Cast Iron Dutch oven Christmas Tree

This "Christmas Tree'" is a tradition among Dutch oven cooks across the United States of America who have many ovens in their collection and build a tree of cast iron each year to celebrate the Christmas Season. This is my first instructable and I'll show you how I built mine for the 2011 season.

CAUTION: STACKING CAST IRON DUTCH OVENS CAN BE HAZARDOUS AND CARE MUST BE TAKEN IN DOING SO. i AM NOT RESPONSIBLE OF ANY ACCIDENTS DAMAGE OR OTHERWISE THAT MAY HAPPEN. THIS INSTRUCTABLE IS ONLY A STORY TELLING YOU HOW I BUILD AND MADE MY CHRISTMAS TREE THIS YEAR.

Materials List:

1 artificial Christmas Tree

3 strings L.E.D. Christmas lights

1 Mini Christmas Tree

1 Stack of Cast Iron Dutch ovens (I used 9 this year, and have used as few as 3 and as many as 14)

Christmas ornaments (as many as you wish)

Step 1

Get your Dutch ovens together and "dry stack" them to see how tall your tree will be. Start with the largest oven on the bottom and place the next smallest on top and continue until you have stacked ovens to your smallest size. My tree base starts with a massive 22" 160 lb. Maca Dutch oven and goes to the tiny Lodge 5" Dutch oven on top of the tree. I left out the last 2 ovens here, but you get the general idea and shape the tree will  be.

This year I bought a used artificial Christmas tree from Goodwill for $12.00 to add greenery by using just the branches between each Dutch oven.

Unstack the Dutch ovens after you get the height of the stack you want and lets start decorating and building the "tree"!

Comments

[ncdodave]

Sure you could try that, I own over 250 pieces of cast iron and over 100 Dutch ovens. There are many other people who also make Dutch oven Christmas Trees. Just google Dutch oven tree and you'll find many links to get other ideas as well.

[bethmwl]

Very interesting. Since I don't have a large, or any collection of Dutch ovens, I immediately thought; clay pots, plastic planting pots, etc, whatever one finds.
Thanks for the inspiration