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How To Make An Ombre Gradient Christmas Tree

In the esteemed words of Snooki… the party’s here!

Gradient Christmas Tree Title Card

Woop woop, the tree is up. And this year now that Clara’s a big girl who we think can handle real ornaments (well, we got a few shatter-proof ones for the very bottom just to be sure) we went with a gradient from white to hot pink to red. Booyah. Or as I’ve been saying way too often: boom goes the dynamite.

Christmas Tree Decorated With Gradient Ornaments White Silver Pink Purple Red

Oh and we have a bunch of meaningful/special ornaments that we love the most, but we save those for our real mini tree (we got a tabletop one last year and loved it so much that it’ll be a tradition). So we’ll post about that one as soon as we get it (don’t want it to die before Christmas, so maybe next week!).

Anyway, back to our gradient guy. We thought it would be fun to see the color get deeper as it got closer to the floor, and since we already had a bunch of white ornaments from our silver tree in 2007 and a bunch of soft pink ornaments from 2010 and homemade ones from last year’s Pinterest challenge, all we did was grab a few more hot pink and red ornaments (which only ran us about 12 bucks total, thanks to 50% off sales at Michael’s and Hobby Lobby).

Detail Of Red and Purple Ornaments On Gradient Christmas Tree Design

Let the record state that hubster wanted it just to go from white to red with some of those silvery pink ones in the mix since we already had them, but I’m a smooth talker… so that’s how hot pink ended up in the mix.

Then we just loaded each of the four colors onto the tree in bands of color with white at the top which led into light pink, hot pink, and bright red at the bottom. Oh and we added some $2 candy canes to the mix since they fit with the color scheme.

Close UP On Pink And Red Ornaments And Candy Canes On Gradient Christmas Tree

As usual we used our faux-sheepskins-from-Ikea to make a tree skirt. Oh and check out that bicycle ornament we grabbed for cheap at Target.

Red Reindeer Decoration At Bottom Of Gradient Christmas Tree

We also went sans topper. We’ve been waiting to buy one until we see one we totally love and that hasn’t happened yet, so wait we must.

Far View Of Gradient Christmas Tree Sitting Between Hallway And Kitchen

Here she is at night. I’ve named her Glowy Glowerson.

Night Time View Of Gradient Christmas Tree Going White Pink Red

And since I’m a list freak, here’s the rest of the stuff on my holiday wish list. I try not to be all stepford and pressure myself about it, but I can’t explain the endorphin rush that I get from crossing things off of a list. And don’t think I won’t cross things off even if I don’t do them if I run out of time, just for the satisfaction of crossing them off, because I totally roll like that.

  • set up the big tree (gradient, baby!)
  • get a live tabletop tree again (like we did last year – this year we have a new idea for the ornaments though!)
  • decorate the mantel, the built-ins, and the entryway console
  • hang our outside lights & decorate the front porch
  • shoot a Christmas picture of Clara & Burger for our annual holiday card
  • make an advent calendar for Clara? Ahh I’m behind already!
  • shop for slash make all the gifts on our Christmas list (about 50% done already, can’t wait to cross this sucker off!)

And since we’re talking trees. Here’s how we decorated ours back in 2007 & 2008 (with the same white and silver scheme):

Silver Decorated Christmas Tree In First House

Close Up of Silver And White Christmas Ornaments

And in 2009, we went crazy for citrus, and even dried fruit to make ornaments:

Dried Fruit Citrus Christmas Tree Decorations

Close Up Of Dried Orange Citrus Christmas Ornament Decoration

In 2010 we had green, pink, and silver shimma goin’ on:

Pink And Silver And Green Shimmer Christmas Ornament Color Scheme

Close Up Of Pink And Silver Ornaments On Christmas Tree

Here’s our tabletop tree from last year complete with homemade ornaments that I whipped up for a Pinterest Challenge:

Small Homemade Ornaments On Colorful Tabletop Christmas Tree

Detail of Hand Painted Christmas Ornaments On Table Top Tree

And here’s last year’s big tree with homemade paint chip ornaments and colorful ribbons (nothing that could shatter since Clara was 19 months old):

Christmas Tree Decorated With Paint Chip Ornaments

Detail Of Paint Chip Holiday Cut Out Christmas Ornaments

Feels kinda festive, eh? What are you guys doing to get into the holiday spirit? Or are you screaming “not ready!” and boycotting Christmas Carols until a certain magical “now it can be Christmastime” date? Are you making a list just for the satisfaction of crossing things off? Are you making anything homemade (gifts, food, advent calendars, etc)? Do tell.

