Part three of my series of posts on homemade / handmade Christmas table decorations and still even in part three I dwell rather heavily on table decor that resembles Christmas trees .
The Christmas table decorations above need little explanation as their construction is obvious possibly with the exception of the last as this is not a very good picture but the only one I could find . Perhaps I should just inform you that the base of the first tree is a tall cotton reel painted green and mounted on top of a couple of old CD’s also painted green .
The central image is a Christmas table decoration constructed entirely of glass or plastic Christmas tree balls you can attach them to a polystyrene cone if you like by making holes in the cone for the shafts from which the balls are hung to be embedded for a flusher finish . We however decided to start ours from a flat circle of cardboard gluing the first layer so the balls extend over the circles edge so the cardboard is not exposed. Christmas wreaths can also be constructed using this technique.
The third tree of the trio of Christmas table decorations shown above is made from 15 or 30 empty glass baby food jars fifteen for a single sided ornament thirty for a double sided ornament . Really if the picture was clearer this would need no explanation as it is merely a triangle of glass jars glued together to form a triangle then wide ribbon is used to enclose the triangle and tied at the top in a bow other bits and bobs of decor are added to the make these Christmas decorations more festive each jar is also lighted by a votive candle placed in each jar. You can either make this item of decor in a single sided form by placing it on a sheet of card that is bent at a ninety degree angle and covered in metallic wrapping paper so it will reflect the candlelight forward or create much larger double sided Christmas table decorations back to back.I have found a tutorial for making very similar Christmas table decorations from small glass jars
This tutorial is different to mine in that it shows you how to use Christmas tree lights to light the jars rather than candles and has a tree trunk ,personally I prefer the candles as I don’t want to have wires and extensions running all over my Christmas table and because I like the candles not having the trunk ,I feel makes these Christmas table decorations that bit safer.
And now for every bodies favorite edible Christmas table decorations . Not much instruction is necessary for theses either as the pictures are instruction enough. Top three start life as either cardboard or polystyrene cone . I prefer to use Bristol board so I can make my table decorations any size I please .Sweets , Christmas candies or just gum drops are attached with icing The middle tree is my dieters version as it does not contain anywhere near as many pieces of candy or gum drops the space is filled by winding a tinsel garland around the cone then adding a few candies in appropriate places. Tinsel can be any color but I usually find myself using white or gold or green.
The fourth in this collage of Christmas table decorations is obviously made of pipe cleaners and therefore inedible unless the Christmas dinner is particularly bad no one would even think of having a nibble but in this case its the only image I could come up with that came anything close to looking like some candy cane trees we made one year. For this decor item you have to start off with a handmade cardboard cone as you need to make holes in it, you can start off the shape by punching random holes in the Bristol board with a regular hole punch that you would use for papers for school binders. Make the punched holes in rows quite close together, then form the Bristol board into a cone shape .
Poke candy canes through the holes so only the curved handles of the canes remain in view. When your cone is completely filled with candy canes you can fill in any gaps by inserting other canes, by piercing the card board cone with a sharp scewer, this will start off a new hole nicely in which you may poke further candy canes. Depending on the size of the trees you create these christmas table decorations will find you munching on them well into the new year.
The last idea for tree shaped Christmas table decorations is one of my favorites and it is so simple make ginger bread dough just as you would if you were going to make ginger bread men , then use a purchased cookie cutter or make a cardboard template to cut round or inside of I prefer to make myself cardboard templates so I can make larger trees than the purchased cutter usually make , you can cut your trees free hand if you can guarantee being able to cut two cookie halves of identical shape and size as you will need a ginger bread tree front and a back. The holes I cut with the top of a pen dipped in icing sugar so it won’t stick. When the trees are baked and cooled I attach using icing two tree bases to large ginger bread circular cookies leaving a gap between of about 2 inches in the space I insert tea lights in glass holders which provide the illumination , I found that the holders were helpful as they prevented the ginger bread from cooking further or being burned from being placed to close to a flame. For my taller ginger bread trees I use the tall metal tea light holders that allow you to place one candle above another. These are always a great hit with both adults and children alike as who doesn’t enjoy the novelty of edible Christmas table decorations particularly when they take the form of warm crunchy gingerbread.
