How to Decorate Your Christmas Tree with No Ornaments

Each year at Christmas, our family members load up their cars with presents, food, kids, dogs, liquid spirits, games, Christmas movies, Christmas CDs, and all things festive for the holidays - and head to the country house for a traditional celebration. The country house is the parents' home away from home nestled in the deep woods along the San Marcos River in Texas. Roasting marshmallows, making S'Mores, gathering pecans in the woods, and hunting wild boar are among the activities that keep us entertained while the turkey and ham slow cooks on the outdoor smoker.

In between the outdoor activities and popping into the country house to indulge in the dozens of homemade treats and warm spiced cider, we hunt and chop the treasured Christmas tree that will become the center of the evening's activity on Christmas Eve. Every year, we rely on Mom and Pop to load their truck with the boxes of heirloom ornaments that have been collected through the years. Always a topic of jokes and laughter is the really cheesy, lighted angel that is usually bigger than the top of the Charlie Brown tree.

A couple of years ago, we stood in shock as we set up the tree and gathered around to decorate, with the Christmas music playing in the background, only to find out that the folks forgot the boxes of ornaments. OH MY GOSH - what will we do?? We have a Charlie Brown Christmas tree and NOTHING to hang on the fragile limbs. We are not products of the Depression and didn't grow up poor, so we had no clue how to have our Christmas with NO ornaments from the store. We decided - OK - we are in the country, let's use natural decorations for our Charlie Brown Christmas Tree. It turned out to be one of my favorite trees of all time. Here is what we did to decorate with no decorations:

Magazine Cutouts

Some family members had brought Christmas magazines and newspapers with local Christmas attractions. We found all the pictures of ornaments, lights, presents, teddy bears, Christmas clothes, etc., and cut them out. Using some string from the garage, we hung the pictures on the limbs.

Christmas CD Jackets