So this is something I've been seeing a lot on Pinterest lately: Christmas trees made out of books!  I've seen several pretty spectacular ones from libraries all over the world, as well as smaller trees made by individuals in their homes.  This is a great idea for someone with a lot of books and creativity to spread around (I'm sure plenty of my readers have both), so I've put together a little guide for creating a book Christmas tree of your very own!

Courtesy of the Richard A. Gleeson Library at the University of San Francisco in CA

The book tree pictured above was actually made using a few hundred books, but you can make a slightly more humble tree if you don't happen to have that many books on hand.  Here's what you'll need to get started:

• As many of your nicest looking books as you can spare for the outer part of the tree
• Some less beautiful books to fill the inside of the tree
• Several books of decreasing size to make the point of the tree
• All the usual decorations, such as lights and ornaments (don't forget the star!)

Step 1:  Measure your space, and decide how large you want your tree to be at the base.  Remember that the larger you make the base, the taller the tree will be and the more books it will require to make.

Step 2:  Organize your nice looking books based on thickness.  Using books with a similar thickness on each row will help to keep the tree stable.

Step 3: Create your first ring of books on the floor according to your measurements from step 1 with the spines facing outward.

Step 4: Make a second ring of nice looking books within the first so that any gaps in your outer ring won't reveal the tree's filler books.

Step 5: Use your less beautiful books to fill in the empty space inside your second ring.  Be sure that these books are arranged flat and are level with their corresponding row.  They do not have to be arranged in a circular fashion, the must merely fill the space to offer your tree some stability that it wouldn't have if it were hollow.

Step 6: Begin the next row a couple of inches inside the circumference of the one before it, and repeat steps 3 through 5.  Do this for each of the subsequent rings until you are unable to make any more rings.  The following video from a library in Polland demonstrates this portion of the tutorial:




Step 7:  Once you are unable to create more rings, stack your books of decreasing size into a pyramid and place it atop the tree to make a point.

Step 8:  Have fun decorating, and enjoy your unique book Christmas tree!


Be sure to let me know if you enjoyed the tutorial, and don't forget to send me pictures of your own book tree on Facebook or to notesfromcarcosa@yahoo.com!  Also, if you'd like to follow me on Pinterest, just click the button below. 

 








Thanks for reading!