The Tree Topper That Almost Wasn't

Ya’ll know sometimes I get these crazy ideas, and I don’t know how crazy they are until I’m halfway through.

I mentioned on Instagram that my theme this year for my winter/Christmas decor was black, white, and gold. I came up with this for several reasons, not the least of which was my love affair for this striped table runner I made for Thanksgiving.

I already knew I loved this palette, so why not extend it a liiiiitttttllllle bit longer, yes?

Plus, it gave me every reason to use most of the items I already own for Christmas decorating instead of buying a bunch of new things. So I brought up all of the bins from the basement containing any winter-like goodies and went through them. I picked out all the gold, white, and bookpage ornaments I had plus the lights, my cotton ball garland from a couple of years ago. I was pretty happy with the amount of ornaments I had collected, but I wanted to add more black into the mix (without it being like, super gothic, haha) so I hesitantly went to Joann. That place is like crack to me. Their seasonal decor always gets me. But I was singly focused on just finding 1-2 things to tie the whole tree together.

I CANNOT BELIEVE I FOUND BLACK AND WHITE BUFFALO CHECK BURLAP GARLAND.

It was fate, and with the whole section being 40% off, it didn’t set me back more than a few dollars. WIN!

Now I was just left to find or make a topper. I have a star, but it’s brown, and frankly I’m bored of it. Did you know how expensive those things are? Even the non-lit ones are like $25! No way!

I thought of the supplies I had on hand and remembered a giant ball of white yarn that’s been taking up space. It was pretty cheap and acrylic, probably purchased for another craft project that I never did. Not something I’d knit with, for sure. Deciding on the yarn as my material, I concocted a plan to create a tree topper sized, a mega yarn pom-ball.

It was shortly after this declaration that I realized I had never made a yarn pom pom. I’m serious. I googled around for some methods, and it seemed like the wrap around a few fingers trick was the simplest. I had no idea what I was in for.

To cut down on the amount of poms I would have to make, I started with a cardboard tube and some wrapping paper shaped into a ball as my “form.”

Then I began the painstaking process of pom pom making. I understand now why pom pom maker gadgets exist. I am horribly bad at this, folks. The first one I tried fell apart and was very un-pom like. This craft for me was looking a lot like the gaping-hole pumpkin carving incident of 2010 when I realized I had no understanding of negative space.

This was the result of me trying to carve an “E,” if I recall correctly.

Fortunately I had plenty of opportunity to practice my pom-making because this tree topper turned into a 6 hour event. I actually thought about not covering the back of the ball since the tree is in the corner. But I figured if I wanted to use it again in the future, I may need to have a full 360 of poms.

I think doing this one craft took longer than decorating the entire tree. What I learned is that 1) free is the best and 2) I severely undervalue my time. It was worth it though, I think! Here are some more shots of the tree.