Take inspiration from our themed trees embellished with garlands, ornaments, and tree toppers.

Kevin Sharkey punctuated this 10-foot-high flocked tree with golden glass balls, then added new and vintage glass icicles. Cut felt serves as a tree-skirt-cum-snowdrift.

Pre-lit heavy flocked spruce (similar to shown), 9', $485, homedepot.com.

Textured and touchable, appealing and approachable, everything on this tree will call out to a child's curious hands and heart. Best of all, nothing is too delicate or fragile.

Up the elegance of this year's evergreen with beautiful celestial symbols. Delicate silvery angels flit among hand-tied ribbon stars.

Instead of store-bought trimmings, dress your tree with what it might have worn outside -- pinecones.

Forget the electric lights, make your room shine with an aluminum tree filled with removable branches and a central trunk. Decorate with balls and swags in one or two colors. 

Colorful ornaments stand out against the dense branches of a Nordmann fir. This one has a vintage tree fence and a mound of fake snow at its base. The decorations include popcorn garlands, popcorn balls, and layered felt animals.

Japanese-lantern ornaments provide a pleasing change of scale on this artificial bonsai, but the crowning glories of this tree are the birds -- coated in glitter and grouped in flocks of like colors.

An entire village of gingerbread houses adorns this tree, creating tempting trimmings. The windows and doors have been crafted from dough that is different from the facades -- the lighter one is sweetened with honey, the darker with molasses -- to provide contrast.

Consider a monochromatic scheme. For this tree, we used only red and white ornaments to create a festive display.

With its boughs pruned, this Norway spruce can accommodate twice as many ornaments. Ribbon attached to wire lets ornaments hang securely from branches while unifying the color scheme.

In both Ukrainian and German lore, the tale of the Christmas spider explains the origin of tinsel. The story tells of a poor widow who couldn't buy fancy gifts for her children or decorations for their tree. One Christmas Eve, she decorated a tree as best she could with fruits and nuts. After she went to sleep, spiders came out and crawled over the tree, leaving their webs behind. When Father Christmas visited the house, he saw the web-covered tree and decided to turn the webs to silver. In the morning when the family awoke, the tree was sparkling and beautiful.

Kids undecorate this tree! The ornaments are gifts in ribbon pouches, one to open each day starting December 1.

In Poland, where the Christmas season is seen as a time of renewal, ornaments are fashioned from straw to symbolize thanksgiving for the harvest and hope for good things in the coming year. Eggs represent the promise of future prosperity, too.

Although there is no widespread Christmas tradition in Japan, people have learned a lesson of peace and goodwill from Sadako, a little girl who developed leukemia after the 1945 Hiroshima bombing. She learned of a legend that said if a person folded 1,000 paper cranes, the gods might grant his or her wish to become well. Although Sadako never reached her goal, after her death her classmates folded enough cranes to make up the difference. Since then, people all over the world have sent folded cranes to Hiroshima.

A pyramid of dried pinecones dressed with silver spray paint conceals the tree stand of this Fraser fir.

A Christmas tree dusted with snow looks even frostier when decorated exclusively in shades of silver, white, and cream. Simple paper-and-glitter ornaments mix well with vintage metallic pieces. Glitter ornaments are easy to make and can be saved from year to year.

This is the perfect tree for gardeners. We turned vintage seed packets into templates you can download; print on card stock, and cut out with scissors.

Pom-poms, tassels, and snowflakes made of vibrant yarn create a cozy, crafty theme for a tree. A sewing basket is a fitting container (the tree sits in a separate pot surrounded by gravel); the gifts are wound with yarn.

Curious little hands can't help but be drawn to the irresistible magic of a Christmas tree. With an unbreakable tree, you can let them explore without worry. Nylon threads provide invisible support for a small tree, which is decorated entirely with easy-to make, kid-proof ornaments.

With a few bags of cotton balls, you can blanket a tree with the softest snow.

Office-supply stores have all the trimmings for a tree that belies its workaday origins. Key tags decorated with stickers, ornaments cut from file folders, and paper-clip chains dangle from the branches. A bubble-packaging tree skirt and presents dressed up in graph paper, stickers, and rubber bands circle the base.

With its pipe-cleaner candles, this small fir recalls a time when Christmas trees were brightened with flame.

An assortment of colorful candy holders and basket ornaments creates a striking effect against a white tree.

Channeling childhood summers spent on Cape Cod, crafts director Hannah Milman created a from-the-sea tree. These shell ornaments are dusted with two shades of glitter and blended for a dazzling ombre effect.

These stockings are just large enough to hold a small gift or sweet for each of the 24 days of Advent.

A tree covered in candy. Is there a child anywhere who could imagine a happier sight? Although the sweet beasts and baubles on the tree are not intended to be eaten, their components are delectable.

Conceal a Christmas tree stand with a lovely scalloped tree skirt. The skirt is made of felt, which won't fray, and has one open seam, so refilling the stand with water is a snap.