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...and thanks for stopping by. I'm Claire Douglas, DIY and home interiors writer specialising in money-saving and creative home interior projects. I've spent years developing my 'bespoke on a budget' approach to DIY and home interiors and I love sharing all my tips and tricks in tutorials and posts here on my blog, in articles I write for some of the leading titles, in the press, on Instagram, Tiktok and my online course.

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Claire Douglas
- Dec 9, 2021

How to fake a 'real' Christmas tree with a foraged 'tree-vamp'!

Updated: Nov 13

Decorated Christmas tree with real foliage added and logs underneath

Ta-dah - the final results

Why try to fake a 'real' Christmas tree?

I was really tempted to throw out this old artificial tree (below), as it was looking very sad indeed!

However...I felt bad about this tree going to the dump (sustainability, the environment, massive landfill issues, etc etc) so I set about trying to give it a new lease of life. I didn't want to spend any money in the process, so decided that garden foraging was the way to go. I've rather neglected our garden this year which worked in my favour for this project as it meant I had LOTS of festive plants and foliage to cut for my foraging tree-vamp!

I layered the real foliage into the tree in sections to give an ombre effect in both colour and texture, progress shots below...

Et voila! This was a super simple, but really effective glow up without spending any money or adding to landfill, I'm off to celebrate with a mince pie!

You could decorate your foraged tree with homemade Christmas decorations, or DIY marbled baubles using old nail polish if you enjoy a craft project. Alternatively, be sure to check out my shopping guides on the blue Christmas trend for 2023 and the best baubles for 2023.

You can find more details about all my creative projects on my Instagram.