Christmas Decorating for your Home - Christmas Pole Instructions

Sometimes you want that "wow" Christmas display piece but you don't have that special location, such as a mantle or stair case, or don't have the floor space for a big display. We created this Decorated Christmas Pole for exactly this reason. This is a simple piece to make if you have someone handy to create the frame, and are prepared to spend a couple of hours constructing it.

To make this Christmas display you will need:

base pole. (If you don't have anyone handy to make the base you can buy free standing poles at merchandising stores, however it will be a lot more expensive)
velcro
cable ties
3 rolls of deco mesh
string between 8-10m long of lights
deco ribbon and tubing
decorations to your liking.

1. The base. My husband kindly made the base frame for me. The pole can be as tall as you like (in this case it is 2.4m or 8ft). The base piece is approximately 50cm square. Once glued/nailed in place paint the pole dark if you are using dark mesh or light for light mesh.

3. Velcro the pole. The velcro is simply used to create a lip on the pole so when we cable tie the mesh and baubles into place they don't all slide to the base. Therefore, you could use anything that has some thickness to it and wrap it around the pole at approximately 30cm intervals.

2. Adding the Mesh. If you can find someone to give you a hand on this part you will save yourself a lot of time. Bunch the mesh up, one colour at a time, leaving ends of approximately 15cm. Fold the ends up around the pole and then use cable ties to attach mesh to the base of your pole. Add a second cable tie a little further up the mesh to ensure the ends are neatly tied into place. Create a loop of the fabric (approximately 40-50cm length) and again, working one colour at a time hold it in place around the velcro. I also rotated the colours by 1/3 each layer to work the 3 colours around the pole. (ie. the colour that was at the front moved to the left, the left moved to the right, and the right moved to the front). Once you have all 3 mesh loops in place use another cable tie just above the velcro to hold it in place.

Continue working this all the way up the pole. When you get to the top you want to tuck the ends against the pole in exactly the same way as you did at the beginning and neatly cable tie in place. (You can see cable ties are my favourite tool for this job). Lights: The next step is adding the lights. I used 160 lights on an 8 metre cord. Cable tie them in place all the way up the pole keeping them a little loose so you can move them to where you want. I have really focused my lights on the front of the pole and not worried too much about the back.

Decorating:

To finish off the pole it is up to you how many decorations you want - and the overall price will vary accordingly. Before adding baubles I've added some deco tubing and ribbon running up the pole. Once again as I've tied it in place I've crossed it over so each piece weaves its way up the pole.

The decorations are added once again with cable ties or pipe cleaners. Yes, if you look closely you will see the cable ties under the mesh but it doesn't bother me so I haven't spent a lot of time disguising it. The baubles range from 10cm - 15cm diametre. After the baubles I've added ribbon to fill it out and hide some of the joins. Finally, the snow flakes are added to give a little 'bulk' to the pole. Overall this pole would have cost me approximately $220 plus the pole, velcro, cable ties. This included 3 rolls of ribbon and I only used about a third of each roll so I have lots of ribbon for other projects. If you exclude the lights, or have a cheap set of battery lights this will significantly reduce the cost.