I’ve always liked decorating a living tree for Christmas, but as we haven’t had much luck with houseplants since moving to the Southern Hemisphere that was not an option this year. Our collection of Christmas ornaments is very thin, but our little boys are old enough to be enraptured with the magic of the season. I needed to get a bit inventive.

We have two Chinese Pepper Trees in the garden that need to be pruned constantly – which gave me an idea. I saved some of the branches & stripped off all the leaves, then let the sap dry out for a day or two. There was my tree, but what about the decorations?

It’s been a year of epic highs and crushing lows, but with hindsight being 20/20 I can see that every one of those lows was a blessing in disguise. Origami Lucky Stars seemed to be poetically perfect.

And cheap, too! I found some paper ( long forgotten) in my stash of crafty bits, but it is easy to find at any time of year in one of the Asian stationary and gift shops – morning glory shops, for example. I was ready to give up on my project after folding three stars, but the fiddliness is irresistible. Soon I had a whole bowl full. Orlando was keen to help and tried most conscientiously to fold a few without success, but he compromised by “putting the dreams in” after I folded each one.

I painted the branches with quick drying chrome spray paint and found a suitable pot from the collection in the shed. Then we just needed to put it all together. Rubber bands hold the branches together at the base. Orlando & I collected pine cones from around the neighbourhood and used them to fill up the gaps in the pot – keeping the branches upright. The pepper tree branches and pine cones smell delicious!
Digging into my stash again I found a spool of silver thread. Using a needle I threaded each star on to the silver string leaving gaps in between – quilter’s knots keep each star in place. Then came the fun part, decorating the tree!

Brian tells me the result looks “witchy” – coming from him I know that’s a compliment. I’m really happy with how it turned out – our bright & religiously inclusive symbol for celebrating the people we love.

Seasons Greetings, Everyone!