natural German Christmas tree

The last time I participated with this “My Home Style: Christmas Tree Edition”  blog hop hosted by my friend Stephanie of Casa Watkins Living was two years ago (HERE) and I described it as a modern European eclectic style. This time I changed it to a natural German Christmas tree style. I always struggle with what to name my decorating when forced to do so.

A warm welcome to everyone coming from Melaine’s beautiful home at My Sweet Savanah. I’m sure you have enjoyed her beautiful tree and all the other gorgeous trees today and the previous days. I know I have.

Let me explain why I named my tree this way. First of all, I wanted to keep my decor as natural as possible again. Last year I only used simple glass icicles but my kids complained that it was too plain and they wanted more again. So they get more this year again. To layer it all I thought back to what we added to our trees growing up in Germany. Let me show you…

natural German Christmas tree

ornaments and decor used for our natural German Christmas tree

• Christmas roses
• German wooden snowflake cutouts (This German supplier sells the German wooden snowflakes for about $35 but I found them on Amazon for half the price at about $15, click HERE)
• dried oranges (grocery store)
• simple gold ball ornaments (HERE)
• pinecones (from the yard)
• glass icicles (HERE)
• eucalyptus branches (HERE)
• large German straw star as tree topper (HERE)
• our flocked tree (HERE)
• gold tree collar (HERE)

I was having a conversation with my mom when she was here about other German Christmas decor items I could use in my tree that look and feel natural. She mentioned a “Christrose” also known as “Weihnachtsrose” in German. It is the German equivalent to a poinsettia. The Christ Rose is not an actual rose but belongs to the buttercup family.

I originally wanted to buy a faux version of the Christmas Rose and noticed that they were all very expensive and not really common in the US. So I came up with a little hack to make my own which you can read about HERE. I’m also sharing more about the history, names, and meaning.

My German Christmas tree growing up

I spy the typical real candles clipped to the tree, straw stars, little people made out of pinecones, simple glass ornaments and of course my brother and I playing Christmas music on our flutes. Let me tell you, we hated having to do this every year. We still hold this over our parents’ heads that they forced us to learn to play the flutes and that we weren’t allowed to at least pick the instrument we wanted to play. That probably had to do with the fact that the teacher was the wife of my dad’s boss. Lame! 🙂

More photos and details of our German Christmas tree

I have never been a big fan of tree skirts and growing up in Germany we always had our trees in pots. Part of that reason was that we had live trees that we planted in our yard after Christmas.

This year I finally decided to buy a tree collar. The main reason for that was our robot vacuum (we have this cheaper one HERE). I love that little guy and he does such a good job but a tree skirt was an obstacle for him that he got caught in. The tree collar is the perfect solution. I actually placed a blanket inside the collar and the cats love hiding in it for a nap.

The reason I went with the dried oranges this year is to get some of the same colors and glow that the salt lamps spread throughout my house. I wrote a post about how to decorate with salt lamps this year because I’m absolutely obsessed with them. My mom went home and bought herself one too. You can see one glow in the background of the below photo.

I dried the orange slices in our food dehydrator (HERE) which I bought a couple of years ago to actually dry my cellphone, haha. The dehydrator works awesome for so many different purposes. I bought two large bags of oranges for $8 and they create such beautiful and affordable decor.

My macrame feather (video tutorial included) makes the perfect topper for wrapped presents and then can be used as a purse charm or home accessory when gifted. They are so easy to make.

By the way, if you are new around here then you might be interested in seeing my recent Ikea Besta faux grasscloth makeover HERE which you can see in the below photo on the left.

Maya had 5 teeth pulled when my mom was here, including her two upper canine teeth. She is doing much better now. I think her shaved leg from the IV is just the cutest and she loves showing it to people.

Walter was trying to get her to play with a walnut but she was way too lazy.

The blue gift boxes are from Target years ago and unfortunately not available anymore.

I love the below photo of the Christmas rose I made.

I hope you enjoyed this glimpse into our living room. There is more to come soon.

If you are interested in more German decorating ideas, then check out my German-influenced Christmas home tour and my favorite German Christmas decorations.

Enjoy your holiday season.

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Now make sure to hop on over to Kate Decorates to check out her fun tree. I love it!

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Here are all the other blogs that are participating:

Monday

Casa Watkins Living // Up To Date Interiors // Delineate Your Dwelling // Thou Swell // House Of Hipsters // French & French Interiors // Haneen’s Haven

Tuesday

Two Twenty One // Jeweled Interiors // Dimples and Tangles // PMQ For Two // Kaleidoscope Living // Reality Daydream // Heathered Nest

Wednesday

Setting For Four // Monica Want’s It // Domicile 37 // The Happy Housie // Lovely Indeed // Lemon Thistle // Amber Oliver

Thursday

Taryn Whiteaker Designs // Cherished Bliss // Lovely Etc. // The Honeycomb Home // My Sweet Savannah // Cuckoo For Design // Kate Decorates

Friday

Our Fifth House // Kelly Elko // Daly Digs // Tag & Tibby // House Homemade // Lolly Jane // The DIY Mommy

Tschüß,

 

 

 

 

 

See more of my Christmas decor: