It’s the time of year to shop, decorate, wrap, travel, unwrap and return. But holiday rituals can be pretty tough on the environment. I try to make as many earth-friendly choices as possible during this hectic time. I love to decorate our house and I’m big on finding something new and creative to outdo what I did last year.

When I sat down to think about the greenest way to have a Christmas tree, I was torn:  Real or fake? We had done real the past few years and I loved the smell of evergreen wafting through our house. But this year I just didn’t want to cut a beauty down if I didn’t need to. Maybe I could’ve rented a Living Tree, but it was a little expensive. I had a better idea.

We would paint the tree on our wall! Yes, paint. On our wall. Yes, yes, yes!

How is this festive as well as eco-friendly you ask?

1. Use a non-toxic, earthen-based paint that uses elements such as milk and clay. Yolo is the brand we chose. We went with an icy blue-green as we decided to get a little mod on.

2. LED lights save about 90% of electricity and are just as beautiful.

3. Use household items to make ornaments to supplement the ones you already own. Snowflakes can be made from wagon wheel pasta, cotton balls make great “snow balls” and silver floral wire twisted up looks like a beautiful star.

We made our tree by projecting a leafy spruce image on the wall and just going for it by hand. You can free-hand it too. For a more whimsical, modern, clean lined look, use a straight edge sponge brush and start at the top and make a large triangle with a stump at the base.

After our spruce dried (which took about five minutes), we hammered in small

nails (you can use tea cup hooks or thumb tacks) to drape the lights and one big nail at the tippy top to hang the joint cord sockets from, which we covered with a large felt star. After the lights were hung, we tied up our ornaments to the light strings and to the nails with recycled blend yarn.

We rummaged through our ornament bin and found an old pearl garland that added a nice formal texture. I wanted to stay in the red, ice blue, and white palette as I have never incorporated that color scheme for the holiday decor. We added quartz crystal ornaments from Vivaterra, cardboard snowflakes that we glittered red, lots of white and silver balls and a few scraps of cut up sweaters.  I then handstitched a felt star in my three colors with bakers twine and eco-fi felt made from recycled plastic bottles. You can find it at Joann’s or Michaels. Once the decor is in place, you can’t even see the nails and it makes a perfect holiday art installation (quite a space saver as well).

Voila, a tree-less tree! I have a feeling this may become a tradition in our house. Oh, and don’t fret about the post-Christmas clean up. Instead of hauling off the dried up prickly tree to your nearby compost facility, you just prime and paint the wall in a jiff.

Happy Holidays!

Guest Post by Paige Appel, Paige plans and designs events with modern sensibility and sustainable practices. Learn more about her and her eco-chic events and adventures at bashecoevents.blogspot.com/

Tags: eco-holiday crafts, green holiday crafts, green trees, holiday crafts, tree free Christmas, tree-less trees