If you can't fit a Christmas tree...

[evilharpy]

We have moved to a new house this year that has a tiny living room. I mean tiny, we can't even get a 3 seater sofa in here. I'm really struggling to think how we can shoehorn in a Christmas tree. We do have a small Kallax unit that a (very) small tree could stand on top of, and there's a fireplace for a nice garland, but definitely not the lovely tall bushy tree we're used to having.

No space in the hall for a big tree either and we don't have a dining room here. Very first world problems but it's really going to bother me.

Wondering if anyone is similarly afflicted with a ridiculously small living room and what you do, be it tiny trees, pencil trees, something hung on the wall etc.

sorry halfway down this page www.nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/shropshire-staffordshire/attingham-park/christmas-at-attingham

We put half the tree up. Its artificial and we dont put the back on it.

I’d go with a 4 ft tree on top of the Kallax. The branches will be wider than the top of the Kallax, but you could tie the base to the top of the shelf to make it more stable. For smaller trees, they’re better raised up on something anyway.

Is there room to lay the Kallax on its back, cover with a sturdy board and use it as a platform for the tree?

I have a similar sitting room design and move an entire sideboard every year to accommodate a tree 😁

Find somewhere for the Kallax and get that tree up.

Or, if that really isn't feasible, maybe embrace the artificial look and get a white or silver slim tree?

(I may have done this also to find a tree that fits on my landing. I love Christmas trees.)

Window sill?

When we lived in a tiny ancient cottage, I couldn’t get a tree in at all. I put a bushy, decorated artificial garland over the fireplace and made a medieval- looking kissing bunch out of real holly, mistletoe, rosemary and some cuttings of Christmas tree I got for a couple of quid from the Christmas tree farm where I git the other greenery. I hung it from the centre light fitting. It was really fragrant. The two things together made it feel really festive.

I'd forget an actual tree and do garlands instead, over the mantlepiece and from each corner of the room into the centre. Hang baubles/candy canes/chocolate coins from them, weave fairy lights along them, etc. Maybe even use some real holly or real tree offcuts.

This is genius! I never thought of this! I can rehome any of the contents we actually need access to (like hoover bits and chargers) but the rest can quite happily live under a tree for a few weeks.

Hurrah!!

Excellent news! Another Christmas is saved 😁

We have the same problem this year and have been trying to find a solution. Thought we might just decorate as festive as possible and skip the tree, it's sad though

It looks like you've already got a plan now (yay!) but if anyone else has the same problem, my plan this year is to have a real tree in our garden so we can see it through the window 🎄 and then do lots of lights and a swag on the mantelpiece etc inside... we'll see how it goes!

Fabulous, glad I could help

In case the above plan ends up not being feasible, just wanted to say that when we lived in a small flat for a couple of Christmases, I got a very small potted tree (probably about 3 feet). I sat it on our little corner table at the time - IKEA, naturally! - and dressed it with lights and my favourite small ornaments to match the scale of the tree, and it genuinely was just as beautiful as a big, bushy tree. In fact it being so small and dinky made it extra special. I still look back fondly on it; very 'hyggelig'.

Mind you, I think I paid £10 for it; I looked the other day at the supermarket and the same size tree was £30!

Your living room is bigger than mine (2.9m x 3.6m), I have invested in a narrow, flat back 5ft tree this year (a 6ft tree would be too tall as the room is only about 6'6 high). Wall mounting our TV and being ruthless with storage means we still have a bit of floor space as we only have a two seater sofa, two Poang chairs and a small coffee table in the room.

Glad you've got a plan. Our front room is similar in size/layout (12' square, fireplace, telly in the same corner as you but we've got shelves in the Kallax alcove and a side table below them next to the sofa). We buy a 5'6ish real tree (rule of thumb - buy one the same height as me) and put it on the side table, it's a bit of a squeeze but looks gorgeous and goes right up to the ceiling.

Good idea to turn the kallax, that was one of my ideas 😁.

My other idea was this Next

Ohh that’s an even better idea! A 5 or 6 foot tree would look fab up high like that!

We went stick gathering one night with the kids (look for ones with forked branches), cleaned them up a bit and arranged them in a nice jug and hung ornaments off them. I honestly far prefer it to a normal Christmas tree (we're often away at Xmas and I'm also too tight to pay for a tree we won't even put presents under!)

When we had no space for a Christmas tree, we bought a beautiful glass tree-shaped thing, about a foot tall, has lights that gently rotate inside it but looks nice when that is off. We have a few other decorations that only take up otherwise unused space or no space really such as the windowsill, wall or ceiling or a bit of a small shelf. Wouldn't go back to having a tree now, I'm over it. I also get a small poinsetta.

Could you disassemble the kallax and prop it behind the tree in the alcove?

Blimey that is small. Is it not uncomfortable having the TV wall mounted as presumably you must be sitting fairly close to it? We couldn't hang ours on the chimney breast wall as the fireplace is too high, our necks would be broken looking up at it.

Our ceilings are about 2.5m high so slightly taller than the average I think.

It's not too bad, we have very low ceilings (so low we can't have a pendant ceiling light) so the bottom of the TV is only 4ft off the floor and we only have a smallish TV.

In one of our old homes I did 3 small trees on top of a built in cabinet. They came in a set and were assorted heights, but around .75-1 meter I think. Something in that range. It was a long time ago.

it gave me plenty of room to hang ornaments. I also suspended a few over the Christmas tree forest using fishing line.

the room happened to have a defunct fireplace so we piled the presents there.