Rustic Xmas Tree

I've never really got into the whole plastic Xmas tree. It doesn't seem authentic to me and all I associate them with is dust! Usually we go Xmas tree hunting and chop a small "real" one down from the side of the road or the neighbours paddock where our old shack was. This year I saw a really cool idea on another blog and thought I'd pinch it for my own. It's a rustic wooden Xmas tree. All you need is one or two of these and a hour of time (or your husband/partner's time!):

A good old wooden pallet which we got from Officeworks. They were throwing a heap out and said we could take as many as we wanted. Often the local hardware store will also have freebies that you can take (they put them near the big rubbish bins).

You will also need a basic selection of tools. A drill, a saw (we have an electric one but a hand one would be just as good), hammer and a selection of old screws (they don't have to be fancy, we have a tin of old random ones which we used and that way we didn't have to buy any).

It all starts with the base. Roge pulled some timbers off the pallet and made a cross for the base of the Xmas "tree".

Admittedly, Roge had a lot of trouble pulling the pallets apart. The nails they had used to hold it together were huge and took a fair bit of elbow grease to get out. I was cursed many a time within that hour but he persevered! Oh what a husband!

As you pull off each timber from the old pallet, screw them onto a middle "trunk"piece of timber, spacing each piece with another scrap of timber (so you have even gaps) until you get to the top of the "trunk".

Then using the saw, cut a the timbers making a tree shape like this. Screw the "tree" onto your base plate and you have yourself a rustic Xmas tree! I LOVE it and am pretty excited to get it up to the shack, decorate it with Xmas decorations and set up all the gifts under it. We're going there this weekend so I'll get my chance then.

I'll keep you posted on how it turns out.