranged the coathangers really nicely, and it did look like something the Turner prize would consider! Very 'modern' and funky!

Jnelhams

99p shops have some reasonable size ones, we use to have a small fake tree as a kid on top of a large box which we disguised as a mountain top with paper mache.

SpikyHedgehog

I've become addicited to instructables... Have a look here & see some trees other people have made! the site seems a bit American at times, which means that some of the resources aren't ones I'm familiar with, but there's some amazing ideas out there. http://www.instructables.com/pages/search/search.jsp?cx=partner-pub-1783560022203827%3Anpr2q7v5m6t&cof=FORID%3A11&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=christmas+tree

rinabean

Some good ideas here

Hellyboo

Get three large-ish peices of corrugated card and cut into a tree shape, staple (or stich maybe?) down the middle and then bend the two outer ones out so it'll stand up IYSWIM, then paint green and decorate. I hope that makes sense! I'll try and find a pic...

HappySad

Hellyboo wrote: »

Get three large-ish peices of corrugated card and cut into a tree shape, staple (or stich maybe?) down the middle and then bend the two outer ones out so it'll stand up IYSWIM, then paint green and decorate. I hope that makes sense! I'll try and find a pic...

Thanks everyone for your ideas and links. Helloboo a picture would be great...

Penelope_Penguin

As this has fallen from the front apge of OS, I'll move it to the Yuletide Board where you may get more suggestions

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kingfisherblue

My twelve year old really enjoys origami, and makes a lovely tree. I've asked him to make a tree for us for Christmas. The 'branches' will be flat, but we can decorate it with a few things that will sit in the flat parts (I'm thinking fir cones). He gets his instructions from Youtube mostly, but I have bought him a couple of books for his recent birthday and for Christmas. I bought the paper that he needs from the local market - £1.25 for six large sheets.

SeaBee

rinabean wrote: »

Some good ideas here

Thanks for the link rinabean. I made the printed tree with my students today. We laminated it and made it double sided so you could see it as you walk up the stairs too. Very effective (and cheap!)

Tamster150

Not sure if it is worth asking at your kids school (if they have a real tree) what they are doing with theirs afterwards. Most just throw them out on the last day of term. You could offer a token payment/gift in return???

One year as kids we had no money for a tree, not to dissapoint, my Dad he went to see if he could barter for one in the market with the little bit of money that he had and passed a school on the way - they had thrown their tree out so he "rescued" it.

Otherwise I like the idea of a twig tree - very trendy atm - M&S have some twig trees with lights already on them for £50+