25 Creative Christmas Tree Decorating Ideas

Crafts editor Silke Stoddard evokes a hygge holiday with her Christmas tree. When she recalls her childhood in Düsseldorf, Germany, the family used a natural minimalist design seen replicated here: a wooden-dowel tree with a mix of handmade straw and wood ornaments, bone-bead snowflakes and temari balls.

Kevin Sharkey's faux tree is bedecked in fuchsia, orange, and coral handblown glass balls. While it has a retro vibe (white flocked trees were all the rage in the '50s and '60s), the monochromatic effect is perfectly modernist.

Florist Emily Thompson shares her vision for a Christmas tree in an enchanted forest. A gargantuan Douglas fir sits on a mossy bed, trimmed with velvet ribbon and natural elements like spiky chestnuts, and pinecones, magnolia, spiny datura, and okra pods. The pièce de résistance is a teensy ladder fashioned out of birch and twine, and a bunny poised to join a winter-solstice party within the branches.

For collector John Derian, his love of Christmas antiques can be traced back to a faux tabletop tree he bought at a flea market more than a decade ago. This real one, placed antique spice canister, is carefully decorated with a mix of old ornaments and quirky handmade reproductions from the German company Nostalgie-Christbaumschmuck.

This exhuberant gold-tinsel tree is in full bloom for the season. The fabric flowers all started out white—we chose inexpensive hydrangeas, lilies, anemones, and cherry blossoms, then spray-painted them in a vibrant palette and gave them gold ball-pick centers. For more glimmer, gold balls in various sizes were wired to the tree stand.

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

Where is that sneaky little elf hiding this year? In your Christmas tree! Here's a new twist on the holiday tradition that is sure to surprise and delight the whole family. Re-envision your Christmas tree as a larger-than-life advent calendar, starring your adopted scout elf in a silly new scenario: knitting with baker's twine, zip-lining along a length of red ribbon, sculpting a small snowman, or wrapping up a miniature gift.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

This tree gets its Christmas sparkle from the glass-bead ornaments. 

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.

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