We’re starting a little early with December things. Some find it very unpleasant having December pushed into earlier months, myself included. I mean, let the autumn be. But better to be prepared early than late, so we’re making an exception this year. A useful tip can’t be one too many, even if a bit early.

December is a beautiful month, which makes it just another reason to celebrate. Instead of being the ignorant consumers, because we’re so much better than that, here’s an idea on making our very own December tree to decorate our home and celebrate the month however we please.

Necessities:

• wooden sticks of different shapes, that can be collected from the forest floor on or a beach as driftwood
• wooden branches you can find and collect in the nearest forest on the floor, fallen from the trees or on a beach. But if you want a more minimalistic, cleaner shape, you can just use the straight sticks without the branches
• nails and a hammer
• a rope to tie some branches, optional
• a hand saw in case you have some larger wooden sticks and need to shorten them

First we need to design and lay the branches into shape we wish to make from the materials we have. Second we need to make the base which will hold our tree shaped “sculpture”.

I took two blocks and two smaller sticks to hold the frame and nailed them together. Then I sawed the longer pieces into desired lengths to make a spruce shape. First I nailed the stick that would represent the trunk to the base, then added the branches to make a spruce shape. Nailed it all together, each piece with two nails and in some places tied them with a rope to hold it all together more firmly.

I included some straight sticks and some branches I picked on the forest floor to add some structure. The spruce shape is in 2D, so to speak, in order o take up less space. Not just when using it, but also when it’s put away during the year.

It’s a bit crooked, just lovely, it was never meant to be perfect. We have been using this “tree” for the last few years and we’re just pleased with it. No need for extra thinking about what to do for December, we just bring up the decor and it’s done in one go.

You can use it on its own, or you can add the December ornaments as you please.

In the next month’s post, we’ll be making the December entrance decorations with materials picked in the forest, stay tuned!

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