Merry Christmas.... this is our "Charlie Brown" tree. it is a funny & skinny one this year . We always go into the forest ( with our permit) to get a live tree but we never take a "good" one. We choose some pathetic sad one like this that is growing too close to a "good" one for either of them to benefit. We take out the skinniest one & the better one has more of a chance to grow. But what to do after wards ????If you do cut or buy a live tree check your newspaper for where you can take it to be chipped & made into compost or mulch. Some communities even pick them up. We leave ours outside for the birds until spring. We spread peanut butter on pine cones and they love it. Then we let it decompose naturally & finally burn the trunk in a fire once it's nice & dry. A the joys of country life !
Don't forget to recycle all that wrapping too.
Boxes, bags, ribbon, bows and tissue paper can all be used again.
We even save the cards for nest years gift tags . I'm going to try making some of those old fashioned ornaments out of them for next year too.
( the kind everyones grandma used to make )
If you want to try it you'll need to cut 20 same sized circles out of cards ( the larger the circles, the larger the ball will be ) , fold 3 sides up so there's a large triangle in the center of each circle and glue the edges of the flaps together to form a ball. 5 in circles top & bottom rows and the rest in the center. Don't forget to glue a pretty ribbon in the top to hang it from !
