DIY Christmas Tree Tutorial: Here’s How To Make A Simple Lighted Window Christmas Tree

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Christmas is fast approaching, and I can hardly believe I finished all of my Christmas decorating before December 1st this year! Now, I get to enjoy the most wonderful time of the year focusing on the real reason for the season.

Recently, I made a really cool Christmas tree of PVC pipe. I had a Christmas tree shaped wood frame left over from that DIY project — so I thought I would put it to use by making yet another type of window Christmas tree.

The PVC tree was made specifically for a window in my eat-in kitchen. Since I had another large window that wasn’t decorated yet, I figured the best way to put the wood frame to use and light up our front porch window was to wrap some lights around this simple DIY Christmas tree frame!

See how I made this window Christmas tree with lights…

 

Materials Needed

These are the supplies I used to build the lighted window Christmas tree:

• 1-inch x 3-inch x 8-foot wood trim. (The number of pieces depends on the size of the tree.)
• Measuring tape
• Gorilla Glue
• A few screws for the tree frame angles for support
• Cordless drill
• Miter saw
• 3 light strands

 

DIY Christmas Tree Instructions

These are the steps I used to build my window Christmas tree:

1. I measured the window space and figured where I wanted this DIY Christmas tree to be placed. I included a tree stem because I wanted some space at the bottom of the isosceles triangle.
    
   NOTE – I didn’t measure the wood frame specifically for this window. If I had, I probably would have made it slightly taller and wider. As mentioned above, this was a window Christmas tree frame left over from a previous project — using the dimensions of a much smaller window:
   
2. I created the wood frame using 1-inch x 3-inch x 8-foot pieces of wood trim. I first measured the length, and then used a miter saw to cut the required angles — using this formula.
   
3. I glued the wood frame together with Gorilla Glue. I started with the rectangular base and basically built the frame up by gluing the pieces together while it sat within the window frame. Then, I waited a full 24 hours before touching it — to ensure that all of the glue was dry.
    
4. I screwed the corners and angles of the wood frame Christmas tree together for added stability.
   
5. I wrapped the entire wood frame of this DIY Christmas tree using 3 strands of white lights. I started at the stem (leaving enough slack to reach the wall outlet) and worked my way up.
    
6. I pulled up the blinds and placed the Christmas tree frame on the window sill. The frame supports itself — so no further anchoring was required.
   
7. I plugged the lights in and rolled the blinds back down. Yep, this DIY Christmas tree frame is slim enough to fit behind the window blinds — even wrapped in lights! (The blinds in our living room remain closed because we have a couple of neighbors directly across the road from us.)
    

At night, this front porch window Christmas tree is the perfect addition to our other Christmas decorations. I love how the outline illuminates the shutters from the inside too!

 

 

The Bottom Line…

This is a simple and lightweight design for a DIY Christmas tree.

By adding lights to this simple wood frame Christmas tree, you can have a really pretty window Christmas tree that works well in almost any window you choose — providing it has a sill to stand on.

A window Christmas tree is especially practical if:

• You don’t have a lot of space.
• There’s a window on one side of your house that could use some Christmas love but is too hard to reach from the outside.

I hope you enjoyed this DIY Christmas tree tutorial… Happy decorating!