Christmas Link Up Week 1: Christmas Tree

Hey guys! So this is exciting! Every Friday before Christmas, Charming Imperfections will be hosting a link up with 29 other amazing bloggers to give you a huge helping of stunning Christmas inspiration! This first week’s theme is “Christmas Tree”! The link up is at the bottom of this post, so be sure to stick around to check it out!

There is always that one thing that makes you go, “Yep, now we are ready to celebrate Christmas, bring on the carols!” right? For my family, putting up the Christmas tree has always been a huge deal. We would get all decked out in our winter gear and head over to the local tree farm where several things would always happen: a snowball fight, hot chocolate, and walking around the entire property only to come back to the first tree we liked. And when that fresh pine scent filled our home, I always knew, “now it’s really Christmas time.”

So, about our Christmas tree this year…

Our Christmas is a very frugal one as we are working with “Gazelle intensity” to pay off our mortgage (See how we are making it on $25,000 a year). I’m hand making all the gifts (blog post tutorials for those are one their way!) we are giving, creating our own decorations, and saving money in every way possible. It’s been a really fun challenge and probably my most enjoyable Christmas so far (and it’s not even December yet!).

Since I refuse to get a fake tree, we’ve had to buy a new one from the tree farm every year, which, while not huge, comes at a cost. That cost was something we decided to cut out this year by doing something crazy: cut down one of our own trees in the backyard!

Mr. Charming brought home a spool from his electrical work.

And I put together a stand with a jar and milk crate. The crate was to make a flatter surface.

Now, about our decorations: while I’m very motivated to stay on track with our financial goals, I really struggle sometimes when it comes to décor. The tree ornaments we had before were random things we pulled together from garage sales our first year of being married and never all that pretty. Here’s a picture of our tree last year…boring!

So, I set out to make some of my own ornaments this year that were more suited to my style. Here are some stats on what we spent to put together this look:

Christmas Tree: $0
Tree stand: $0
Fabric Covered Bulb: $0
Paper stars: $0
Twine for hanging ornaments: $0
Painted Pine Cones (not pictured): $0
Lights: $0
Memories: Priceless

I’d say we stayed on budget

Inspired by Scandinavian Christmas pictures from Pinterest, the bulbs are just plain ol’ bulbs wrapped in drop cloth and burlap. The full tutorial can be seen here.

The stars were a simple origami project that I did while watching a rerun of Fixer Upper (best.show.ever.).

And, I picked up the pine cones from our backyard and gave them a quick bit of spray paint for a little shimmer. Unfortunately, I forgot to hang them when I took these pictures Expect a blog post tutorial about them.

So, that is the story of our little Christmas tree. If you liked it, be sure to pin the image below for your friends to see.

Now, don’t click away just yet! Scroll on down to the link up and check out some other amazing trees. Or, add your own! Also, be sure to click over to the other host’s blogs! They’re pretty awesome 😉

Rules of the link up:

1. Please link to a specific post on your blog, not your blog’s home page.You may link up to 3 posts per blog.

2. Please leave a comment for your host, remember it’s a party!

3. Please be sure to visit a couple of other blogs and leave comments.

4. No Etsy stores, giveaways or other link parties allowed.

5. Please link with a text link or party button to your host.

6. By submitting a link, you’re giving us permission and granting us the right to feature your project and photos on this blog, website and on social media. We will always give proper credit and a link back to your post.

7. Each week, a few of our favorites will be featured on our blogs. Features will also be pinned to our Christmas Link Up Pinterest Board for even more exposure! If you were featured, be sure to grab a button!

An InLinkz Link-up