Psst- Still in the mood for more holiday projects and pics? Click here for a gallery with over 25 holiday projects and ideas. 

Update: You can check out all of our favorite holiday decor finds here – many of which are under $15! 

Comments

  1. Kiki says

    I love how you guys have a new theme every year, it’s always so cool to see what you come up with next! And I really love this ombre look, too! Seriously, I could go on and on about how creative you guys are!

    Reply

  2. Cori says

    The tree is beautiful, and it wouldn’t be the same without the hot pink ornaments! Good choice!

    Confession: sometimes when I am list-making, I write down a task that I’ve already done, just so I can cross it off. :)

    Reply

  3. Kate M says

    Your tree is so pretty! I wish I could have a pretty tree, but my dogs tend to think ornaments are free balls for them to eat/play fetch with/destroy. Over the years you’ve had lots of themes, but what do you do with the ornaments that you aren’t using? Do you keep them all?

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      We usually have overlap (we reused our silver ones, our light pink ones, and some hot pink ones I made last year) so we just have to buy a few new boxes of ornaments each year. So far it hasn’t gotten crazy (we have two tupperware bins total of ornaments which we store in the attic) but if it does we’d love to donate or yard sale them so we’re not drowning in extras!

      xo
      s

  4. Emily says

    Duuuuuude. Why couldn’t I think of that?! I was pretty in love with our tree, until I saw yours and now I want a pretty gradient tree. And I’m super jealous of the faux sheepskin tree skirts. Unfortunately, there is no Ikea even remotely close to me, and I went online to order them and have them shipped and they don’t ship those rugs. I won’t even admit how sad I was when I figured that out. And I have a Christmas to-do list quite similar to yours, making a few trips today to hopefully get it mostly crossed off! :)

    Reply

    • Alice says

      Emily, maybe try faux fur fabric? That’s what I use for a faux faux sheepskin look. It’s not as furry and fluffy as the rugs, but it works in a pinch.

  6. Jen W says

    I just did a coffee spit-take when I saw that deer. I bought the same one and a can of red spray paint at Michael’s this weekend, and thought ‘I bet Sherry would love this idea’. I’m feeling pretty clairvoyant right now. Reindeer twinsies!!!
    I’m so glad to see that it worked, because I was worried about the gold flakes keeping the paint from adhering.

    Reply

  7. Mandy S. says

    Oh I totally make a list for everything for the saitisfaction of getting to cross it off! Is it wrong that when I make a daily list of things to accomplish I include things like “lunch” just so I know it can be crossed off?

    Reply

  10. Amanda Gail says

    What’s your trick for photographing your trees at night with the tree-lights on? All of mine always look super blown out & blurry bur yours are nice & can still make out a lot of detail…

    Reply

  11. Missy G. says

    Love it!! I was supposed to get our tree down from the attic this past weekend but time got away from me. Hopefully, this week! I think I’m just now ready to get into the holiday spirit. Although, having 70+ degree weather right now is not helping!

    Question: what do y’all do with all the ornaments from previous years? Save them, sell them, donate them? Just curious. It never occurred to me not to just use the same ones every year.

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      We usually have some ornament overlap (ex: we reused our silver ones, our light pink ones, and some hot pink ones I made last year) so we just have to buy a few new boxes of ornaments each year. So far it hasn’t gotten crazy (we have two tupperware bins total of ornaments which we store in the attic) but if it does we’d love to donate or yard sale them so we’re not drowning in extras!

      xo
      s

  13. Erin says

    Oh man, we’re on a Christmas crafty roll here. Made a knock-off of crate and barrel’s ornament chandelier with a wire wreath frame from Joann’s, some orb, and a bit of floral wire. Ridiculous and fun, just like Christmas. Also did a glittered monogram to fancy up our photo gallery wall, and will be making the newest babe a stocking this week. Wheeeeee!

    Reply

  14. Mary Anne says

    Love the idea of a gradient tree! Just one question? Why don’t you use a tree topper I bet you could DIY one if you wanted!My Favorite part of my tree is looking up and seeing my shining glimmering star at the top! Reminds me of the real reason for Christmas how the wise men followed the star to find baby Jesus in the manger, but a bow or many other things could work if your not religious! Some sort of shiny animal perhaps?

    Reply

  17. Lindsay B says

    Oooo, I love it! I’m so jealous. Our tree is a mess this year. Colored lights with a plethora of mismatched ornaments. My hubby insisted on a colorful, non-themed, cluster of a tree since we have kids now. I told him when our kids are out of the house I want my all-silver Martha Stewart tree! :) (I know I sound crabby…I do appreciate his enthusiasm!)

