Revisiting Advent: Marian inspired Christmas tree

Back in early December, I promised to share photos of the Marian inspired tree I was creating for Advent and Christmas this year.  But life happened, the kids kept me very busy, and the photos have been sitting in a draft folder waiting for me to do something with them.  So this post is very overdue,  but thought they might inspire others who like to plan months in advance for next Christmas! ;-)


I discovered this beautiful glass ornament in a Christmas display at a garden store (of all places!) in early December: 

 

Suddenly, I began picturing a Christmas tree draped in midnight blue, gold, and silver and embellished with ornaments depicting the Blessed Mother. But how could I create it? 

I clipped photos of Mary from old Christmas cards, in addition to printing images of her from the Internet, then Mod Podged them to wooden ovals and rectangles.  Before decoupaging the wooden pieces, I painted them a deep midnight blue, then sprinkled them with gold and silver glitter.

I wrapped the tree in midnight blue and gold pieces of wide tulle ribbon.

I  topped the tree with two large blue bows with "tails" that draped down from the top of the tree.

I added my glass Mary ornament, in addition to the wooden ornaments I had created, scattering  them throughout the tree.  Then I added blue poinsettias to fill in the spaces.

Finally, I sewed a new tree skirt for the tree.  I purchased an uncut, discontinued Daisy Kingdom tree skirt panel on eBay.  It took only 30 minutes to cut out the panels, sew them together, then give them a border of gold seam binding. This tree skirt is so pretty!  Gold images of the Nativity are printed on a midnight blue background.

Here are a few photos of the finished tree:

The tree lit up during the day: 

 

The tree lit up at night:

(My daughter and her puppy Addie with the tree.)

This was a nice change from our usual Christmas tree, which is traditionally decorated with a mix of homemade ornaments and heirloom pieces inherited from my mom.  Best of all, gazing at the ornaments encouraged me to think more deeply about Mary's fiat throughout Advent and the Christmas season.