Happy Christmastime! No matter when the holiday season officially begins in your mind (November 1st for some people - I see y'all!), I think we're all officially there!
One of my favorite holiday decorations is my tiered tray. I got it as a gift at my bridal shower last summer and wasn't quite sure what I'd do with it, but decided to fill it up for the holidays last year and display it on the kitchen table. I absolutely love how it turned out and it made me so happy every time I saw it, so I had to do it again! It's such a fun way to decorate for the holidays and packs a merry punch, especially if you live in a small space and don't have room for a ton of decorations.
I wrote a post last year about my holiday tiered tray, but I wanted to update it this year with some better step-by-step photos so you can visualize the process of how I fill it up. I'm mixing some of my photos from last year in too because I think they turned out better - and I actually used my own guide from last year to decorate my tray again this year. 😂 Decorating a tiered tray is a fun way to spend an hour, especially when paired with a holiday-themed drink and some Christmas music in the background! If you have kids, get them involved, too!
Prep:
The hardest part of putting the tray together for me the first time was getting enough things to fill it with. It takes a surprising amount of stuff to fill it up. I got most of my stuff in the Target dollar section, the dollar store, Hobby Lobby, and Michael's. I'm linking some similar tiered trays and filler ideas below!
Filler ideas:
- Pine cones
- Snowflakes
- Bottle brush trees
- Candles
- Mugs (I have a slight mug addiction... this was an easy way to justify getting more 😂)
- Mug fillers (candy, small baking utensils, candy canes)
- Nutcrackers
- Mini signs (I found mine in the Target dollar section)
- Sparkle wire
- Jingle bells
- Little figurines (birds, reindeer, snowmen)
- Ornaments
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| Similar plaid table runner |
Step 1: Lay the foundation
Start building the tray by placing the larger items to begin organizing the layout. I first set out the mugs and candle, and wrapped the tiers with some sparkle wire.
Step 2: Arrange medium-sized items
Once the larger items are placed, arrange all of the medium-sized things. I set out all of the bottle brush trees, and planned where I wanted the mini signs to go.
Step 3: Add filler
Fill in the spaces between the bigger pieces with your smaller "fluff"
items. My filler consisted mostly of pine cones, ball ornaments, and
jingle bells. I filled in all the spaces between the mugs and trees and
things, to stabilize everything and to help support the trees which are
very lightweight and easily knocked over.
Don't be afraid to pack stuff in! I was surprised at how much it took to fill the two tiers up - I used two bags of small pine cones, a tube and a half of ornaments, and a package of jingle bells. There's really no rhyme or reason to how I arranged the filler, you can move things around as you go. I started mostly with the larger pine cones, added the ornaments, and then filled in the spaces with the littler pine cones and jingle bells.
Step 4: Top it off
Once the tray is almost filled, add any of the finishing touches. I
filled the mugs with little baking utensils and candy, placed the little signs, and added the snowflakes.
Unofficial Step 5: Vacuum
I got flocking and glitter EVERYWHERE, as you can kind of see in the photos. 😂
And it's as easy as that! Here's a bird's eye view so you can really get the full effect! It's truly a 360 decoration, so it'd be great in a place that you can enjoy it from all angles, sort of like a flower arrangement!
I hope you found this guide helpful, I was a little overwhelmed when I got started on mine the first time. Please tag me in your photos if you decorate your own tiered tray, I would love to see them! And don't forget to Pin these images for future reference!
xoxx, Laura
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