    Reply

  18. Brenda says

    I’m usually very firmly of the “after Thanksgiving” camp for starting Christmas things. I did help my mom decorate their tree, but I haven’t done anything in my apartment. I’m not really feeling it this year, so we’ll see if I decide to get any decorations up at some point. Love the gradient! It looks so great, and the hot pink definitely makes it looks better. :)

    Reply

  19. Ellen says

    We’ve done absolutely nothing for Christmas yet, because we’ve all been sick, one after another, with a nasty bug that’s been going around town. When we have more energy, we’ll at least get the bins of Christmas stuff down from the attic…

    Reply

  23. Christine Schwalm Design says

    I set mine up the day after Thanksgiving which is a little earlier than I’d like but necessary. I have to set up a bunch of trees at work and last year I was “over it” before I had a chance to do my own. I love your Empire State Building ornament!

    Reply

  24. Leigh says

    Our tree is up. I coerced the hubs into doing it the weekend after Thanksgiving. I’m the fluffer so my job is easier ;) I’m also in charge of our bow topper. It’s one of my favorite things on our tree.

    Our son is 17 months so we decided to place our special ornaments near the top of the tree and plastic ones at the bottom. Well, the bottom half of the tree is bare. He wanted only the lights on “his half” of the tree.

    Reply

  26. Jennifer says

    Ball State University, baby! Cardinals represent!

    Can’t believe how big our little news broadcast has gotten just because of these four little words: Boom goes the dynamite!

    Reply

  29. Michele says

    We enjoyed our day in Richmond yesterday while there for the book-signing event! I was totally nervous meeting you (silly I kno), but had wanted to say that I’m thoroughly enjoying the book :) I especially love the chapter on art…now everything is potential artwork! ie: Collection of squished pennies…yes please! #nothingissafenow

    Reply

  30. DavesAnngel says

    Love this idea! We have one Christmas tree that it currently topped and lighted, but not ornamented just yet. Our old Christmas tree is becoming a birthday tree! Our daughter turns 1 on Christmas Eve, so to make it special and separate it from the Christmas craziness, we decided to do a tree for her in her birthday party theme. = ) I am so excited to get it decorated – pastel colors and butterflies will be so fun for her!

    Reply

  31. Briel K. says

    Looks nice! I just love this time of year with all the decotrations and pretty lights.

    I had my tree up but my 1 year old boy cats kept climbing it, knocking it over, flattening and bending all the branches, and pulling the ornaments off so I had to take it down. :( So sad. There are some pics on my blog if you want to see the whole tree debacle. haha I went and bought a teeny rosemary tree yesterday and put some lights on that to slightly make up for being tree-less.

    Reply

  33. Carla says

    I love that tree. And it’s not often that I love a tree more with the lights off – ’cause you see the gradient better. Question – if you do themed trees, you must have a lot of ornaments? Do you just amass a giant stockpile so that eventually you can do any theme or do you send them off to Salvation Army like you would old clothes?

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      We have two tupperware bins of all the ornaments we have, and since we reuse them whenever we can (ex: we used the soft pink and silver ones this year as well as some hot pink ones we made last year) we only add around two dozen ornaments to the stock each year, which are just two small boxes worth, so it’s not too out of control.. yet! Famous last words, right?! We’d totally donate/yard sale them if it got too crazy though!

      xo
      s

  34. Powerpuff says

    We also decorated our tree! My boyfriend thinks it’s the best because there are no repeat ornaments :p I also made a candy cane wreath per Whipperberry’s tutorial, and I’m going to make one for my parents.

    [IMG]http://i50.tinypic.com/3359tw5.jpg[/IMG]

    [IMG]http://i47.tinypic.com/30t4608.jpg[/IMG]

    Reply

  35. Jules says

    Instead of an advent calendar this year, I am doing a 12 days of Christmas countdown. Advent seemed to go on way too long last year. 12 days of “when is it going to be Christmas?” sounds better than 24 days ;) The anticipation for a whole month was too much for my little ones, maybe this will be better.

    Reply

  36. Christine says

    Our tree is a mix mash of Star Wars ornaments (the hubster), homemade kid ornaments (the kids! duh!), and my scotty dog ornaments. It is crazy, but it really represents our family. In the past, we have done a couple of different trees, but this year our dog can’t be trusted, so we just went with the one.

    Reply

  37. Kim W Rily says

    We got out the ornaments and decorations, but I didn’t have the energy to put up the tree this weekend. The stockings are hung, and Max is almost 4 now, so I really, really, really have to finish his stocking this year. He’s been using a dollar tree one and I have been doing this very detailed cross stitch pattern. (Samantha has hers that I made from the same pattern.) No sleep for me till December 25th! We will have two trees this year as well. The trusty plastic/fake tree and a real one. I can’t get over the pine scent!

