"O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree"...

Ok, I know what you are doing right now: you are humming or singing that Christmas song and you are thinking I have lost my mind talking about a Christmas tree in January. I am back to talk about organizing again. In November, my husband and I decided that our 15 year old, 10 foot Christmas tree had seen better days. We invested in a new 12 foot slender tree and we love it. However, I hated to part with our old tree. It had 12 rows with each row having 6 branches, plus the topper. I found several uses for all the branches: tucked them in baskets, made swags out of them, used them on the mantel, in hutches and on the chandelier. You name it, I found a place for them. The only thing I had left was the metal tree trunk and the 32" base. Well, I found the perfect renew, reuse and recycle...it is my gift wrap center!!!

• I unwound all the greenery off the shorter branches (lengths varied 12"-18" inches) to bare wire (see first picture)
• I only used 2 parts of the trunk secured in the base (total height, just under 6')
• then I place only 3 branches in each row, instead of 6, skipping every other hole.
• I use the shorter wires for all my ribbons
• one row has tape and scissors
• the bottom rows have all my gift bags
• I was thinking about using the longer branches that I have and slip a roll of wrapping paper on there.

I have recently moved my sewing room into our basement. I have so much more room, but no natural light. It was worth the move, because now I have all my crafting/sewing/wrapping needs in one place. The area is large enough to handle the gift tree.

Maybe if you have an older tree or find one in a second hand shop, you may look at it differently. The pictures aren't that great, but remember it's in the basement.

I'm off to go sew, but the song "O Christmas Tree" is stuck in my head!!

~Karen~