DIY Crate Christmas Tree

One dreary, rainy Monday morning this month, I found myself without transportation & feeling kind of blah. What to do? I decided to pull out my Christmas stuff & start decorating, but one thing stood in my way….no tree! Last year I retired my tree with the intention of purchasing one at the after-Christmas sales. The buy never happened so I was treeless.

I found this instructables which I thought was a cute alternative to a tree & something I could easily make. Big problem, no crates. I ventured into the garage to see if there was anything suitable with which to build. As luck (or my hoarding nature) would have it, I found six wine crates that I had purchased at a yard sale earlier this fall. They would work. I looked for additional supplies, found them, & started to create.

Gather Materials

6 wine crates
Lots of large binder clips
A board the length of three crates
An additional wine box for the base
A few screwsDrill/bits
Wall anchor & wire
Foil wrapping paper/Glue dots
Decorations

Stack Crates & Attach With Binder Clips

I started by centering the board on top of the wine box & then centering the first crate on top of the board. I then put screws in four places to secure this in place. After that, I simply placed a crate on either side of the centered one keeping them in place with binder clips. Two more crates were added to the next level, then finished with a crate laid on its side. The tree was secured to the wall with wire running from the back of the top crate to to the wall. The back of the crates were lined with wrapping paper foil & glued in place with glue dots. Everything is easily removable.

Add Decorations

After that I added “vignettes” of decorations to each box as well as lights. The large cement looking thing in the bottom box is in fact a large cement object! I was concerned about the whole thing being too unstable so I brought it in from the outside to use as a weight. It is actually a fire bowl.

I like this “tree” so much that I’m not sure I am going to be buying a replace this year either!

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