Santa Claus Tree...

Here are the pictures of the Santa Claus tree I promised you. I'll have a full post of all the Christmas decorations once I finish! I have a big Christmas party for all the ladies in my neighborhood, family and friends this weekend, so it will be done in the next few days. The best way to get things done is to have a party...lights a fire under your tuckus!!

Santa Tree...

from the top...Santa's hat and some jumbo candy canes

to the bottom...his big belly for the base.

and every where in between!!

Here are the little Santa ornaments I made this week. Click HERE for that tutorial.

Most all of the ornaments on this tree are ones I bought during after Christmas clearance sales over the years.

Except for the Mickey Mouse ornaments. They were our souvenirs from our trip to Disney last Christmas.

I love the look and dimension those little springy stems give the tree. Very whimsical!!

To add to the white fur trim of Santa's suit, I covered Styrofoam balls with white quilt batting to make them look like snowballs.

I have several strings of different garlands to add to the depth of the tree. One is red wooden beads, one is a garland of red berries and the last is the peppermint candy garland I made last week. Click HERE for that tutorial.

Don't forget to pick up any of those "word" ornaments you see around. Walmart has them for $2.97 for a box of 12. I bought the word "joy", but I already had "ho ho ho" and lots of "merry".

Having the same color ornaments is great to add to the theme, but maybe have different textures and patterns.

Polka dot glitter.

swirls...

and all over glitter. You could easy make all of these yourself with just red balls, glue and glitter.

The box I used for the base is the Rubbermaid box I store the ornaments in for this tree. (Here's a side tip...I use red boxes for Christmas, brown for fall, orange for Halloween and blue for Easter. Helps to find things in the attic faster)

 Last year for the base, I used a big galvanized tub. The metal "trunk" of this tree is very long and looks un-natural, so I always like to disguise it some how.

I just plunk the tree in there, packed it with newspaper and covered it with a big piece of quilt batting.

For Santa's belt buckle, I just used a disposable aluminum foil pan. Draw the pattern...

and cut it out.

Use your finger to rub out the creases.

For the belt, I used my mom's black wool scarf. It was too picky to wear around my neck, so this is the best way to remember it was hers. I know she looking down on me with that "mom look", because I hot glued a perfectly good scarf, but it was just sitting in a drawer not being used!!

Wrapped a few fake gifts in some Ho Ho Ho paper. Black ribbon and a white bow match the Santa theme.

and here it is a night time all lit up!

Hope you can use some of these ideas for your tree. Remember to always look around the house and see what you can use before you go out and buy something!!

Have a great day,
~Karen~