Worlds Easiest and Coolest Grinchmas Tree

My favorite Christmas story and cartoon was/is 'The Grinch who stole Christmas' Recently my wife found a flower shop that was making 'Grinch' trees that immediately put a smile on my face made out of cedar bows a few ornaments etc.. Loved it but the price was a bit much for me so I decided to make my own and to make it so that it will not die out on me. 

Step 1: What You Need

Materials:
- 10" diameter circle piece of plywood 3/8 to 1/2 inch thick
- 8 wire coat hangers
- 1 mini led string of lights (50 in this string)
- Green Garland
- mini strand of Garland in a fancy color
- Ugly decorations with one big ball ornament
- Tie wraps or twist ties or duck tape

Tools:
- Pliers 
- Side cutters
- Hot glue gun ( in my eyes a mini nightmare of a napalm dispenser, you will understand this statement when you get the first blob on your hand )
- Depending on the chunk of wood you have you may need a jig saw (you can buy 10" diameter disks at most hardware stores)
-Drill and 1/16 drill bit

Step 2: Initial Prep

- If you have a disk of wood mark out 8 locations about 1/2 inch from the edge equally spaced and drill holes half way through, if you do not have a disk or use a jigsaw and cut one out or even use a square piece of ply 10"x10", it is only a esthetic choice to have it round.
- cut the hooks off the coat hanger and straighten them out 
- insert the hanger ends into the holes in the first step
- Hot glue them into the holes

Step 3: Basic Shape

- Now you bend the tops roughly into a bent top of a tree. Dont spend much time making this perfect, the rougher it is the better the tree turns out. Its a Grinch tree after all.... 
-Take a tie wrap of twist tie to join the hangers at the ends trim them up to a neat end
-Note there is one hanger that is curled back on itself to hold the big ugly ornament (I wonder how the wife is going to take me calling one of her favorite ornaments ugly? I may get coal this Christmas for this instructable :) ) 

Step 4: Almost There

 - Take the mini Christmas lights and from the top starting with the female end of the lights (this is very important ) tie wrap or twist tie the end to the top of the tree frame
- Wrap the string of lights around the frame spiraling down and occasionally fastening the string with a... you guessed it.. a tie wrap or twist tie or tape
- Start at the bottom and wrap the green garland up the tree fastening it with tie wraps or twist ties occasionally
- start anywhere you please and add the fancy colored garland

Step 5: Final Step

- Hang goddy ornament at end of tree
- add a few ornaments and garnishes as you see fit
- plug in and enjoy

FYI this cost about 12 dollars and makes a great mini tree for a gift or display on a table etc... I have given out a few and all ended up in big smiles, even when the recipient had to ask 'What is it?" the second you say Grinch tree it immediately hits them and a smile grinchilly creeps onto their face.

Below is my podcast and the build is in the second section of the show at 5:36 but the beginning of the show is much funnier and by Dave Spencer and that intructable is here:
The fun, amazing, surprising, exploding gift box

If you like the cast do me a favor and hit this link and DIGG it

Comments

[whois2313]

My boyfriend and I used your instructions and modified them a bit. We made a tree topper to put on top of a regular sized tree to morph it into a grinch tree! Instead of the wooden base used in this tut, we used a tomato cage and attached the clothes hangers on the top horizontal stabilizing ring to give them the height they needed to allow for the curve. We wrapped it entirely with green branch-like garland so it looks like the tree. When you place it on top of the existing tree, the top of the tree will show through the wire cage to hide it even more.

[whois2313]

And no napalm was used in the making of this tree! Even better!

[auntiemichal]

Very nice! You could substitute quick set epoxy for the glue gun. As long as you don't glue your fingers to the ply and/or wires.

[acidbass]

great its in my room i am such a grinch/ scrooge

[AngryRedhead]

I absolute adore this idea!  I bet you could really set off the theme with some figurines and stuffed animals/characters and such.  I have to do this next year.

[MechanicalMashup]

Well post a picture of it! Great to hear you liked it Red....

[MechanicalMashup]

 Thank you! if you remember next year post some images when you are done.

[surrealdreams]

This Instructable includes a video of how to make this tree.  Either watch or skip over the first half of the video, which shows how to make an "exploding" gift box. The second half covers this project. While the gift box is a very cool idea, the Grinch/Who Christmas tree is the one I plan to make this year.  It's such a rocking craft, and it's very unexpected.

I'm 99% sure there will be one of these on my desk at work this holiday season.

[zieak]

I love it.  I might just have to try a larger build...

[MechanicalMashup]

Glad you liked it!

 I was thinking the same using PVC and a heat Gun to bend the tubes. Make sure if you scale it up to post a picture.