DIY – Wooden Dowel Christmas Tree

To be totally honest, I didn’t know if this wooden dowel Christmas tree would even work out. I had this idea in my head of how to do it, but like with many crafts, until I tried making it, there was a 50/50 chance this would have been a disaster.

How to make a Wooden Dowel Christmas Tree

At first it didn’t seem to be going well. Luckily an old paper towel roll saved the day.

The cost of making this tree ran me under $5 *but* this is because I already had a glue gun, plain craft glue, and twine.

The only additional things I bought to make this tree was:

• 2 packages of wooden dowels ($2). This was a 10 piece package of 12″ x 1/4″ (30.5 cm x 0.6 cm).
• 1 package of decorative styrofoam balls ($1)
• 1 sheet of bristol board paper ($1)

I needed something to ensure the dowels didn’t slide out of place from their “round base’ portion of the tree.

So I got out an old round cake baking pan and this helped to ensure they didn’t implode.

If you don’t have a cake pan, you can use the top of a big round coffee can, a cooking pot, basically anything round that has ridges.

I started off thinking I could just hold the dowels with my hand, and use my glue gun to glue the tops of the dowels together to start to form the tree shape.

That was not happening. They were slipping and falling and my fingers were getting burnt from the glue gun.

So I took the inside of a finished paper towel roll, cut off a 1/4 of it in height, then cut out some ridges so that the dowels could lean on it. This worked much better.

Your tree will shrink a bit in diameter at the base as you do this.

Added some more dowels all around.

Got some twine. Glued one end to the bottom, wrapped around and then glued the tip at the top.

Time to decorate! I got my daughter to help me.

We just put some plain craft glue on a plate, dipped each ball into it and stuck it on the twine. They attach very easily. If you want to make the full sized garland, you can find the tutorial here.

I then needed a star for the top. I went to the amazing paper stars tutorial from Kate of Kate’s Creative Space and made a star topper out of a piece of red bristol board, and stuck it on top.

And you’ve got yourself a very pretty little wooden Christmas tree!

I’m thinking if you made a couple of these, they’d make some pretty good centerpieces for a dinner party. Especially if you use different size and height dowels.  

You’d just have to glue 2 of the paper stars back to back, to avoid one side of the “non-finished” star part to be seen. Or do a 3 dimensional star topper.

Says the one that has never hosted a dinner party. I’m the one they ask to bring the dinner rolls and wine. This is why I practice making pretty crafts so if I should have a dinner party in the future, it will distract from the extra crispy chicken that will surely come out of my oven, Griswold style.