DIY Christmas tree
This year we built our own Christmas tree. Normally we get our tree from a tree farm next to the home of family friends. It is a lovely tradition to visit them for a hot chocolate and then stroll through the field to pick out a tree to take home.* But this year due to the lockdown measures, we did not want to visit and so we looked for alternatives. This is what we made:
Making the tree was the easy part, making the star on the top is for experts only π
Treating the wood with furniture oil to get a fuller color 
Measuring the tree shape after intense pinterest research 
We drilled narrow holes and used screws that were so short that the ends did not break through the wood 
Wrap a thread around the screws 
And also the lights… 
You could stop here, looks nice already 
But you could also get out some decorations π 
I found the greenery on the street (this is the after-photo, where it got a little dry already) 
and get decorating π 
Behind the board, this animated the star π 
Materials: One large plank of wood that stood in our storage for a year because I had meant to do something with it but never did, some oil to treat the wood and make it a bit darker, electric drill to make holes in the wood, screws, screw driver + measurements, pencil etc. Lights and Christmas decorations π
Later on we added some greenery (which I fished from a pile on the street, to the amusement of people walking by) and AN ANIMATED STAR with MOVEMENT sensor. My boyfriend constructed the star from scratch, and I only know it took quite some time, involved quite some soldering, an arduino computer, programming etc.. It has a movement sensor, so you can wave at it to start the animations. Video shows one animation.
*I am still unsure whether it is better to get a living tree or a fake tree. Probably our DIY tree beats a plastic tree from the store. Milieudefensie (Dutch) estimated the footprint, which seems largely due to transport for living trees. So we think it is a good solution to buy it close to home and combine it with a visit we plan anyway, especially when going with an electrical shared car. There are also initiatives to adopt a tree in the Netherlands (http://adopteereenkerstboom.nl/) but those are always gone really quickly here around.
