Want to make your holidays merry and bright while being mindful of sustainability? Our fantastic tree designers, who volunteer with Habitat to decorate trees for our holiday tree show and auction, Celebrating Home, will tell you how.
Meet Our Tree Designers
We talked with two designers about their best eco-friendly decorating tips. Christie Dilloway is Park City’s premier Christmas decorator and owner of the Christmas decorating business Deck the Halls, as well as a regular volunteer with Habitat for Humanity of Summit and Wasatch Counties.
And Penny Adams, also a long-term volunteer with Habitat, created the popular Giving Tree with her grandkids for Habitat’s auction in 2022—this spectacular tree featured more than 25 wrapped gifts as decorations, each one containing a present. Last year’s artistic masterpiece was designed around a mannequin with a skirt made of pine.
Read on to find out how their eco-friendly decorating tips will bring warmth and sustainable sparkle without sacrificing any of that holiday magic.
Eco-Friendly Decorating Tips to Deck Your Halls
Tip #1: Shop the ReStore in Park City for your holiday decorations.
Christie and Penny agree: You don’t need to buy new lights, ornaments, and other holiday decor when you can reuse something in great shape. And ReStore is the best place to find all this and more.
ReStore gets donations of high-end new and barely used decorations from businesses and Park City locals, all sold at a huge discount. Shopping at the ReStore means you’ll give this gorgeous decor new life and help us keep these items out of the landfill.
Tip #2: You don’t have to stick to ornaments as your decorations.
Think outside the box and beyond the traditional ornaments to decorate with natural elements or items or that can be used for another purpose. Look at items for their color, shape, and size, and let that inspire how you use them. Christie cuts red dogwood shrubs from her yard and inserts them into her tree for a festive pop of color that adds interesting shape and natural beauty. And if she finds an item she likes at ReStore, she’ll add wire to it to turn it into an ornament for use on a tree.
These unexpected items make for interesting and unique tree decorations. For example, Penny mentioned a dog-themed tree from a previous tree show that was decorated with dog treats and other pet items. With an artist’s touch, these can become stunning tree decorations as well as useful gifts for your favorite dogs after the holidays are over.
Tip #3: Keep the Reuse Going!
Think twice before you throw things out. Christie points out that if you have an artificial pre-lit tree and some of the lights don’t work, just add more lights to brighten up those sections. She reuses all of her lights until they don’t work. And she takes her natural trees to the tree recycle area in Park City, where they are chipped up for mulch, which conserves water and protects the soil.
As a final eco-friendly decorating tip, Christie says, if you have holiday decorations that you no longer use, donate them to ReStore where they can be cherished and reused by someone else. Whether you want to change up your decorating style or just have items you no longer plan to use, you can give them new life and brighten up someone else’s holidays by donating them.
Attend Our Holiday Tree Show and Auction
To see what stunning creations can come from eco-friendly decorating tips like these, attend Celebrating Home, our holiday tree show and auction, to see – and bid on! – exquisitely designed trees, gingerbread houses, menorahs, and other holiday symbols. You’ll help raise critical funds for our efforts to build affordable homes for local working families, and you could leave the event with a fabulous designer tree or gingerbread house.
Dates: Friday, December 6, 1-8 pm and Saturday, December 7, 10 am-5 pm
Location: Utah Film Studios on 4001 Kearns Blvd in Park City