    Reply

  40. Miranda says

    I love the gradient tree idea! I would love to do that with one of my Christmas trees* when I get a bigger place. Right now I only have room for my small tree with all my Peanuts ornaments.

    *My mom collects ornaments and she believes in displaying them every year (“ornaments aren’t meant to sit in boxes!”). So I grew up thinking it was perfectly normal to have multiple Christmas trees (various sizes) all over the house. At one point we had a tree in every room except for the small bathroom, 8 trees total.

    Reply

  41. Donita says

    Beautiful tree!!! I would never have thought of putting the ornaments like that, it looks amazing.
    Ha Ha on crossing of things you didn’t do. I add to my list, if I do something that wasn’t on the list. I will add it and THEN cross it off. I’m a dork. LOL

    Reply

  42. Mamaw says

    Love your tree! Ours is covered with sentimental ornaments. They may be the same every year, but somehow the tree always comes out different. We don’t have a topper either. Just haven’t found one worthy. Got your book over the weekend. It’s fun to read and full of ideas. I love that you make it sound simple to do these things. Thanks and Merry Christmas!

    Reply

  43. Laura (Blogging Over Thyme) says

    I have to agree with some other comments–I don’t think any themed trees are in my future, just because I am so sentimentally attached to family ornaments that have been around for my entire life! I get really excited to unpack them each year and it makes it really feel like the holidays for me.

    Also, I am so tempted to eventually get a fake tree because it seems so easy, but I don’t know if I’ll ever get around to that either! It seems kinda sad to assemble it from a bag, rather than go to a garden center in the cold, pick out a fresh one, strap it onto the car, and carry it in the house (messy sap, needles everywhere and all!). Even though I definitely think it can be a pain sometimes–and I feel bad for killing a tree–I feel like it ends up being more special. But I do love seeing how different your tree looks each year! :)

    Reply

  44. erin says

    I find it funny that you change up your tree every year, I love it, but it is so different from me. I think it’s because I see you both as so sentimental with all the things around your home and I wish I was that thoughtful. But the funny thing is my tree is the one thing I am very sentimental about. Since I was a child my mom has bought me an ornament every year so now that I am an adult they are mine and on my tree. I love putting the same ones on and remembering where we bought them. I have other matching ornaments too, but the heart and soul of my tree are always the mismatched ones I’ve collected over the years. Everyone has different tradition:)

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Oh yes, we have a little tabletop tree where we’ll put the meaningful/special ornaments. Can’t wait to get that up (we get a real one so we wait a bit so it doesn’t turn into a pile of needles before Christmas! Haha!).

      xo
      s

    • Gil says

      Your little tree has 38 ornaments you made for a pinterest challenge. Are these the sentimental ornaments that you’re speaking of?

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Oh yes, those are the ones that were on it last year (and the sentimental ones didn’t get to come out since Clara was in her grabby break-things stage) but this year she’s not so they’ll go on the little tree (especially since some of the hot pink ones we made for the little tree are on the big tree this year)! Stay tuned for that!

      xo
      s

    • Gil says

      Wow!!! Did you really choose to delete my reply or am I just not seeing it? I questioned whether the pinterest challenge tree and ornaments is really filled with sentimental ornaments.

    • YoungHouseLove says

      All comments were just waiting in moderation while we did a DIY project (I was caught up moderating hundreds from this morning’s post and then we did a project so sometimes comments on older posts take a while to pop up). I just made my way to answering it now for ya :)

      xo
      s

  45. Lauren Nicole says

    We’ve never found a tree topper we like either, so we put a larger-sized santa hat on top of our tree. I’m sure you could find one in white/silver to complete your gradient.

    Reply

  46. Laura says

    The tree is beautiful. I couldn’t find the perfect tree topper either. I started using a santa hat years ago and it has stuck. Now, the flopped over santa hat is my favorite part of the tree.

    Laura
    San Antonio, TX

    Reply

  48. Mary @ Ms Redo says

    Hi, Sherry, it was so incredibly fabulous to meet you guys yesterday at Mongrel! You asked me to send pics from my shirt-painting a la John, but alas, elderly ladies like me don’t know how to do that – if you’ll tell me how, I’ll send ’em. Love ya bunches, Mary

    Reply

  49. Cara @ Chic Meets Healthy says

    Love the ombre look! We could totally do that with our tree – now to see if the hubster notices when I secretly rearrange all of the ornaments!

    Also, loving the paint ornaments – I saw living social had those in their window! What a great reminder of your book signings!

    Reply

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