Repurpose A Tomato Cage Into The Cutest Budget-Friendly Christmas Tree

If you're not a fan of prolonging the life of your real Christmas trees, and don't want to bother with storing a bulky artificial option, consider upcycling a common garden item. It's easy to turn a tomato cage into a unique and incredibly cute Christmas tree. If you are a savvy DIYer, you can grab items you already have at home in your holiday decor boxes and avoid spending a lot on indoor or outdoor decorations for your home. A tomato cage Christmas tree is also a budget-friendly way to add holiday cheer to your front porch.

You'll first need to grab a tomato cage, zip ties, and some thin wire to construct the form of the tree. To personalize the look and style of your tree, collect ribbon, garland, or other craft supplies for decoration. Try thrift stores for extra garland and ribbons instead of buying new. If you have enough cages to go around, you could turn this DIY into a fun holiday party activity. Ask attendees to bring with them supplies to make and decorate their own tree. After everyone has finished, you can vote on the best one or the most creative use of the tomato cage.

Crafting a tree might be one of the best ways to repurpose tomato cages, because you can easily transform a traditional cage into the shape of a tree. After you turn your cage upside down, with the metal stakes at the top, gather them together and secure them with a zip tie. The resulting form is almost ready for decoration, but you might choose to thread wire from top to bottom to create extra support for ribbons and garland to showcase a fuller tree shape. Weaving ribbon around the form, carefully encircle the entire thing in material so that there are no gaps. In the video shared by Julie's Wreath Boutique, lights are threaded around the entire tree, but this step can be left out if you don't have spare lights.

There are endless possibilities to make this DIY tree your own. If you typically stray away from classic Christmas colors like the red and green combination, use white ribbon for a winter wonderland-themed design. Or wind artificial pine garlands around the form instead of ribbon to create a more realistic look. To make this DIY more budget-friendly, raid your Christmas decor for spare ribbon, garland, or whimsical accouterments.

Think beyond the typical designs and imagine a truly unique variation for your tomato cage tree. You can dress up your tree to look like your family's favorite Christmastime character, using brown material and bells for reindeers or a red hat and a fake white beard for Santa. Some white fabric with a black hat and a orange carrot nose can bring to life a snowman that will not melt inside or out. Or take red and white ribbon and alternate the colors around the cage to create a peppermint candy cane pattern.

Another great variation is to use plastic ornament baubles to create the body of the tree. This project involves taping a sheet of shiny paper around the cage after it's been tied together at the top. With this material covering the outside, you can attach plastic ornaments all the way around the tree in tight rows so that no material shows. The final look is a unique upcycled Christmas tree idea to inspire your sustainable yuletide season with its bold design. Whichever direction you take this repurposed tomato cage, it's sure to spread cheer to all who see it.