How to Make Stryofoam Christmas Trees

I wanted to do something special for our student meeting space for Christmas. We don't have a lot of space in our youth room for a large set up. But we do have an area that I set up as a make-shift stage. The area includes speakers, TV monitors for media, some simple lighting, and a table or music stand which I teach from.

We decided that we would decorate our youth room with an Elf theme. Students cut out snowflakes from white paper, constructed a huge paper chain, and set out to recreate the apartment and store scene. As the centerpiece, I thought it would look cool to have a couple triangular Christmas trees on our stage area.
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Not long ago I watched a DIY video by Paul Turner, a fellow youth worker and creator of TheDiscipleProject.net. Paul posted a video that showed how he created some styrofoam letters for the stage/background. It was easy, inexpensive and a great way to add to the atmosphere.
You can see Paul's video, How to Make Styrofoam Letters, by clicking here. 

Paul's video, along with a pin I saw on  Pinterest.com, became the inspiration to my colored trees! 

Here's what you need for the styrofoam Christmas Trees...

• 2 sheets of GreenGuard XPS (4'x8'x1"), Purchased at Lowe's for $19.98.
• DesignMaster Spray Paint, Purchased at Michael's Crafts for $8.99.
• 4 1/2" Screws, Purchased at Lowe's for $.88 a piece.
• 3"x1" strip of wood, Purchased at Lowe's for $6.00 each.
• something to cut the wood. I used my compound miter saw.
• utility knife to cut the styrofoam

I chose the colors red, green and blue because I already had colored lightbulbs in red, green and blue. The up lights I already had because it's what we use as part of our simple stage lighting. The colored bulbs help to accent the colored styrofoam.

We decided to wrap the larger, center tree with a string of Christmas lights. It was an idea of one of my students and I love how it came out.

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Constructing the trees was super easy. Total, it took me about 6 hours to construct seven trees. Our students decorated the youth room for Christmas as another student and I set up the trees and all the wiring to create our stage area. Watch the video below to see how I created my styrofoam trees!
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Watch The Video!

Thanks so much for check in for today's blog and DIY video! I hope that you have found the video to helpful and inspiring. I'd love to hear about your Christmas staging ideas and construction tips and tricks! Feel free to leave a comment below. If you have any questions about what I created, hit me up below.

​- jay

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Jay Higham is a veteran youth worker of over 25 years; having worked with students in the local church and Christian camping settings. Jay is currently serving as the student ministry director at a church located in Western PA. Jay has been married to Amy for over 21 years. Together, they are raising 5 kids, (4 boys and 1 girl). Jay is an aspiring author, blogger, speaker, vlogger, and social media junkie. He is passionate about student ministry, family ministry, and training youth workers to love and serve their students with passion and excellence.