Dickens ‘A Christmas Carol’ Themed Christmas Tree

My two favorite Christmas movies are Family Man (with Nicholas cage and Tea Leone) and Barbie’s A Christmas Carol. I also love the version where George C. Scott (1984) plays Ebenezer Scrooge. The story of an old sinner’s repentance and redemption never grows old to me. Scrooge transforms from a selfish, inconsiderate miser into a loving, benevolent man by the end of the story. I usually read Dickens’ book once a year. It’s a short book, but chock-full of meaning. The descriptions of the merchants selling holiday wares bring the sounds and smells of Christmas to life like no other book I’ve ever read. Dickens ‘A Christmas Carol’ Themed Christmas Tree was the perfect choice for our Hospice Festival of Trees this year.

This is the 6th year that my church has sponsored a tree for our local hospice organization. The children’s classes from our women’s ministry make the ornaments, and we enter our tree in the school category. It’s great fun to choose a theme, make ornaments during the fall classes, then decorate our tree for the grand finale. After the festival, our tree is sold, ornaments and all, and the proceeds go toward the hospice ministry.

Let’s start at the top. The topper was made from an old top hat that my daughter wore as The Mad Hatter one Halloween. I printed “Bah Humbug” using Microsoft Word, then hot glued the words, some faux holly, and a burlap ribbon around the hat band. The gold coins were given to me by our church. Scrooge counted gold coins, but these coins have Gospel messages printed on them, and the Gospel is our greatest treasure.

My husband took some old chains and spray-painted them silver, to represent the chains that Jacob Marley, Scrooge’s partner, forged in life. He tried to warn Ebenezer about the awful chains he was destined to carry for all eternity. If only we mortals could heed that message! The chains truly were heavy, and trying to attach them to our tree reminded me of how weighted they must have felt on Scrooge’s dead business partner.

We hung a gray (I love the color gray for Christmas this year) banner from Walmart, loads of plaid bows, and some oven-dried orange slices onto our tree.

The boxes wrapped in red and white are tied with jute string. They represent Scrooge’s red and white striped night cap.

While the chains represent what we don’t want to forge in life, the copper-painted squares list the items Jacob Marley wished he had focused on while he was alive: Common Welfare, Mankind, Charity, Mercy, Forbearance, and Benevolence. The list is quite convicting when I stop long enough to ask myself if I’m occupying my time with eternal things, or the frivolous matters of this world.

The 4th-6th grade homeschooled girls painted these lovely Victorian Holly Berry Bell Ornaments. My eleven-year-old is one of the girls in the class.

The tree skirt made by my daughter’s AWANA leader just blew me away! She bought the material, stitched the skirt herself, then made the vinyl characters with her Silhouette cutter.

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The tree skirt, and the paper mache A Christmas Carol characters made by the girls were the stars of the tree!

I had to include this picture of my fellow decorator’s gorgeous little girl, helping us with the tree. Hopefully, our girls are learning about benevolence and ministry while working alongside us.

I hope you enjoyed the pictures of our Dickens ‘A Christmas Carol’ Themed Tree!

Merry Christmas!

Kristie

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