What can you do with all of those little collectibles that you’ve built up over the past years? Turn them into a Christmas tree! I adore vintage jewelry and am blessed to have been given many vintage items. I have a collection of earrings, pearls, brooches, and necklaces which I decided deserved to come out of hiding this year. Get creative and use any little items you have on hand: buttons, bells, seashells, candy. . . Just have fun with it!

My friend Christie chose buttons and a little Christmas ribbon for her tree. For each button, she took a piece of thread, folded it in half, sent both ends through a buttonhole, then ran the ends through the thread loop on the other side of the button. Then she tied a knot with the two ends, leaving a loop to hang the button on the tree.

My friend Diane created a very special tree with a collection of promises from God. For some, this Christmas may be a time when trouble, affliction, or heavy burdens seem to press you against a wall or make you feel overwhelmed. God’s Word can bring you encouragement and strength because it is filled with many promises that have your name on them.

Diane placed “promise verses” as decorations, using small clothes pins decorated with moss and tiny birds glued on top to hold the scriptures in place. You can add your own touches of grapevine, small silk flowers, or whatever you like.

When you feel down, visit the tree and put a verse in your pocket (and your heart!) and see the difference God’s truth can make in your life.

Here are some good promise verses:

  • Mark 10:27 “With men it is impossible, but not with God; for with God all things are possible.”
  • Romans 8:31 “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?”
  • Isaiah 42:16 “I will bring the blind by a way they did not know; I will lead them in paths they have not known…These things I will do for them, and not forsake them.”
  • Isaiah 44:21 “You will not be forgotten by Me!”
  • Deuteronomy 4:35 “To you it was shown, that you might know that the LORD Himself is God; there is none other besides Him.”
  • Genesis 18:14 “Is anything too hard for the LORD?”
  • Jeremiah 33:3 “Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know.”
  • Jeremiah 32:17 “Ah, Lord GOD! Behold, You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and outstretched arm. There is nothing too hard for You.”
  • Job 42:2 “I know that You can do everything, and that no purpose of Yours can be withheld from You.”
  • Hebrews 13:5 “For He Himself has said, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you.'”
  • (A good “star” verse) Matthew 9:28 “Do you believe that I am able to do this?”