O Tannenbaum

I am a huge fan of  "real" Christmas trees, potted OR cut. But two years ago I switched to fake. I had a idyllic hope of having the same live potted tree being brought in the house every holiday season and becoming a member of the family. After losing 3 potted trees in a row I gave up on that idea and went back to cut trees. I think our last cut tree made it a week before it was brittle and it smelled nice for only a day. Maybe it's too warm here in Arizona or the cut trees are sitting out too long, but we went fake and I'm not looking back. I still love the look of a tree in a pot, so I potted my fake tree. If it's night and you've had a few yummy holiday cocktails, you might think it's real! And I'll tell you that it is real, because I am super classy and I don't do fake!

Before I show you the ugly details, here she is all made up:

 To hold the tree solidly in the pot, I use dumbbells and a small umbrella stand.

The dumbbells go in first, stacked on top of each other. Then I turn the umbrella stand upside-down and rest it on the sides of the pot.

 The tree base fits through the umbrella stand and the pointed tip of the tree base rests in the center hole of the top dumbbell, preventing the tree from tilting. I use two dumbbells (vs. one) for the weight. Otherwise the whole thing would tip over.