For many people, decorating the tree is one of the best parts of Christmas. We anticipate picking out a live tree or pulling a familiar one out of storage, and relish the delightful task of unwrapping long-treasured ornaments to place on its beautiful branches. Whether you prefer all white lights or colors, blinking or non-blinking, lots of tinsel or no tinsel, setting up and decorating the tree are time-honored traditions for so many families, and the art of decorating brings people together to create something beautiful and an atmosphere of warmth and comfort.
After Christmas this past year, our family just didn’t have the heart or the energy to take down the tree. We had so enjoyed the special way the tree lit up the room and it lifted our spirits (especially after another year of living through a pandemic). We decided to leave the tree UP and started thinking of ways we could enjoy it all the year through. These are some of the ideas we had, and I’m sure you can think of even more….
Happy New Year
Gold or silver are popular colors for celebrating the new year. You can add shiny gold or silver ribbon, wrapped around the tree, and place “Happy New Year” party hats, tiaras and noisemakers throughout the branches. This can be great fun if you are planning to have a New Year’s Eve party where friends can then help themselves to the goodies on the tree.
Valentine’s Day
The month devoted to love is a great time to decorate your tree with big pink or red balls, as well as beautiful artificial flowers found at craft stores. You can get creative with the things you love most about Valentine’s Day, and add candy ornaments, make paper cut-outs of big candy hearts, like the ones that say “Be Mine” or “True Love,” or drape red-and-pink garland around the tree.
St Patrick’s Day
Shamrocks look delightful hanging from a Christmas tree decked in green and gold to celebrate everyone’s favorite Irish holiday. You can have fun making a festive, lucky tree, just right for all the leprechauns in your life to enjoy. You could even add rainbow ornaments or a rainbow of garlands to your tree and place a pot of gold underneath. There are so many possibilities!
Easter
It’s pastels everywhere for the Easter tree! Use plastic eggs to adorn the branches and nest some plush bunnies and baby chicks in there, too. Tuck in some spring flowers to make the look complete. You can also make your entire tree into a big bunny by finding some big googly eyes and large bunny ears at the craft store. The kids will love this tree.
July 4th
July the 4th calls for red, white, and blue decorations in the form of a garland, lights and ornaments that explode off the tree, giving the impression of fireworks! You can also use small American flags placed throughout the tree, or a garland of flags found at the craft store to give it a real patriotic feel. Add some silver ornaments and this tree will light up your house like the fireworks displays going on outside. Grab some sparklers and make your own fireworks show in the back yard.
Halloween
For Halloween, there are many themes to inspire your tree decorating. You can go with a pumpkin theme and find small pumpkins, or pumpkin ornaments with which to adorn the branches; you could make it a little scarier with a black and white theme of skeletons, spider webbing, fake spiders and scary monster ornaments; or you could use witches as your theme and hang purple and green garland; or add witches on broomsticks and cauldrons to the tree. You could even mix all these themes together or add some of your own. Halloween gives you an opportunity to have lots of fun and get creative.
Thanksgiving & Fall
While many people are preparing their tree for the Christmas holiday, this is a great opportunity to deck yours out in a fall-themed motif with artificial autumn leaf garlands and other fall decorations. You can even use turkey ornaments, ears of dried corn, bows in fall colors, dried flowers, and tiny pumpkins of all colors. Celebrate the holiday of thankfulness and friendship as you and your guests admire this tree.
And just like that, Christmas rolls around again…. Enjoy your year-round tree and make it special, just the way you want it to be.
