2022 Christmas Series: Day 3

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“Gifts of time and love are surely the basic ingredients of a truly merry Christmas.”

– Peg Bracken

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Surprise Link: https://flensburgerfiles.wordpress.com/2022/12/03/gift-idea-glass-christmas-tree/

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Day Three and boy do we have a surprise for you by clicking on the link above. Enjoy!

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Opened Days:

.Day 1: Wake Awake, For the Night is Flying

Day 2: A Mother’s Wish for Christmas by Olivia Newton John

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Gift Idea: Glass Christmas Tree

Last year at Christmas, my wife had a special Christmas wish for me, which was to make something creative. No nick-nacks, no CDs, no books unless it was from Amy Tan or Charlotte Link, but simply something that required some creative thought from her husband that she can enjoy over the holidays.

This is where the Glass Christmas Tree came in.

At many creative shops in Germany, like Pfennigpfeiffer, but also in other countries, one will be amazed at the large selection of glassware a person could ask for. They range anywhere from glass jars to wine bottles, anything in shapes and sizes. And some places, like Pfennigpfeiffer, they even have the glass bottle shaped like a Christmas tree. And this is where creative minds came together.

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In the past five years, we have seen the introduction of and expansion of glassware containing a string of lights inside them. And while some of them contained a cork with a battery compartment, others had a top that contained a solar panel, where energy is collected from the sun and the lights are activated at night, unless you have an off-switch and want to save energy. The first ones with solar paneling that came to the market I saw during our visit at the Wattforum in Tönning, in Schleswig-Holstein in 2017. We were skeptical at first but decided to buy one anyway and there have been no regrets ever since.

Going back to the story of the Glass Tree, if one wants to make something like this, one would need more than one set of Christmas lights for even though most of the string of lights have a white color, one needs a little more color for the holidays. And what more important than to have a string of green lights combined with a string of color lights, the former representing the color of the Christmas Tree. What is needed in addition is a small knife, something thin to guide and allocate the lights- either a pencil or a small hook tied or glued to a pencil, and some decorations for the outer part of the glass.

What you need:

• Two string of battery-powered lights, one of which must be green, the other either white or color, pending on choice
• Small knife
• Hobby Glue
• Pencil and/or hook
• Cork (if needed)
• Glass bottle resembling a pine tree
• Decorations of your choice to glue on the bottle

1. The first order of business is to insert the string of lights into the glass bottle, first the green and afterwards the other string of choice. Guide it in with something long enough that you can push down on the lights and spread them out. Please be careful, especially with the string of lights that are run on a copper wire only for they may have a potential to break if you push down too far.
2. In case your string of lights have a large compartment with AA batteries, you may want to consider sticking it towards the back of the tree and hide it, keeping in mind that in case you need to replace batteries you should have your compartments sticking out on the back side.
3. Important is to make a pair of cuts into the cork that closes the glass tree. The reason: When you close the bottle you want to make sure the cords to the Christmas lights are embedded into the cork to avoid damage. To ensure they stay put in the cuts, use hobby glue unless they are just of copper wire and not covered.
4. Use decorations of choice and glue them onto the glass tree with hobby glue. In my example, I used thin wooden decoration plates, glitter-filled draht wire and hand-made candy canes using beads and draht wiring. But whatever you use is your choice.  They should cover the front and sides. When gluing them to the tree, allow for an hour for it to dry. Also make sure the hobby glue you are using are compatible to the glass, wood and metal.

And lastly, you have your finished product, as you see below:

A glass Christmas tree is easy to make yet it takes time for you to decide what decorations you want to use to impress the person you love. If you don’t find the right tree, you can improvise with a bottle, as long as you have a way to dress it like a Christmas tree. If you can think it, you can make it.

Photo by Valeria Boltneva on Pexels.com

Happy crafting and happy holidays!

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