Every Christmas one of the traditions that I look forward to the most is decorating our ‘Night Trees.’ Several years ago my dear friend, Betsy, gave my daughter the book The Night Tree by Eve Bunting. The Night Tree tells the story of a young boy and his family decorating their favorite tree in the forest with popcorn, apples, seed balls, and more as a gift for the animals of the woods. Our tradition of decorating trees came about out of a desire to show my children that the holiday season is a much about giving as receiving. Over the years, the people that join us might change, but what stays the same is that Betsy and my family along with our dogs trek up to our chosen trees and decorate them with our homemade edible ornaments. This year the girls invited two of their friends and their new puppy to join us. After wearing all the dogs out so that they wouldn’t eat the treats we’d made for the deer, bears, and birds, we decorated the trees with bows, pine cone ornaments, birdseed ornaments, and apple slices.

These pictures were taken with my cheapest lenses and on my personal camera and are by no means professional quality. They’re my momtographer images.

Directions on making bird seed ornaments can be found here https://www.kellyelko.com/love-birds-making-simple-birdseed-ornaments/