Your decorated Christmas tree can be a stunning focal point and centerpiece of any room decorated for the holiday. A great way to maximize this holiday impact is to elevate your Christmas tree! Conventional floor-bound tree stands and skirts often fall short in meeting everyone's needs, whether it's a question of logistics (like fit or height), personal decor style or everyday tree hazards, like pets and children with grabby hands during the holiday season.
There are a few Christmas tree hacks to raise the height and elevate your Christmas tree, whatever its size, by lifting the base from the floor. This often solves some of the placement problems you may have when decorating, including giving you ample room for gifts underneath, placing the tree within full view of a window and preventing dangers to children and pets. You may also just be looking for decorating ideas to give your tree a more natural or cultivated look via a basket, pot or other container to fit your home style or decor scheme.
Video of the Day
Video of the Day
Adjusting the height also allows you to scale the tree to best match your ceiling height and allocated space. These suggestions work for elevating Christmas trees of various sizes, both natural and artificial.
Use an elevated Christmas tree stand
Most people use a trusty metal tree stand to bolt and hold their real tree in place. For artificial Christmas trees, the stand is usually part of the tree when assembled. These tree stands often allow a little height between the bottom of the trunk or the metal rod of the tree, allowing for a little wiggle room but usually not much. When faced with these limitations, there are a number of options for elevating the tree with the stand itself, with many offering a bit more adjustable flexibility in height, which makes more room underneath the tree for gifts if needed.
Tip
A great way to disguise an ugly or boring Christmas tree stand is to paint it red, green or black to disguise it. You can also cover it with a thick tree collar or large skirt.
You can also follow this tutorial to make a DIY Christmas tree stand with a galvanized metal bucket. The extra space beneath the tree stand and the floor can also be disguised with a thicker tree collar.
Build or purchase a riser for your Christmas tree
There are a number of great ways to raise your tree using the stand you currently have. Many retailers like Amazon and Home Depot sell risers, usually wooden or metal, that serve as sturdy boxes to stack beneath the tree.
These risers can be swaddled in your Christmas tree skirt or painted to look like gifts themselves, giving you up to a couple feet of additional space beneath the tree. Great ideas for disguising the risers include adding a Christmas village or holiday train set beneath or placing stuffed animals, like snowmen and polar bears, around the base.
Alternative containers for your Christmas tree
Another great option is placing your Christmas tree stand inside a basket, large pot or vintage wooden crate, which introduces a natural, rustic element to your tree decor while also providing additional height. You can place objects like bricks, large books and other heavy materials inside the baskets and pots to adjust the height of the base within the pot, covering them with greenery, cotton fluff or fabric to disguise them.
For natural trees, you can also place the tree in a bucket first, which will hold the water supply. For these stylish means, you will want to balance the weight of the tree base with the height and weight of the tree at the top to avoid it toppling over. This works best for shorter or slender, lightweight trees. You can also use larger faux trees, which are more lightweight than natural ones.
Warning
The higher your tree, the more careful you need to be about not making it too top-heavy. Opt for lighter ornaments, like garland, ribbon and pine cones, to keep it from toppling over, particularly near the top of the tree.
Check out these great DIY Christmas tree stand alternatives for inspiration.
Place your tree on a higher surface
Another great option for raising the tree is to place it on another surface, like a small table, stool, platform or column. For a more rustic look, try a wide stump. Another cute vintage-inspired idea is to place your tree on a stack of old suitcases, on a steamer trunk or atop an antique sled for additional height. You can leave your elevated surface visible for effect or hide it with paint, other materials or artfully placed packages. With larger trees, make sure the weight of the tree is stable and the surface can hold the heavy weight of the branches when full of Christmas tree decorations and lights.
However you choose to elevate your Christmas tree this season, there are a number of beautiful and stylish ways to round out any room of your home this holiday season. Enjoy!