Help your teen bypass the commonplace star tree topper with personalized alternatives.
Your teen might get a kick out of creating her own tree topper for next year's family tree, or as a keepsake for future trees she'll have as a grownup. Encourage her to look around at toys, games and photos that have sentimental value to her but that aren't currently being used or played with.
Favorite Childhood Toy Tree Topper
Your teen can transform a much-loved but no-longer-used toy into a memory-laden tree topper. If your teen has a small stuffed animal or doll that she wants to transform into a tree topper, have her work with a grownup to use a drill to make a hole in the bottom of the toy. She can then insert a small wooden dowel into the doll or plush animal, and you have a tree topper. Use small pieces of bendable wire to attach the dowel to the trunk of the tree.
Video Game Tree Topper
If your teenager has outgrown his video game equipment, take a tip from David Caranci of Disneyland and recycle old video game parts and pieces for a futuristic tree topper. Begin with a few lengths of PVC pipe, hot-glued together. This serves as the base and gives a "hole" for the tree topper to fit down over the top of the tree. Add old game controllers, CDs and connecting wires, hot-gluing all pieces to the PVC foundation. Your teen might also hot-glue some action figures represented in favorite video games. The final product will have a strongly futuristic, technical feeling.
Picture Yourself Tree Topper
To create a tree topper for photographs, begin with three lightweight, store-bought picture frames, all the same size. Have your teen choose three photographs of himself that are all connected to each other in some way. He could choose photos of three special Christmases, three family vacations or three school photos, for example. Have him put the photos in the frames and then hot-glue the edges of the frames together to create a triangle of images. This triangle then slides down over the top of the tree. If your teen is very crafty, he might also create and decorate his own frames out of card stock or cardboard.
Personalized Angel Tree Toppers
Create the "angel" base of this tree topper from a plastic cup turned upside down -- the body -- with a rubber ball glued on top -- the head -- and two angel-shaped pieces of cardboard or construction paper -- the wings -- glued to the back of the cup. To personalize the angel, she should add yarn for hair in her own color and paint on the correct eye color. Have her add beads on a string to either side of the angel's head if she favors funky earrings, or dress her angel in the colors of her favorite college sports team. Adding decorative details such as eyeglasses or braces will make this angel truly personalized.
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