A guest blog post from Andrea Stevenson.
I was truly inspired by a recent Creative STAR post about giving new life to a Christmas tree which would otherwise have been thought of as rubbish.
The first thing we decided to do was cut off all of the branches leaving short stumps for hanging various things on. I thought it would be great fun if our almost 5-year old could have the opportunity to try out using a saw for the first time. With the help of Daddy, she sawed all of the branches off of the tree and you can tell by her smile how excited she was about this task!
We then dug a hole in the garden and planted the tree trunk. We decided we wanted to make some feeders for the birds to hang on the tree. The girls took some cones, rolled them in lard and bird seed, tied some string around them and hung them on the small branches we had left.
Next, we decided to add some small pieces of yarn to the tree for the birds to use as nesting material (eventually). Given it was New Year’s Eve, we also decided to hang some New Year’s resolution on the tree as ornaments.
Then, there was the fun that was had with the branches we had cut off of the tree! The girls spent time building a den for the tooth fairy and several different types of dens for themselves. Luckily, we have a fence that is perfect for slotting the branches into which made it really easy for them to create various shelters of different sizes and shapes. They also decided to use some of the branches for sitting and lying on to keep warm and dry.
We had so much fun giving new life to our Christmas tree that would otherwise have sat silently in the garden until the designated pick up day. Hours of fun were had. Our little tree will provide food and nesting material for the birds over the coming months and will give us something to admire in our rather lifeless winter garden. If tree pick-up day hasn’t come and gone where you are, consider spending an afternoon turning that old Christmas tree into something special!
Thanks Andrea for a lovely blog post.
This blog post is an update from one previously published in January 2017.
