A good deal led to a good idea. While browsing a favorite craft store I came upon a super slim, 7-foot, pre-lit Christmas tree on sale for $40. Boom, a travel Christmas tree was born. Once purchased, I was on a mission to scour a dozen stores and all corners of the Internet for the best travel Christmas ornaments.
The Ornaments
I searched big box stores, high-end home interior shops and of course Amazon to find the ornaments. I’m typically not a fan of glass ornaments because well, they’re glass. However, when I laid eyes on these airplanes I knew a few of them would have to adorn the travel tree. The same was true when a Google search brought up these travel directional signposts. Get in my cart! What kind of travel tree would this be if it didn’t include a globe, or eight. There are two types of globe ornaments on the tree; tan globe spheres that read “Joy to the World,” and flat globe discs with various travel quotes.
I found these cute compasses online. They too are made of glass and are covered in glitter, which is typically not my style, but they were too cute not to include on the travel Christmas tree. I was thrilled to find these map of the United States ornaments at Target. The passport ornaments were purchased there as well. I love that the passports are paper and you can leaf through the pages. The map ornaments have a magnetic heart that you can place over various locations. This one is on Minnesota, home to many of our family’s hiking and outdoor adventures.
Over the years, I’ve collected a few travel ornaments here and there. I’d pick up an Eiffel Tower ornament and stash it away. A friend gave me these Brooklyn and a Golden Gate Bridge ornaments one year for Christmas. The flat globe disc ornaments were a purchase at last year’s Cranberry Festival in Wisconsin. Most of these treasures have been tucked away, just waiting for the perfect tree to be placed on.
Tree Topper
The tree topper on the travel tree was hand made. I painted 1 1/2 inch wooden slats red. I then cut pointed ends on the slats to make them look like arrows. The arrows were then hot glued to a fourth red slat. To finish the tree topper, I added foam glitter letters to make the tree topper look like a directional signpost.
I love to decorate for the holidays and the travel Christmas tree celebrates our family’s love for adventure. We also love spending the holidays checking out Christmas lights, having holiday movie parties, chuckling at the antics of our Elf on the Shelf and building gingerbread houses.
Happy Adventuring, Rochelle