I made this tree last year, took a whole bunch of pictures of it, and then… totally forgot to post anything about it. I found the photos again recently and figured, better late than never — because this might be the simplest, cheapest Christmas project I’ve ever done.
I followed a tutorial from Isaac Alexander DIY, and the whole build is basically plumbing supplies and a string of lights. That’s it. No fancy frame, no kit, no special tools beyond a drill and a saw.
Here’s the idea: three legs, one ring, one cap, and a whole lot of lights.
What you need
- PEX tubing, bent into a circle for the base
- Three pieces of 1/2-inch PVC pipe for the tripod legs
- A 2-inch PVC cap for the top
- Screws to hold it all together at the top
- Red electrical tape
- One long strand of Christmas lights — the ones I used
- Clear acrylic for the star, cut on my OMTech Polar laser
- Zip ties
How it went together
First I made the base ring out of PEX tubing. PEX is perfect for this because it bends into a circle without fighting you, and it’s light enough that the whole tree stays easy to move around.
Then came the three legs: three pieces of 1/2-inch PVC pipe, set up as a tripod and screwed together at the top with a 2-inch PVC cap holding them in place. That’s the whole frame. Standing in the garage with nothing on it yet, it already looked like a tree — just a very skinny, very white one.
So I wrapped the legs in red electrical tape, spiraling it around to make them look like candy canes. It’s a small detail, but it changed everything. Suddenly it didn’t look like plumbing supplies anymore. It looked like Christmas.
Then the lights. I used one long strand and just worked it up and down, up and down, all the way around the tree, trying to keep it as even as I could. One strand did the whole tree, which still kind of surprises me. When I got to the top, I had extra lights left over — and a tree without a topper just felt unfinished.
So I cut a star out of clear acrylic on my OMTech Polar, zip-tied it to the top, and wrapped the rest of the lights around it a whole bunch of times. It worked out really well. The star glows from the inside out, and honestly it ended up being my favorite part of the whole tree.
The best part
The whole thing was very inexpensive. PVC pipe, PEX tubing, a roll of tape, and a string of lights — that’s a Christmas tree for the price of a pizza. And when the garage lights went off and the tree was on, it didn’t look cheap at all. It looked like a tree that belonged there.
I stood in front of it for a while just looking at it, which is probably the real test of any project. If you catch yourself just standing there smiling at it, it worked.
Where it ended up
In the last photo you can see it outside on the left, next to my mega Christmas tree in the middle. The PVC tree is the small one — the mega tree is a whole different beast — but side by side, the little PVC tree still holds its own. It glows, it stands tall, and it cost almost nothing to make.
If you’ve been wanting a big, bright Christmas tree without spending big Christmas tree money, this is the one. A trip to the hardware store, a string of lights, and an afternoon in the garage is all it takes.
