My Nature Inspired Christmas Tree Theme

In my formal living room, I have a 12′ Alaskan pine Christmas tree decorated in nature inspired decor. This tree is a full tree and requires a lot of decor to make it feel full. Let me show you what’s on it.

Lights

The tree itself has incandescent lights that are not plugged in. Over the years more and more lights have gone out and I have replaced them and tried to bring them back to life. It’s just not worth my time, so I have added 5 strands of the best LED lights ever. Read all about these lights below in a post I did last year – When Your Pre-Lit Christmas Tree Lights Don’t Work.

Ornaments

Because this tree is so big, I have incorporated some very large white ball ornaments. These really help fill up some space and give large pops of color. I put these guys in first and make sure they are evenly distributed throughout the tree with the largest ones at the bottom of the tree. These ornaments sit pretty deep in the tree.

My birch balls that are probably 6″ also bring in another element of nature. Along with the birch balls and white ornaments, I have some gray, black, brown, gold, and silver balls. All of these colors tie in the room around the tree with a black ceiling, gray walls, and neutral furniture.

Pulled from retirement, I added my brown and black feathered ball collection. Some of these balls are just sitting on the branches and some are on picks. I bought these years ago in the floral department at Hobby Lobby. They weren’t even Christmas decor. You can find lots of things that aren’t “Christmas decor” to put on your Christmas tree if you look around.

Other ornaments that aren’t balls go on the outside of the tree and those include snowflakes and deer heads.

Ribbon

Last year I tied all my ribbon in bows and used those again this year. My bows are birch, white velvet, and white fluffy ribbon. I also added linen ribbon and birch ribbon around the tree.

In addition to the ribbon, I added some grapevine garland. This stuff is super stiff and hard to weave in a out of a tree, so I just cut it into pieces and tucked it into the tree here and there.

Nature Inspired Picks

I pulled in various picks. I used silver sticks, champagne berries, white whispy picks, and a pine pick. These really helped to add fullness to the tree and the silver sticks definitely gave the tree texture and personality.

Hydrangeas

The tree was decorated and done and then I had a dream about snowy white hydrangeas. So, I hunted them down and added them to the tree. Those were the only things I bought for this tree this year. Everything else I added came out of my attic.

Deer Antlers and Ice Cycles

A few years ago we updated our dining room and added a white antler chandelier. That chandelier served as my inspiration to incorporate white antlers in my Christmas decor and my nature inspired Christmas decor was born. The antler ornaments are hanging on the tips of the branches similar to how my ice cycles are hanging.

You can see more about my antler chandelier in My Dining Room Makeover.

As far as ice cycles go, I added some small clear ones from Hobby Lobby and some large crystal ones from Holiday Warehouse here in Plano.

By sticking with nature inspired neutral colors, I was able to let my red fireplace mantle stand out. Since I was putting my tree so close to the mantle and I wanted to do matching garland, I stayed away from the color red.