What Do You Do With Fall Clearance? Make A Pumpkin Christmas Tree!

Last weekend John and I spent a fun afternoon shopping for our local homeless resource center. Walmart has better prices than Dollar Tree on things like individually packed toothbrushes, toothpaste, and certain shampoos, so while we were there stocking up we of course detoured through the Halloween Clearance. We are only human, after all. ;)

Y'all. Y'ALL. Not only was all the Halloween stuff 75% off, so was all the Fall decor.

We were like kids in a candy store, with John whisper-screaming "GET MORE PUMPKINS THEY'RE ONLY $2" and me shoving lanterns at him to scan and cackling gleefully at the prices. We definitely drew a few concerned looks, ha.  

Even exercising extreme constraint, we came home with 9 pumpkins, 6 lanterns of varying styles, 4 boxes of string lights, and a handful of cute woodland ornaments.

I don't want to torture you too much much with our good fortune, but this plastic lantern with a battery candle inside was only $4:

REJOICE WITH ME, BARGAIN SHOPPERS

And this big wooden lantern was $6:

A can of silly string had exploded all over these - probably the reason they were still there - but that scraped off easily.

Now, want to see what we did with all this?


I think you're gonna liiiiike iiiiit.

Ta-daaa!

And some glowy night shots:

EEEEEEEEEE

I've wanted to try oversized tree decor for years, and I'm officially smitten. So much easier than dozens of tiny ornaments, and a much bigger impact.

Not only is this a perfect transition tree from Fall to Christmas - and lets me keep my pretty Fall pillows and garland back here - it should also work beautifully for our Hobbit Holiday party.

I plan to add a few gold balls for shine, some twiggy stars, and cute mushroom ornaments. Anything else you think a Hobbit would decorate her tree with? (John joked about hiding a potato. Definitely doing that.)

Let's take a closer look at the lantern topper, because I'm really proud of this:

I wanted the lantern to be the exact top of the tree... but how do you attach a flat-bottomed lantern to a single spiky branch?

Like this:

We popped out the plastic candle and battery compartment, and the hole they left was perfect for slotting over the top branch.

We still wanted the candle there, though! So after a little more brainstorming, we broke off the bottom of the candle and glued the battery part back in sideways, like this:

These new candles don't use wires; the LEDs are attached to a rigid metal rod, which is why the batteries stick out:

(If you have a candle with wires, you won't have this sticking-out issue.)

By gluing the LEDs and batteries to the side, we left plenty of room for the hollow candle to slot over the top branch... and no one's gonna know:

We put the LED bar in front of the branch, too, so there aren't any shadows inside.

All LED candles are hollow, so this could be a useful tip for your own tree toppers! Imagine having a big pillar candle at the center of your bows/sprigs! Just make sure you use a candle with either a timer or remote, so you don't have to physically turn it on each night. (Ours has a timer.)

To finish off the top of the tree John made those lovely ribbon bows - after I begged him, ha. They're made of two ribbons we already had, one gold and one burlap, and go perfectly with the tree.

Of course the real magic of this tree are the twinkle lights. Here's a cruddy quality gif of how it all looks at night:

::dreamy sigh::

And a better lit gif minus the topper:

I've had these twinkle lights for at least a decade, and live in dread of the day they die. It's so hard to find a good slow twinkle setting; even these are a tiny bit fast for me. Let me know if you ever find some good twinkle options, k?

Btw, we can set up this tree in less than 10 minutes because we store it wrapped with the lights on, which is a huge sanity and time-saver each year. Bookmark my tutorial if you've never tried this, it's a game-changer.

Our twinkly pumpkin tree isn't quite finished, but I hope this gave you a cozy glow, and maybe a few ideas for your own decorations.

This has been a hectic week over here, what with the second hurricane, my parents being super sick with bronchitis (please send prayers if that's your thing; Mom has asthma and is in a bad way), plus happy things like a big reader meetup out at Disney Springs. (Hi, y'all!) I'm a bit wrung out, but this tree - and having John here to help me decorate it - has been a peaceful, twinkly balm for my soul. I'm excited to see what next week brings.

I hope you have your own twinkly moments of magic this week, my friend. Let's remember to breathe, remember to rest, remember to call our loved ones and check in. See ya back here next week.

::mwah::

*****

P.S. John just busted into my office like this:


"GUESS HOW MUCH ALL THIS COST?"

The answer is $8. Apparently he went back to Walmart, and the Fall clearance is now 90% off. NINETY PERCENT. So yeah, maybe run by your local Wal-Mart? ;)

*****

P.S. Speaking of Hobbit-y things, I'm hoping to make some more Christmasy Hobbit door wreaths soon using my old tutorial, anyone want to join me?

This has been such a popular DIY, check it out to see all the different styles our friends made, too!