Crafting

How To Make Your Own Festive Book Christmas Tree

Patricia Thang

Senior Contributor

Patricia Thang is an educator located in Los Angeles. Though a native Angeleno through and through, her heart also belongs to Tokyo, where much of her family is from. Besides books, she is an enthusiastic devourer of many things, including podcasts, television, and J-pop. She realizes there’s not enough time in the world to consume all of that content, but she’s trying anyway. Other endeavors to which she has dedicated herself include cuddling her dogs until they’re annoyed and taste-testing every vegan ice cream she can find. Twitter: @aintnopthang

The holiday season is almost upon us, and for those of us who celebrate Christmas, what more exciting way to kick it off than picking out and decorating a Christmas tree? Of course, there are tons of factors that can make getting a real tree less than ideal—it can be unsafe for pets, it creates a mess of fallen pine needles, it’s a hassle to get rid of afterward, etc. So instead, why not use our favorite things to create a book Christmas tree all our own?

The basic idea is simple: just stack a bunch of books into a vaguely tree-like shape. The method that seems to be most common is to just make a bunch of circles of decreasing diameter stacked on top of each other.

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The book Christmas tree displays we see in libraries and bookstores often are able to use books that are all of a similar size and shape (if not just a bunch of the same exact book), but here’s a wonderful example that shows how beautiful a tree can look even when your collection is wildly varied.

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Issues of space can make a full three-dimensional book Christmas tree tricky in a home environment, so you could build some stacks against a wall for something more compact, but still awesome.

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Here’s a smaller, tabletop version of the simple stack tree shape.

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If you’re someone who doesn’t mind cracked spines (or you have books that are already worn just because, you know, life), here’s another smaller-scale idea.

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Finally, in case you have shelf space to spare (I know that’s unlikely but, hey, we can dream), here’s a cool idea to make a book Christmas tree with your whole bookcase!

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If you enjoyed this post and are looking for even more ways to incorporate books into your holiday decor, check out some more ideas here!

If, on the other hand, your heart is set on a real tree, don’t fret! Here are some awesome posts for ornaments that will ensure your holiday is still as bookish as can be.