Each year our mom pulls out bins full of old handmade ornaments, all labeled with a name and date in shaky handwriting, to hang on our tree. Our family Christmas tree is always made to look like a grade school arts and craft project full of old memories and nostalgia.
Since Amanda moved away about 5 years ago, she’s had to create her own tree themes… which usually consist of what’s at Target and what the Kardashians have done before. More on how to recreate her tree later!
But this year at our childhood home, for the first time EVER we decided to do something different so (surprise, surprise) we turned to Pinterest.
We found so many different themed trees (I’m always amazed at how creative people are!) and while we loved all the classy, monochrome themes we decided we still wanted our tree to be spirited and colorful.
We finally landed on a candy cane themed tree filled with red, white, and green ornaments.
We went to Target, Walmart, and the Dollar Tree (my favorite store for anything crafty) and bought any red and white ornaments we could find, no matter the size or shape.
We also bought ornaments with individual, dangling peppermints and removed and re-strung them on fishing wire to create a peppermint garland. I think they turned out really cute!
After putting up the tree and hanging all the ornaments, we still felt like something was missing. So we went back to the dollar store and bought red and white pipe cleaners, intertwined and rolled them, and created peppermints to be inserted in the tree.
I absolutely love the way our tree looks and while I’ll always have a special place in my heart for our handmade ornaments (especially the ones with awkward, middle school photos attached), I’m so happy we tried something new this year!
Christmas has always been about traditions for us, so doing something new and fresh, no matter how small, is always fun and exciting!
Why Amanda chose the candy cane theme too
So I’m not going to say my mom and sister copied my candy cane theme, but I’m not going to say they didn’t.
I’ve always loved a red and white candy theme! It reminds me of the Christmas decorations Kris Jenner had in 2019. Yes, I realize a professional decorator created her tree. So my tree is definitely not as intense, but I’m still very proud of it!
I think what makes my tree stand out from my family’s is the ribbon! They add dimension to the tree, and of course extra holiday cheer! It’s super easy to do, but if you’re a perfectionist like me it might take you awhile.
How you can use ribbon to bring more life to your tree
All you have to do is buy some thick ribbon. I definitely recommend ribbon with wired edges (this will make it easier to give them more of a circular shape and wrap them around the branches so they don’t fall off). Then you cut as many foot-and-a-half long strips as you can and carefully tuck the tops and bottoms into the tree.
I’ve seen some people create this look without cutting the ribbon, but in my experience it’s much harder to maneuver it that way. Also, you’re wasting a lot of the ribbon that’s hiding behind branches.
This way, you’re taking full advantage of all the ribbon you have. And you get to see it all!
I often tucked the ribbon under our light strands to make sure it would stay. This is where a sturdier, wired ribbon comes in handy.
I wrapped my ribbon at an angle. I also created a diagonal line up and down the tree with the same colored ribbon to give the illusion that the pieces were all one long strand wrapped in and out of the tree.
You might have to shape the wire in the ribbon a bit to make it look more round. This is my second year with these ribbon and they held up pretty well. I just wrapped them in a circle and stored them in a box to keep their round shape.
TIP: It’s much easier to do your lights first, ribbon second and ornaments third.
