Traditional and creative trees: decorate your Christmas tree with handcrafts

The tradition of decorating the Christmas tree is an event that brings the family together and brightens the home. No wonder every year people invest in new and beautiful decorations. We can even see it on social media: photographs of the proud owners of the Christmas trees, and even contests for the most original tree. Anyway, the decoration of the Christmas tree is quite an event.

Here I will give you some tips to decorate your tree in the most original way and with your personal stamp.

1. First of all, take advantage of local handcrafts and products, which, in my country, Mexico, are very colorful, beautiful and abundant, and even at affordable prices. Take a walk around the market and look for all kinds of objects with which you can decorate your tree, for example, typical wooden toys, pots, casseroles, wooden utensils, baskets, and even some tradicional candies.

2. Go to other places other than those you normally visit for your Christmas shopping such as bazaars, markets, fruit shops, small shops, craft stalls and businesses outside your usual route.

3. Don't be afraid to use things you have in your house such as travel souvenirs, photographs, souvenir collections, stuffed animals or any object that you have some appreciation or that you use regularly.

4. Get your imagination run wild and, if the inspiration doesn't come, you can give yourself an idea by looking at other trees on the internet. For example, maybe you saw a Christmas tree decorated with teddy bears, then you can look for your favorite stuffed animal or decorate it with the toys that you liked the most in your childhood. You could also bake some cookies and put them in bags with ribbons and hang them on the tree (and give them away later) or candy canes and chocolates.

5. Choose a theme for your tree, for example, if you like to cook you could decorate it with wooden kitchen utensils such as rolling pins, wooden spoons, small cups, clay pots, cookie cutters... anything that has to do with cooking.

6. You can even make your own decorations for the tree, for example felt animals with foamy and pipe cleaners or unicel balls; bows and ribbons, paper mache decorations or any craft you can think of. There is no limit to the imagination!

In the end, the decoration of your tree must have your personal touch or that of your family. You can even set up your tree to the taste of one of your family members, for example, the children of the house, what cartoons do they like? What is their favorite sport or hobby? What is their favorite animal? Or even yourself, what do you like the most? Suddenly I can think of several trees decorated with ornaments from favorite movie and book franchises.

You can let your imagination fly and set up a very beautiful tree without spending a lot of money. You can even use recycled materials and take advantage of the occasion to do crafts with the children of the house. Cut different cardboard figures, for example, pine trees, circles, stars, hearts, gingerbread men, candy sticks, and then let everybody decorate their ornament with different materials (paint, buttons, scraps of fabric, paper and ribbon...).

I decided to decorate my tree with Mexican handcrafts. For several years I have been adding little by little to my ornaments: mexican dolls, baskets, palm ornaments from Chiapas, small piñatas... in short, little things that I find everywhere.

For my tree cloth I recycled a Mexican shawl that, when it's not Christmas, is useful to go on a picnic or as a tablecloth.

A Christmas tree is a great exercise of creativity, whether you buy your ornaments or decide to make them yourself, but it should definitely be an activity that you enjoy, gives warmth to your home and brings the illusion of the holidays to your home.

Don't forget to make a fun activity out of decorating the Christmas tree, accompanied with music, hot chocolate and even some delicious snacks. You can do it as simple and fast as you want, it's just an excellent opportunity to relax and have a good time!