You Asked For It...Tree Topper Instructions

I have had several people ask me about my tree topper. In fact, I was told to take close-up pictures and "tell us how to do it"! My tree topper always gets attention and I guess that is because I think outside of the box when it comes to topping off the tree. We have 9 foot ceilings in our home. Our tree is probably 7 ft. My tree topper measures 24 inches from the very top to just below the center of the bow. For me, the secret to an interesting topper is to find something unusual to feature in it. You can see last years tree topper here.

This year I bought a few things I would use for the tree, the topper and the wreath (a post about the wreath is coming). I bought the two tall curly things on the left for the base of the topper. I got them at Hobby Lobby in the floral department, not the Christmas department. The two branches that loop (on the right) ended up in my the wreath.

I tried some white and gold twigs with the curly stuff and it just didn't work for me. So, I took one of the three bronze/brown poinsettias (2 on the wreath) and a branch with glittered balls and tried that. I also had a few short glittered picks that almost look like grapes. I put one of those at the bottom to balance the larger twig. Much better, don't you think?

Yes, I was working on the top of an ornament tub, trying to keep from getting stuff all over my carpet. Obviously from the above photo, you can see that my carpet got messy anyway. In the above photo you can see that I have added a bow. I show you how to make a bow here. What I can't show you is that at this point I have left all the long stems on the various floral branches. Once I had them the way I wanted them, I wired them together with thin, flexible wire. After I made the bow, I attached it with wire to the stems. We are almost done.

Before putting the topper on the tree, I used heavy wire cutters and trimmed the bottom of the stems from the branches to about 10 inches or so long. I put the topper at the front of the top of the tree and insert the stems down into the center of the tree for added support. Then, I wire it to the top branches of the tree. Don't try to put this on that one lone stem that sticks up from the top of a fake tree, you need to move it down far enough that you are wiring it to a group of stems so that it will stand up straight. There are a couple more tricks that finish it off. You can see in the above photo that once I had it up, I added 2 more bunches of the "grapes" to even things out. One is just below the center of the bow, the other to the right of center. They aren't attached to anything, I just stuck them in the tree.

I always make 2 more bows, the same size as the one on the front of the topper (3 if the back of your tree shows). I wire them to the side of the top of the tree so that they blend in with the front bow. You can see both sides of my tree in the above photos. This gives the tree topper the look of actually covering the entire top of the tree, instead of simply propped on the front. This is really a good finishing touch no matter what kind to topper you put on your tree.

It also completes the look if you match your wrapping paper to the theme of the tree. This year I was using paper I already had, but luckily it worked. I am using the brown bows on packages that are going to one part of the family, gold on the ones that are going to the other. It makes it so much easier when it is time to sort the gifts.

I hope this helps. I will be happy to answer questions. If I'd known I was going to do a tutorial, I would have taken more detailed pictures. It really isn't a difficult project, I promise.