First of all, here’s our overview of all alternative Christmas Trees.
It is been 4 years now that I have covered our all-glass front door with paper doilies.
It makes the most beautiful shadow patterns of afternoon sunlight on the walls. Every year, I cut them a bit differently. Usually I post them randomly on the glass door, but this year, I am doing a Christmas tree grouping.
Making paper doilies is easy and fast. The ones pictured below are a bit fancier than most.
photo credit: Travelswithclara.com :: Paris
All you want to do is 8 fold a circle, and to start cutting away at the edges. Experiment. Once you realize what kind of cut makes what kind of pattern, you are on your way to becoming a great doilie designer.
I once taught how to make paper doilies to young primary school kids. When you ensure they have kid-safe scissors, you are surely bound for a delightful paper doilies-cutting afternoon at home. Kids love the miracle and the discovery of making little cuts and then see them multiplied 8x, 12x or 16x.
8 or 16: How many time should you fold the paper to make the prettiest doilies?
For kids and beginners, I recommend a simple 8 folds. Then after you/they’ve made a couple, try 12 folds. If you have fine paper scissors that are made for silhouette cutting and things like that, go ahead and try 16 folding. Many of the intricate paper doilies that you are seeing over here are 16 folds.
Paper Snowflakes or Doilies?
The difference is in your making deeper cut-outs from the outside in… like so:
If you omit this large V-shaped cut in the center, your result will look like a doily. With the V-shaped cut, you’ll end up with doilies. See those wobbly half circles, that are cut out from that central V? Those will become heart shaped when unfolded….
See here: 
Paper Doilies Christmas Trees
How to transform these doilies into a Christmas tree onto the window. Easy. Just use some Scotch tape to attach them onto the window pane. It is that simple.
See? You can look through your doilies provided you make lots and large cut-outs.
And there you have it. It goes without saying that these white paper snowflakes make great Christmas tree ornaments also. Last year, I added a garland of paper white snowflakes / doilies in my Christmas tree. It was lovely.
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For a variation on this theme: here’s how to cut paper doilies that are heart-shaped. Or how to recycle coffee packaging to make gorgeous silver doilies.
Be sure to also visit this article here, for other creative alternatives to live Christmas trees.
