Nature Themed Rose Gold Christmas Tree

I’ve spent the past three Christmases overseas, so this will be the first Christmas that Josh and I will spend together. I love the holidays and couldn’t wait to design our tree. My inspiration for this tree was BACN. He loves birdwatching from our sunroom, so I decided on a nature themed Christmas tree complete with owls and a bird topper. I linked most of the items I used at the end of the blog.

 

BACN birdwatching in the sunroom

 

But first, we needed a tree. There are so many options to choose from when shopping for a Christmas tree. Fresh or artificial, pre-lit or unlit, slim or standard, 7.5 ft or 9 ft, green or white, etc, etc, etc. We knew we wanted an artificial tree because we didn’t want to run the risk of bringing bugs into the house (I’m allergic to most bug bites), but we didn’t really know what else we wanted out of a tree. We started our quest at Dewayne’s, which has a whole building dedicated to Christmas decor. Although they had some beautiful trees, we didn’t find “the one.” After looking at different options, we decided that we wanted a white slightly flocked tree.

 

Christmas tree shopping at Dewayne’s

“Nouvelle Noel” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

 

 

Now to determine all the other variables. First, we measured our ceiling and the dimensions of the area we planned on placing our tree. A slim tree, which is what we opted for, is a great option if you don’t have much floor space. Our ceilings are about 10.5 ft, so we went with a 9 ft tree to leave room for the topper. Finally, we decided to go pre-lit since the cost of extra lights would be almost as much as buying it pre-lit. I ordered a 9 ft Flocked Snowy Pine Fraser Hill Farm Christmas tree with LED lights from houzz.com and hoped for the best. They had a great sale going on at the time but unfortunately are all sold out of this model. You can still find the 7.5 ft version here. The tree arrived a week later, and it was everything we hoped for!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Michael’s and Hobby Lobby always have great Christmas sales, so I purchased a few owls, glitter branches, pinecones, and flowers from them. I also bought traditional rose gold, silver, and white ornaments from amazon.com. Lastly, I purchased a champagne colored ribbon and a white long tailed phoenix, also from amazon.com, for the topper.

 

 

 

 

After getting everything we needed, it was time to assemble the tree. To give the tree an inner glow, I wrapped the trunk with additional lights before fluffing out the branches. After fluffing out the entire tree, I add the topper. I found it easier to decorate the tree starting at the top. If I started at the bottom, I tended to mess up the lower ornaments when I was on the ladder decorating the top. For this topper, I zip-tied three rose gold cedar bushes to the top and placed the phoenix in front of the bushes.

 

When it comes to ornament placement, I start by placing balls on the inner portions of the branches where it looks a bit bare to give an illusion of fullness.

 

I placed the rest of the gold branches, flowers, pinecones, snowflakes, and my favorite ornaments randomly throughout the tree. The finishing touches were the champagne ribbon, two snow owls, and a tree skirt.

Instead of buying a new tree skirt, which on average costs $25-50, I used one of these tablecloths from my wedding. I bought these in bulk for $8 a piece.

Here is the end result:

All lit up…