Decorating a Tree Without "Ornaments"

When I pulled my Christmas decor out of storage a couple of weeks ago, I found this sad looking table top tree. I purchased it a few years ago on sale at Tuesday morning to use in our 1000 square foot condo that was too small for a full size tree. I wanted to decorate it in a fun way this year, but I didn't want to spend money on ornaments. I also didn't want to steal any from my full size tree in our family room. It was already dressed in a berry garland and white lights, so I kept those. I had some upholstery webbing that I purchased at Wal-Mart a couple of months ago, so I thought that would make a nice garland. It was a little too overwhelming for my little tree, so I cut it in half length-wise and wrapped it around the tree.

I had a vintage Christmas tablecloth that was my grandmother's, so I pulled it out of the buffet to use it as a tree skirt.

I just wrapped it around the base...easy.

I then thought about what I could use for ornaments... I own A LOT of silver, so I poked around the house to see what would work with the scale of the tree. I collected some baby forks & spoons and my hemp twine.

I tied the twine around the handles to hang them from the branches.

I also picked up all of my vintage baby cups and simply wrapped the end of the branches around the handles to hang them on the tree.

I then tucked my thrift store brass butterflies in the tree. I painted them in a creamy white and had them sitting on my desk for the next step. When I spotted them stacked there, I thought they would find a nice temporary home on my little tree.

I topped the tree with the larger butterfly in the absence of a star, bow or angel. Now, butterflies and sterling silver baby items really have nothing to do with each other. This is not a themed tree, it's just fun.

If you're at a loss for what to decorate your tree with, try looking around your house. You may have a lot of perfect "ornaments" that are free and totally unique. Happy hunting & tree trimming!

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