free fluffy fake tree trick

Are you ready for this?

I inherited my fake Christmas tree right after college when my aunt decided she wanted a silver one instead. SOLD. We got a real tree last year because Tim HAD NEVER HAD ONE BEFORE (silly, I tell you), but opted to use the fakie this year.

 

WHOMP WHOMP.

@brittymack

It was pretty and glowy and magical and just oh-so-totally fake-looking. It is one of those umbrella trees that just unfold and plug in, aaaaaaaaaand even if it's totally decorated you can totally tell.

 

 Now check this out.

No new ornaments were added, not a single one. Two additional strands of lights were added, just because my trick muted the prelit ones just a little bit. BUT. Amazing difference.

So here's my secret weapon:

Tree cuttingggggggs!!!!!

 YOU GUYS. If you ever pay for pine cuttings YOU ARE BEING RIPPED OFF. We were able to get this gigantic pile of trimmings for $0. ZEROOOOOOOOO! This is a game-changer.

Places that sell Christmas trees will trim the bottom branches as a service, and stick all the leftover branches in a bin to be recycled. If you ask, they'll let you take it (the more you take, the less they have to pay in pickup fees, so it's good for you AND them)! Box stores do it, and I'm pretty sure smaller mom&pop places do it too. We just grabbed a bunch of them, and stuffed our tree with the cuttings. HAHA.

Look how dang fluffy it is! It looks so much more like a real fluffy tree, and smells like one too :) At some point during the stuffing, we blew a fuse in one of our light strands. Whoops! And to tell you a little secret, we totally didn't fix it. haha No one said I was a domestic goddess. The "stuffing" muted a bunch of the lights on the prelit tree, so we strung two strands of colored lights to make up for it.

 

It was kind of a pain to un-decorate the tree to stuff it and then REdecorate it, and again there is the bummer of having to put MORE lights on a prelit tree, but WHO CARES! It's amazing!  The branches may get crispy, but I'm thinking we've got at least a week or two in there :) Maybe I'll spray them with water, but probably not haha.

 

Isn't this the bestest trick everrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!? Tell me if you do ittt!