What to do in place of a Christmas Tree

[dmpmercury]

I'm really trying to live with less stuff and I am doing major decluttering. I don't want to buy an artificial tree because they are not environmentally friendly and it takes up space we don't have and will have to be stored and we just don't have enough storage.

We can get sustainable real trees but we still don't have much room and I don't want to deal with dry needles all over the place and watering it and keeping my dog from eating it and my son from pulling things off and trying to scale the thing.

I still decorating a bit with led lights etc but I want to do a different tradition in place of the tree. I gotten some ornaments from others and would like to do something with those too. Does any one not do a tree and what do you do in its place? I'm not very creative and decorating the tree was always a part of my tradition growing up.

[sisteeesmama]

My grandma would get one of those much smaller living trees that is potted and decorate that with lights and ornaments and set it on a table. It was really cute yet still little and containable.

Maybe that helps, I dunno.

[orangefoot]

We make a paper tree and hang it up on the wall. See my post about it here

[JollyGG]

When we were living in a much smaller place and didn't have space for a tree I swagged garland along the wall and hung the ornaments from it. I thought it looked very festive.

[MJ13]

We did one of the small living trees last year and planted it right after Christmas. That worked well for us. I think I bought it on sale at home depot for around $10.

I like the idea of hanging garland too... I have a good place to do that this year and would be able to display some of the more "delicate" ornaments that I don't really want my little people touching

[annettemarie]

Moving to Mindful Home Management

[MissMommyNiceNice]

How green is your thumb? Why not get a norfolk pine? They're everywhere now. My grocery store has them for $18. You could hang light ornaments on it, and it will green up a corner of your space the rest of the year.

[tinybutterfly]

I was also going to suggest a Norfolk pine.

[MissMommyNiceNice]

I know, aren't they great? I have had bad luck with them in the past, but I think this year, I'm going to try to keep one alive again. I'm so good with most plants, but these I've never had good luck with. Maybe this time will be different!

I think I can, I think I can!

[limette]

You could do this.

It's small, has only one ornament but is totally cute and Christmassey!

[Pinoikoi]

I saw a thing on msn recently about alternative trees. One that comes to mind was someone took garland and lights and formed a triangle (peak up) and attached it to a wall and put the gifts under it. Looked pretty cute.

[Pinoikoi]

http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/chic...s-trees-069875

[Pinoikoi]

http://www.threadbanger.com/decority...e-alternatives

(now that I think about it I had a girlfriend that put up a ladder tree every year... she did it so her cat would leave the real tree alone, but she always dolled it up really cute)

[Pinoikoi]

http://webecoist.com/2008/12/19/crea...ristmas-trees/

Some of these seem repetitive, but have more source info I think.

[katelove]

What about a bare branch? You could either leave it natural or spray paint it silver or gold.

[karne]

Originally Posted by katelove

What about a bare branch? You could either leave it natural or spray paint it silver or gold.

We have a birch branch in our kid's playroom, strung with white lights. the kids make ornaments to hang off of it, and it's really beautiful and festive.

[wholewheatchick]

We use just a regular potted plant. Ususally a large (2 1/2 to 3 ft tall) schefflera. We put lights on it, hang a few ornaments, and then keep it around for next year!

[doubledutch]

i cut a branch for ornaments in our kids' room. we do have a small tinsel tree downstairs, but i like the smell of a real tree, so i use evergreen stuff in our bouquet on the table. it lasts a long time - like a month - and i just swap out the flowers every week or so as needed.

[mumkimum]

Some large-ish branches in a vase can look great with ornaments, and possibly even a few lights.
You can also find wire ornament-display-holder 'trees' that would be, say, just over a foot tall and hold a good amount of ornaments and could easily sub.

[zebra15]

Originally Posted by orangefoot

We make a paper tree and hang it up on the wall. See my post about it here

I did something similiar with DS when he was little. We made ours out of felt and hung it on a door. I got a huge piece of felt from the craft store and hot glued all sorts of crafty decorations on the tree. DS loved it and it was quite festive. We were the hit of the all our friends.