Country Christmas

Each year we have a variation of this themed tree, call it Country Christmas, Rustic or Woodland it’s always great fun to decorate. Natural textures like hessian, birch and bristlebrush combine with earthy colours, this year brick red and petrol blue work nicely with pewter and silvery metallics.

Knowing where to start is usually dictated by the products we have in store but I prefer to begin with larger items like the 200mm baubles (push them into the tree to fill background spaces). At 10ft high there’s a lot of space to cover and it’s useful to repeat motifs throughout the tree to give some structure. In this tree I added the bows, larger owls and birchbark baubles.

Ribbon is a great way to add colour and a useful filler. I chose three colours and textures, red glittered mesh, brown patterned and a natural speckled ribbon. They’re joined together with glittered pinecones. I also chose to use an open weave hessian ribbon and thread it randomly through the tree.

The main feature of our tree was a vintage style tractor wired into the tree and atop two RAZ Elves. Their black and white check shirts have a lumberjack feel in keeping with the theme. Next step was to add the woodland animals such as reindeer, squirrels and raccoons. Use smaller items at the top of your tree so the shape of your tree remains conical and increase the scale as we you move down the tree.

With so much going on it’s a great idea if you can create focal points. I hung these wreaths from the metal grid with hessian ribbon they take your eye up and towards other products displayed in the tree.

Our woodland animals are an important feature of this tree. I always try to have a story in mind when putting items together and these Elves look just right on the back of the bristle brush reindeer.

Miss Haberdash Hints

. Have an overall theme in mind before starting out.

. Select hero pieces that you want to feature in the tree.

. Use pieces to scale, smaller pieces up top and larger below.