For the past several years I have been able to decorate a Christmas tree for my kids’ Lutheran grade school. I love decorating theme trees, and it is wonderful to be able to create trees that reflect the true meaning of Christmas. In the past, I have decorated the tree with a Names of Christ theme. This year I refreshed the tree based on a verse from Isaiah to create a pretty snowflake Christmas tree.

I really like using decorator mesh as garland on theme trees. It’s so easy to create the full, ribbony look that makes the finished tree look polished. I used about 1 1/2 rolls of 5.5″ white mesh ribbon from Michaels on this tree.

DOLLAR STORE ORNAMENTS

If you watched my dollar store Christmas haul this year, you might recognize these ornaments. I used five 11 inch snowflake decorations from the dollar store as the main focal ornaments on the tree. I just tucked the snowflakes into the branches without any hangers or ribbon. If you are using big ornaments like this, I find it’s best to space them out on the tree first. Then add the smaller ornaments afterward.

I have used these white church ornaments from Dollar Tree before. I decorated a country church tree two years ago that heavily featured these pretty decorations. I can’t find the ornament on their website right now, but you can check in store to see if they have them in stock.

I scattered a few of these sparkly white crosses on the tree as well. These are quite large ornaments, so they make a big statement on the tree.

Finally, I used multi-packs of snowflake ornaments as filler ornaments. The delicate, transparent ornaments don’t take up much visible space, making them perfect for filling in bare spots on the tree. I also found a few packs of small ball ornaments at Dollar Tree that included white ornaments. I tucked those tiny ornaments back into the branches.

CONSUMER CRAFTS ORNAMENTS

Consumer Crafts let me choose $50 worth of craft supplies earlier this year. As part of that haul, I picked out several packs of these 3D snowflake ornaments from Consumer Crafts. They come in two pieces which slide together to make this finished, glittery ornament. These are a nice alternative to traditional ball ornaments because they take up the same space on a tree.

I finished the tree by using this tin snowflake from Consumer Crafts as a tree topper. I love the big impact that the snowflake has at the top of the tree. Because it is tin, it was light enough to just tuck into the top branches.

In addition to all those ornaments, I found some shatterproof glittered white ball ornaments at Hobby Lobby that I pushed back into the branches. Lastly, another school mother donated some spun glass icicle ornaments to the project. I hung those on the outer branches of the tree. I am hoping none of them are knocked off by curious kids!

LIGHTED BULLETIN BOARD

I have also been creating a monthly bulletin board for the school’s front hallway. I based both the tree and the bulletin board decorations on Isaiah 1:18.

I used my Cricut to cut the lettering for the Bible verse out of several pieces of dollar store posterboard. I glued them together and backed the lettering with vellum. I had purchased an LED ribbon light strip for a lighting set-up I was going to build last year (but never got around to making). I taped the strip of lights to the back of the posterboard, then stapled the posterboard to the bulletin board with a bit of a bow to it. This allows the light to bounce off of the white paper behind it which makes the lettering really glow. I hid the cord behind more white posterboard.

I used my Cricut and my own hand-cut snowflake skills to cut out dozens of paper snowflakes from scrapbook paper and printer paper. I think the tree and the bulletin board look really nice together.

I really love being able to decorate this tree for the school, and I especially love hearing the littlest kids’ reactions as they walk past it for the first time!