DIY Unicorn Christmas Tree

I can’t lie, today’s craft makes me extremely happy. The first of many trees I’ve got in the works, this Unicorn Christmas Tree was made especially for my sister. Last year was the very first year we celebrated Christmas at my parents’ house. For years and years, everyone would trek to my sister’s house in Oklahoma and have Christmas there.

To be honest, after living in a subtropical climate a few years, the cold winter weather of Oklahoma suddenly felt super harsh. The warmer winter climate of the Houston area was just one of the reasons I was really excited about our change of Christmas celebration location.

Last November my mom and I did a lot of dressing her house for Christmas in preparation of the visit. My dad wasn’t super keen on changing out the decor my parents had used since my sister and I were kids. But my mom and I convinced him that a change would be kind of nice. Plus we could purchase only shatterproof ornaments that wouldn’t break on the den’s tile floors. At first, he hated the flocked pencil tree I purchased after he insisted he wouldn’t be paying for a skinny ass tree :) It turned out that our new holiday decor scheme was a hit with everybody.

This year my mom and I thought it would be neat if everybody had their own Christmas tree in their room. Something that would keep everybody in the Christmas spirit as they slept AND matched their personalities. This DIY unicorn tree was made just for my sister who loves color and lights and all things magical.

Your Unicorn Lovers are Going to FLIP for this Unicorn Christmas Tree.

Seriously… I don’t care if your unicorn lover is young or old, this tree is AWESOME. Using a white Christmas tree with colorful lights as the base, this tree has a pretty pop of color that doesn’t go overboard. Instead of loading down the branches with lots and lots of ornaments, we instead fill in the gaps with lots and lots of white deco mesh. Even an inexpensive artificial tree (this one was only $25 at Walmart) looks beautifully lush and expensive with the addition of inexpensive mesh. Isn’t that kind of magical in and of itself? :)

Though this tree is colorful, we don’t go overboard on color. Besides those twinkling colorful lights (which there are 500 of, I might add!) the only other color this tree features are in the flower crown around our unicorn horn.

Supplies You will need:

• White Christmas Tree 
• Faux Fur Tree Skirt
• White Decomesh
• Colorful Christmas Lights 
• Clear Iridescent Christmas Ornaments (60mm)
• Styrofoam Cone
• Silver Craft Acrylic Paint
• Holographic Silver Glitter (from Walmart)
• Brightly Colored Silk Flowers (from Walmart)
• Wood Dowels
• Hot Glue Gun
• Cricut Maker (Amazon| Cricut)
• StrongGrip Cricut Cutting Mat (Amazon | Cricut)
• Masking Tape (any)
• Cricut Chipboard (Amazon | Cricut)

Above I’ve linked to either the same supplies I used or a very similar alternative so you can achieve results very similar to mine. My unicorn tree is 4 feet tall and I added this string of 500 lights to the tree myself. I’ll be talking about permanently adding lights to a Christmas tree in a post soon, so keep your eyes peeled for that.

My tree skirt is 30 inches in diameter and made of faux fur. It cost me only 8 bucks shipped. It was an amazing deal. I used approximately 21 feet of decomesh to fill this tree out very generously. If you need help filling out your tree with decomesh, I’ve got a tutorial to to just that over here.  Since this is a small tree, I used 60mm (2.36 inch) Christmas ornaments to keep things to scale. The horn for this size tree is a little less than a foot long… be sure to get a larger cone for a tree any larger so it works to scale.

You don’t need fancy or expensive silk flowers for your unicorn tree. I used 1 -$5 bunch from Walmart and used I didn’t even use all of the flowers.

Cutting your Unicorn Ears and Eyes.

Shapes are cut out of 2mm chipboard to be nice and sturdy. Heavy Chipboard needs to be cut on a StrongGrip Mat (purple) and secured around the edges with masking tape. Here are the dimensions I used to cut my shapes using my Cricut Maker for my 4-foot tree:

• Eyelashes (10.5″ wide x 4.238″ tall)
• Outer Ears (5.241″wide x 9″ tall)
• Inner Ears (3.5″ wide x 6.159″ tall)

I’m not going to lie, if you have a cutting machine this project is so much easier. That being said, you don’t HAVE to have one to create your own unicorn tree. The SVG file can also be printed out and used as a template to cut your shapes by hand. I’d suggest using a really good crafting knife with a new, sharp blade. When cutting anything by hand, I always strongly suggest wearing cut-resistant gloves to protect your fingers. Because cutting the tip of your finger off sucks, I can attest to that.

If cutting by hand, chipboard can take ages and lots of passes and I’m not quite patient enough for it. Though it won’t be as sturdy and will require extra care when storing for the next year, I’d suggest cutting from heavier cardboard, instead.

Creating your Unicorn Tree Topper.

For our horn to fit well within the tree, position it in front of you at the angle you’d like for it to protrude from the tree. Using a large knife, trim away the bottom of the cone, on an angle so when placed as you’d like it, the backside that goes into the tree is vertically straight.

To keep your unicorn horn easily manageable while wet, a toothpick can be used as a “kickstand’ to keep it in place while drying.

Apply a thick coat of acrylic paint to your styrofoam horn, working in small areas at a time.

While the paint is still wet, apply liberally glitter to the horn. Don’t shake away the excess glitter. Let it stay there so as much glitter as possible will embed into the paint as it dries.

Give your horn plenty of time to dry. Overnight is best.

Paint the smaller, inner ear pieces with silver paint and glitter in the same manner. For your larger ear pieces, paint white or decoupage white paper on.

Once the paint is fully dry, hot glue dowels onto the backside of the ears. Push a dowel into the horn, 2-3 inches in, remove and then fill the hole with hot glue and replace the dowel.

How to Add Your Unicorn Tree Topper.

Firstly push the dowels of your white ears and glittered horn to the front side of your tree nearer the top. White zip ties or pipe cleaners can be used to hold attach the dowels to the tree’s limbs where they connect to keep them well attached and in place.

Trim the individual flowers from your artificial bouquet and place into the tree around the top and sides of the horn. This takes a little bit of finesse and trial and error to get these placed in a way that looks symmetrical and pretty, so take your time.

Battery operated LED lights can be placed around the flowers to help add a little light to them. This is especially nice in very dark rooms but is totally optional. I placed the tiny battery box behind one of the unicorn ears and since it’s white like the rest of the tree, it’s practically invisible.

Finish Dressing Your Unicorn Christmas Tree.

We want the first thing you see and notice about this tree is to be the unicorn horn topper and the sweet eyelashes. As such, the remaining decor has been chosen to add to the beauty of the tree, but not compete with the topper.

Iridescent clear shatter-proof Christmas ornaments can be placed liberally around the tree. The iridescence helps the colorful Christmas lights inside of the tree bloom and shine. FYI, I got my bubble ornaments from At Home and 55 pieces (of which I used them all) cost only $14.99.

The liberal use of white decomesh with silver striping not only fills out the tree. But also helps to reflect the light, adding to the soft rainbow effect the tree creates.

It all comes together for one gorgeous and unique Christmas Tree!

I figured that I would like this tree, but I was more concerned with my sister liking it. Though the photo I sent her was dark and tinged with a terrible purple cast, she said she loves it. And, honestly, I love it, too!

It’s already been moved to her bedroom to make room for me to DIY up my next Christmas tree.  I’ll be sharing the next Christmas tree design with you very soon. I’m so excited! Be sure to come back to check my second of 5 different DIY Christmas Tree designs next week!