No Room for a Christmas Tree?

I went to Home Depot hoping for some ideas and sure enough, in the garden department I found a 6 foot high tree-shaped wooden trellis for $8.00. They also come in squares and rectangles which would be just as much fun.

I also purchased a $4.00 box of gold cup hooks measuring 3/4 inch. These are just the right size to hold the decorations on the trellis - too small and they get lost, too large and they are too obvious. They also come in silver and white to match the lights and decorations you will use.

I used my drill, with a very small bit, and drilled starter holes. In this case, on the ends, and spaced evenly along each of the individual legs and crossbars. Once you have the holes drilled, start the hooks with just a few turns to hold them in place. Hint: if you already have decorations or garlands, hold them up and consider how you want spacing before drilling. Better to have too many hooks, than have to go back and drill more holes.

Since I have old fingers, I used a pair of pliers to tighten the hooks. The trellis wood is very light, and could split, so I didn't over tighten. Just enough to get the screw end completely into the wood.

I added lights first. I had a strand of 100, which was long enough for the entire project. Decide where your outlet will be, then start at the bottom of that leg, leaving the plug end free. I added a tie to hold it in place, then took the lights up to the top of the outside leg, looped over a cup hook, and back down the inside leg, across to the other inside leg, up to the top, and back down the outside leg (like a big "M"). At each change of direction I looped around a cup hook to hold the strands against the legs. They were a perfect length for this triangular double legged trellis - but you will want to measure and see how to string yours most effectively. Don't wrap the lights around the structure!!! You want the lights to be in the front - not the back.

For a tree effect, I used DearHouse Artificial Pine Garlands, 80 ft. wired garland from Amazon https://tinyurl.com/yhnbg3ey (four 20" strands in a package). I purchased one packages for $13.99 and free shipping from Prime. Spend more for lusher garland. I wrapped the garland up, and down, the legs, starting from the center point and used the excess to cover some of the crossbars, leaving others exposed wood. Again - depending on your type of trellis you can get creative. I used green, but white garlands with white lights and silver or gold ornaments would be beautiful.

NOTE: If you have purchased extra garland, wrap the garland to cover the structure first, then string the lights, then add whatever additional garland is needed to cover the wires. Should lights stop working, you can remove the last string of garland, cut out and restring the lights, and put the top garland string back.

I used my fingers to locate the cup hooks, then added some candy cane beaded garlands, bows, and ornaments from my personal stash. If you are cash and ornament poor, tie on bows made from Christmas ribbons, pine cones, evergreen branches from your neighbor's tree (did I say that out loud?), popcorn strings, construction paper garlands - whatever is on hand or that the kids can make. String, rubber bands, or zip ties will hold almost anything to a trellis. (ooh, a use for leftover Beanie Babies!!). Since the top didn't hold my angel securely, she is wired on for safety.

Plug in your tree, and enjoy the festive atmosphere - AND the space! And if you don't like the first spot - just move it around until it fits. At the end of the season, remove the breakables, wrap in plastic bags, and save until next year.

Edit: This year, half the light strand wasn't working. I just used a pair of scissors, cut out the UNPLUGGED lights, and restrung them, using some additional garland to hide the wires. If it happens again, removing the additional garland to replace the lights will be easy.