In recent years, slim Christmas trees have become quite a trend. Narrower than standard trees, slim trees are unique space-savers that offer a whole lot of flexibility for creativity and decorating.
Slim Christmas trees offer you a blank canvas for expressing your Christmas creativity on a smaller scale, making them perfect for tight spaces, such as kitchens, children’s rooms, staircases, and corners. They can also be cost-effective and time-effective since they don’t need as many decorations or to fill as much space when putting the entire ensemble together.
With that said, here are a few tips and tricks starting to decorate this new addition to your holiday decor.
In this article, we’ll show you how to put together a pastel-themed package that’s custom-made for a slim tree!
Setting the Foundation with a Skirt
Finding a skirt that fits the smaller, more compact dimensions of a slim tree can be a challenge, and standard-sized skirts tend to throw the proportions off.
Not to worry, though! There’s probably something around your house that you can repurpose into a skirt for a slim tree. Grab a cozy cream throw, pillowcase, or fabric and simply wrap it around the base of the tree, tucking the loose ends under themselves in the back. Another option we love is using a basket to hold the base - simply add weighted objects over the base and accessorize with a tucked in blanket or pillow case if anything is showing through.
From the Top Down
Once you’ve chosen a slim tree and a skirt in a color scheme and pattern that goes with your vision (in this case, pastel-themed) you can pick out a topper that will pull it all together.
With a slim tree, one of the tricks is you need to scale everything back. You just don’t have as much space to decorate. All of the techniques are the same, just on a smaller scale.
In this instance, instead of going with a prefabricated Christmas tree topper, we’re going to use something from our Christmas spray and pick collection. We’re choosing one of our Dewberry Sprays to start this topper off.
Run the spray along the tree’s pole and then wrap the branches of the spray and tree together to integrate it and make sure it stays in place. One to two of these sprays should be all you need for most slim trees.
Then we add in one or two of our Candy Cane Sprays, following the same procedure of sliding it along the tree’s pole. The last part of the topper we’re going to add is a set of one or two of our Pink Sprinkle Donut Sprays - don’t these just look great together?
To scale back for a smaller tree, you’ll need to shop the Christmas sprays you need:
- Pick 3 styles for a 4.5 foot tree (including a dewberry and a couple of fun sprays)
- Purchase 2 stems for each style
Add Some Christmas Ribbon
With the topper complete, we can turn our attention to some extra trappings: a bit of Christmas ribbon!
Using Christmas ribbon is a fun way to tie your whole tree together, and it’s super easy to do. With a smaller tree, our biggest tip is just to adjust the size of the ribbon to the size of the tree.
With a larger tree, you might want to use two to three different ribbons, but with a smaller tree you can often use just one. Make a series of smaller loops, weaving them in and out of the tree’s boughs, and make cuts, where appropriate, as you go. For a small tree - 4 feet tall or so - one 10-yard spool of 2 inch Christmas ribbon should be more than enough.
To complete this look:
- Secure one loop at the top of the tree, twisting the ribbon to ensure the top side with the pattern is facing you.
- Use your hand to smooth the ribbon out and create a billow or natural run of the ribbon, down about 6 inches and secure with a tree branch.
- Repeat this process, adding a couple of loops scattered throughout the tree.
- If you’d like to add dovetails to the end of the run, it’s a great way to finish the ribbon off.
Also, in case you want to recreate our look, the ribbon we used here is Pink Check Gingerbread Ribbon.
(Insider tip: for more information on how to decorate with Christmas ribbon like a pro, please see our previous blog, How to Decorate with Christmas Ribbon.)
Building It Out: Christmas Ornaments
Next we’re going to get into the placement of Christmas ornaments, which we’re going to do before adding florals, sprays and picks because these smaller trees will not have as heavy a focus on picks and sprays as a larger tree might.
Since we’re working with a smaller, slim Christmas tree here, you want to think about scale. You don’t want to overpower the tree with a bunch of huge ornaments; here, we’re using these Sprinkle Ball Christmas ornaments that look adorable with the pastel theme we have going.
We’re also using some shatterproof ornaments along with some popsicle-themed ornaments and flat disks.
Follow the same procedure you do when filling a larger, full-sized Christmas tree out with ornaments. Look for the holes left by the ribbon, and fill them in. Take your time to make sure it all balances out nicely!
Complete the Picture with Florals and Sprays
The last step to creating the perfect-in-pastel-themed slim Christmas tree is to fill it out with a few carefully chosen florals and sprays.
The only big adjustment we’re going to make here is that we’re not going to use very big florals and sprays to accommodate the smaller size of the slim tree.
Some pastel tree florals will look lovely on a slim tree with this color scheme. You don’t need a lot, probably just three or so will do. If you use one of these picks that has a large stem, make sure you trim it back so it fits the slim tree.
We’re also going to add a few cake pop stems. You can cut these at their natural breaks using a pair of wire cutters. This will create two or more sprays that are smaller and therefore scale better with a smaller stem. For a slim tree, you’ll only need two or so. Place these wherever you see small holes between the ornaments and ribbon.
If you want, and you have a spare Dewberry spray (the same kind you used for the topper) you can trim these into smaller pieces at their natural breaks and use them to plug in any remaining open spaces.
If you’re working with a slightly taller slim tree, you can take these general principles and use them to fill the tree out with ribbon, ornaments, picks, sprays, and florals that appeal to you!
Find Your Next Slim Christmas Tree Today!
That’s all there is to decorating your very own slim Christmas tree, in the style of our “pastel gingerbread” theme! You can find all of these Christmas tree ornaments and tree decorations mentioned here in our online shop, too.
Now all you have left to do is make it happen! Use the practices we outlined here and let your vision take over, and in the meantime, follow us on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest so you can get even more ideas for inspiration! And you can watch the video tutorial here!