Create beautiful, fluffy Christmas trees in any color you love with chenille pipe cleaners, hot glue and a little patience!
If you love vintage-inspired Christmas decorations and colorful holiday displays, you’re going to love this project! These fluffy chenille pipe cleaner Christmas trees are an inexpensive way to add a little whimsy to your holiday decor, and you can customize them to match just about any decorating style.
I chose nontraditional Christmas colors for my trees because that’s what I love in my holiday displays. But you could make these in classic red and green, beautiful winter whites, metallic gold or even a gorgeous scarlet.
And here’s one of my favorite parts: You don’t even need to purchase a special tree form. I made mine using a repurposed birthday party hat! Nope, not kidding this is how it started.
I did prepare the party hat by wrapping it in painters tape to keep it from opening up at the seems. You can see that image below. If you’re using paper mache forms you won’t have to do this.
Supplies You’ll Need
- Chenille pipe cleaners: Lots of them! I purchased mine on Amazon. They’re thicker than some of the traditional pipe cleaners I’ve found, which is exactly what you want for creating those super-fluffy branches.
- Cone-shaped tree form: You can purchase paper mache tree forms, make your own using cardstock or repurpose an old birthday party hat like I did.
- Scissors: Use a pair you don’t mind dulling. The wire inside the pipe cleaners can be hard on scissor blades.
- Hot glue gun and glue sticks
- Silicone fingertip protectors: I highly recommend these when working with hot glue.
- Optional embellishments: Garland, glitter, snowballs, stars or anything else you’d like to add to your finished trees.
Step 1: Prepare Your Pipe Cleaner Branches
Before you even think about turning on your glue gun, you’re going to want to prepare your branches. Start by folding a chenille pipe cleaner in half and cutting it at the center. You’ll now have two shorter pieces.
Take each of those pieces, fold it in half again and bend the ends backward to create a shape that resembles little bunny ears.
These are going to become the fluffy branches of your Christmas tree.
Now, I cannot emphasize this enough: You are going to need a LOT of these little branches! Like to the point where you will be questioning all your life choices.
My recommendation? Put on your favorite movie (or trilogy because seriously this takes the most time), get comfortable on the sofa and start cutting and bending. Prepare everything in batches so that when you’re ready to assemble your tree, you can concentrate on gluing instead of constantly stopping to make more branches.
Trust me, you’ll thank yourself later.
Step 2: A Very Important Word About Hot Glue Safety
Before we start assembling our trees, I need to share a little cautionary tale. While working on one of my trees, a chenille pipe cleaner shifted just as I was applying hot glue. See the picture below where I was using my bare hands to hold pipe cleaners in place. So brave. So stupid.
A large glob of glue landed directly on the tip of my finger. The resulting burn was severe enough that my fingertip blistered and my finger was swelled for days, and I was still experiencing numbness afterward. Let me tell you, hot glue is no joke!
After that experience, I purchased silicone fingertip protectors from on Amazon. I paid around $8 for a package of 24. Worth every penny so you don’t lose feeling in your finger tips. Trust me.
The finger protectors made it much easier to finish my projects without another incident. I strongly recommend taking precautions when working with hot glue, particularly high-temperature glue guns.
Keep children away from hot glue guns and freshly applied glue. If you’re using fingertip protectors, make sure they’re actually rated for the temperatures involved. They’re an additional precaution, not a guarantee against burns.
The top of this tree gets particularly tricky, and I’ll explain why in a moment.
Step 3: Start Building Your Christmas Tree
Starting at the bottom of your cone, attach your first chenille pipe cleaner branch using hot glue. Position the branch so that it hangs slightly over the bottom edge of your tree form. There’s a reason for this.
Once the glue has cooled and your tree is finished, you can gently push those bottom branches upward to create a nice, stable base for your tree. Try to keep your first row relatively straight as you work your way around.
Once you’ve completed the bottom row, you’re ready to start building upward. Start the next row so it over laps the first row by about half the length (maybe a little more). Place the next one so it’s even with the first to keep the second row as straight as possible.
Do that for each row until you reach the top. You can decide if you want a solid colored tree or if you want a gradient like I did.
Step 4: Finishing the Top of Your Tree
Here’s where things can get a little tricky. As you approach the top of your cone, you’re going to run out of working space pretty quickly.
The branches get crowded, and you’ll find yourself trying to hold one in place while gluing another right next to it. This is exactly how I burned my fingertip.
Work carefully and allow the hot glue to cool before adjusting the branches. To finish the top, you’ll need approximately three or four of your prepared pipe cleaner sections. Arrange them around the tip, pinching and pushing the pieces upward until they come together to create a pointed treetop.
Once they’re secured, you should have a nice, finished-looking point. Sadly, I don’t have a picture of placing the top pieces because both my hands were involved. I am so sorry.
I’ve seen other versions of these trees topped with stars or additional decorations. Personally, I don’t think that’s necessary. But you do you! I like them plain but you embellish them as much as your heart wants. Ad snowballs and glitter. . . GO CRAZY! Mine will stay the way they are.
Choosing Your Christmas Tree Colors
One of my favorite things about these chenille Christmas trees is that you’re not limited to traditional holiday colors. I chose nontraditional shades because they fit the vintage-inspired Christmas decorations I love to display.
But imagine how beautiful an entire collection of white trees would look! I saw some all-white versions online, and even though neutral Christmas decor isn’t my personal style, I thought they were absolutely gorgeous.
The possibilities are endless, and you can coordinate the colors with whatever holiday decor you already own.
A Little Patience Goes a Long Way
These fluffy chenille Christmas trees are one of those projects that look more complicated than they really are.
The technique is simple. The biggest investment is your time, particularly when it comes to cutting, bending and gluing all those individual branches.
But the finished trees are absolutely worth the effort.
And I especially love that I was able to repurpose an ordinary birthday party hat instead of purchasing another craft form. Stop reading! Go grab those chenille pipe cleaners, put on a good movie and start making branches!
And please, be careful with that hot glue gun.
Re-love, Re-imagine, Restore, Reuse, Relax.
Stacy
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