This time of year I often find myself feeling guilty for buying a cut tree but it is such a strong tradition, I adore the smell of fresh pine (not scented candle pine) and it just looks so pretty. Even with this latest study saying real trees are greener than artificial ones, I still feel the guilt.
As a kid, my parents always bought live, potted trees for Christmas and afterwards, we would plant them in the backyard. Potted trees (at least the ones we got) always tended to be a bit on the Charlie Brown side of aesthetics and one year my twin brother and I pleaded and begged to go to a Christmas tree farm and get a "better" tree. We even got to cut it down ourselves!
Meanwhile, my mom's backyard still has some our old trees in it, and they have grown quite large — but no longer pruned and sculpted to look like a Christmas tree, they are barely recognizable. I wish we had labled them somehow. If my husband and I had a backyard I would definitely buy a potted tree.
Here are some creative ideas for more conceptual Christmas trees!
Images: 1 Elle Interior, 2 toxel.com, 3 via Delight by Design, 4 & 5 toxel.com
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These are so great. Still love the Post-Its tree the best. So fun to see clever ideas for alternatives to real trees.
I love the book shelf tree!
The post-it tree is my favorite, too.
The first photo=ridiculously awesome.
The first pic looks like a spaceship LOL but it's still really nifty. I'm gonna keep the bottle tree in mind for next year, golly knows we have enough green wine bottles around this house! :)
I liked the ladder but, oh yes, nothing beats the post-it tree...
the ladder tree made me so happy! I would love to do that but I don't have a ladder right now. Next year? :]
while the bottle tree is gorgeous and clever, it's definitely for a kid-free apartment.
I like it.
I am all about the Christmas tree alternatives. Freshly cut is a hassle, and fake trees, well, are lame.
When I was a kid, my mom used to arrange old Christmas cards (just the front image) in a tree pattern on a wall, then trim the outline with garland. Full disclosure - she got the idea from a neighbor.
Aaagh! Those book spines are going to be ruined!
Hannah Sitzer of Antlre Creative has designed something just right for this post. They are recycled, reusable cardboard cutouts of trees in 2 sizes. Available through The Arbory.
http://www.antlre.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=55&Itemid=67
Love that first picture, but the one with the books is just silly, not to mention, a good way to ruin a book.
The book tree just makes me sad. So sad.
I love the ladder though!
That first one is deeply awesome!
That first photo is so amazing! Love it!
I like the idea of the first one but I hate the shape of it... it definitely looks like a rocket ship, if it was shaped like the 2nd or 3rd one with the fun branches I think it would look much more Christmas-ie. Yeah it says "Merry Xmas" but nothing on the tree looks Christmas related at all, it just looks like a fun collage that in any other shape could go year round.
I actually think the ladder is my favorite... it's so simple and has the most feel of Christmas thanks to the nifty lights, and so easy to just hang the ornaments from those!
I feel great buying a fresh cut Christmas tree from a local tree farm. Supporting local farmers is a good thing!
It's not crafty in the way these are, but MOMA is selling a great small paper Christmas tree designed by Robert Sabuda: http://www.momastore.org/museum/moma/ProductDisplay_Pop-Up%20Tabletop%20Holiday%20Tree_10451_10001_61447
Our flat's too small for a tree. Last year I used a few small twiggy branches that my mum had pruned from her garden. I stuck them along back of my sideboard with duck tape, so they appeared to be growing up from behind it. I guess they came to about a metre above the top of the sideboard. I hung my smallest ornaments from them, plus a lovely felt robin (that's a European robin) that my boyfriend's cousin gave us. It looked very stylish _and_ Christmassy, I thought!
The bookshelve tree was a creation for an xmas-photoshoot by IJM studio. www.ijm.nl