Create a Recycled Christmas Tree

People throughout history have brought greenery inside their houses and special places at Christmas time and for winter festivals, including the Ancient Egyptians with palm leaves for the winter solstice, and early Romans with trees for Saturnalia. People from the Medieval period to today would bring in holly, Ivy, Mistletoe, and evergreens to celebrate the season – We even sing about them in our Christmas songs!

Christmas trees as we know them originated in the Middle Ages in Germany, between the 1400 and 1600 AD. Decorated trees would be used in plays as props to tell bible stories to the public, most of whom could not read, and a famous performance called The Paradise Play featured an evergreen tree decorated with apples to represent the tree of knowledge of good and evil from the Garden of
Eden. This tree inspired merchant groups to decorate a tree at Christmas time, with the first recorded Christmas tree being put up by a group of Baker apprentices in 1419, decorated with apples, gingerbread and other treats. By 1605 people were putting Christmas trees up in their homes in Strasburg, and it wasn’t long before Christmas trees made their way to England with Queen Charlotte, wife of King George III, who set up the first recorded Christmas tree at the Queen’s Lodge in Winsor in 1800.

It was Queen Victoria and Prince Albert who helped popularise having a Christmas Tree when local magazines began reporting on the Royal Christmas Tree each year, which Prince Albert first had brought over from his hometown Coburg in Germany in 1840. Because of this, the tradition grew across England, and by 1860 it was very popular to have a Christmas Tree, often decorated with candles, sweets, fruits, homemade decorations and small gifts. Christmas Trees have also been used as gifts, an example being the large tree that is in Trafalgar Square in London each year. This has been a yearly gift since 1947 from Norway, as a thanks for keeping the Norwegian King and government safe when Norway was occupied by enemy forces in World War 2.

Why not have a go at making your own Christmas tree, made from recycled paper tubes? The following activity will help you to make the basic design, however how you decorate it is your choice, get creative! There will also be instructions on how to add a handle if you want to, so you can turn it into a decoration, or maybe give it as a gift!

I really hope you enjoy making this craft. Merry Christmas!

Chloe Johnston

Adult supervision is required.

Type of Activity : Craft

How many people required (minimum) : 1+

Safety Measures : Please ask an adult to help when cutting the tubes – this can be quite tricky!

Ages : All ages

Time Required: 2-3 hours (including drying time)

Step 1

First, cut one of your toilet roll tubes in half, neatening up the edges if need be. After this trim about 1 centimeter off of the end of a second toilet roll tube, however leave the last one at it's normal length. You should now have four pieces.

Step 2

Using PVA glue, stick the tubes together in a Christmas tree shape - using the image to the right as a guide. Leave this to dry on a flat surface.

Step 3

Once dry, lay down some protective material over the surface you want to use and get the paints out. I am using green and brown (the brown i made by mixing all the colours together!) however the tree and base can be whatever colours you would like!

Step 4

Paint the tree and base all over - you don't have to do the insides - and leave to dry. There are two ways to dry your trees: the quickest way is to hang it up using something that will go through the mid-length tube (I used a spatula handle balanced on things in my kitchen). The second way is letting it dry lying down on a flat surface, however this will take longer as the first side has to dry before you paint the second. You might also want to do a double coat.

Step 5

Once dry, you can add your decorations! This bit is completely up to you. I went for colourful baubles and a big red bow by blobbing paint on with a cotton bud, and then cut a star out of an empty chocolate orange wrapper, however you can do whatever you would like with the craft materials and/or recycled materials you have. Get creative!

Step 6

Optional: If you wanted to hang up the tree, then you could use some ribbon, string, pipe cleaner or maybe a recycled material to create a handle. I recycled a label tie!