I just wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas from Grassrootsmodern!

Pictured to the left is our tall scraggly crooked Christmas tree that we love. It stands almost 12 feet tall and was hand picked and cut by my little family. We got all the red decorations from Ikea in the “as is” section for $3. There were actually a lot more in the bag that we just didn’t use.
Last year we had a big dilemma trying to figure out if we were going to buy a real tree or a fake one, and which was actually better for the environment. We ended up buying one from a local tree farm, and felt good about supporting a local business. This year a friend reminded me that for only $10 you can buy a tag to go into the national forest and cut your own. I checked out the info page on cache national forest, and it turns out that by cutting your own tree you are actually encouraging good tree management in the forest. Who knew that we could save money, have a great time, and help out the forest all at the same time. Continue reading for some pics of our adventure.

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In keeping with the holiday spirit I thought I would finish the week off with one more Christmas post. This one comes via treehugger. Designed by Australian Designer Buro North, the “X-Mas Tree” is the first contemporary artificial Christmas tree I have ever seen. Instead of trying to make it look like a real tree, Buro focused on making it look good. What a novel idea. This mod little tree is made of plywood and CNC routed. Not only does it look good, but it’s good for the environment as well. Buro has done an entire LCA analysis and states that his tree is 80% more green than a traditional Christmas tree. This flat packed beauty is available in three sizes and prices.
Small $69 AUS - 400mm ($60 USD 16″)
Med $229 AUS - 930mm ($201 USD 36″)
Large $1619 AUS - 2300mm ($1425 USD 90″)

Available directly from Buro North

Making your Christmas tree look just as modern as the rest of your house just got a little bit easier. CB2 has some great modern Christmas tree ornaments this year at a great price. Most of them are priced between $2-$4 with the one big exception being the 8″ disco ball looking one which is $20. For the price of that one ugly disco ball you could get ten tasteful little decorations to spread around your tree. I think my personal favorite is clear peace dove priced at $4. We have about 10 small glass globes that we put on our tree every year, and we love them.

Available from CB2 from $2 - $4.

OK do it yourselfers, get out your favorite scissors and construction paper, it’s time to get going. Everyone knows that the best kind of affordable is the free kind. Here are two great projects that you can do that will cost you almost nothing. I found the pop up Christmas card on Curbly but it is originally from wikiHow. It has great instructions on how to make your very own card that is just begging to be decorated.
The 3D paper snowflake is via wikiHow as well and has to be one of the best homemade snowflakes I have ever seen. WikiHow has a ton of other holiday related DIY projects too.
DIY Pop Up Christmas card instructions.

DIY 3D paper snowflake instructions.

Crate and Barrel has got you covered this year when it comes to wrapping all those great gifts you bought. They have modern print gift wrap in a variety of different designs, as well as ribbon and cards to coordinate. With help like that it will make any present look like the bees knees. Papu Gift wrap shown.

Available from Crate and Barrel for $3 - $7.

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