A Bookworm’s Christmas Tree

I usually don’t do Christmas decorations, because I didn’t grow up with it as a family tradition, being Vietnamese and all. This year, however, all the other Christmas stuff around the blogosphere has gotten me all inspired, and when I saw this picture, I knew I found my tree. So I emptied out about a third of my bookshelf (or a forth, I don’t know. All I know is that that stack barely made a dent in the amount of books I have) and stacked them in a pinwheel design. I wanted to put the HP books on top, but they’re too thick, so my Neil Gaiman collection got the honor instead.

If that looks a little too labor-intensive for you, above is a smaller version that you can do with 3-4 paperbacks and about 10 hardcovers. It’s inspired by this photo. I should have gotten a piece of cardboard to support the pages of the first book to stop them from drooping down, but… oh well.

Here’s how I made the bow topper:

What You Need:
– Newspaper (the link above calls for an old book, but I absolutely hate any kind of craft projects that call for destroying books. Unless you’re Andy Dufresne trying to hide a rock hammer in the Bible.)
– Scissors, stapler, glues

Instruction:
1. Cut 5 to 6 strips of newspaper at 8″ long and 3/4″ wide. Twist and fold two ends of the strip in the middle to create loops at both ends.

2. Staple the ends down. Repeat.

3. Glue three of the loops together.

4. Add the other two on top, to form a bow.

Put the bow on top of your tree with a little piece of tape, and you’ll have a tree that screams “I’m a bookworm!”

The lights are my roommate’s. I refused to spend any money on this

---