I know I’ve said this before, but the last two years has been … weird. However, this year in particular felt “weird” in a different way. I’m not really sure how to articulate it but “weird” is the only word that comes to mind right now. So for this year’s tree and ornament adventure, I decided to just fully lean into the weird, but in a joyful and happy way.
For inspiration, I can always count on the Japanese and their incredibly stylish street fashion scene. When it comes to over the top color and wackiness, no one does it better than the kids in Harajuku, and more specifically those that express the “decora-kei” and “kawaii” (“cute” in Japanese) styles. This isn’t a new phenomenon, having it’s roots as far back as the late 90s / early 2000s, but since everything Y2k and all of that has becoming back in fashion these days, I felt like now was a perfect time to indulge, and why not for Christmas?!
For my ornaments, I was super inspired by these customized “decoden” phone cases, where people put tons of different charms (“Cobochans”) and use silicone to make it look like cake frosting.
I bought a few bags of random cobochans off Etsy and Amazon, and then used white air dry clay, glopping a wad and molding it on top of a irridescent plastic ornament ball, and then squishing the cobochans into it. Afterwards, I sealed them with some modgepodge, and while still wet, sprinkled some iridescent glitter to make it over the top sparkly.
Another ornament I made was using a bunch of random stickers i got at Daiso. I used a flat paintable ornament from Michaels, and just went to town piling and layering stickers on top.
For the tree itself, I decided to re-use my pink tree from 2020 (floral fantasy) but decided to spray paint a little gradation action, which thankfully turned out better than I expected.
The rest of the decorations was basically just… more is more! I went to the thrift store and bought a few cheap $5 mixed random toy grab bags, picked up a few sparkly garlands and kids party favors from the 99cent store, and then just a bunch of random hair accessories from the mall.
The one thing I really felt I needed to make it “decora” was brightly colored beads. I ordered a mixed bag of random bright beads and strung together a garland.
For the final bits, I actually just pulled a bunch of random toys that we have at my office. Between years of photoshoots and doing design work for companies like Mattel and Nickelodeon, anyone who has been to our J3 office knows, we have accumulated a LOT of toys.
Anyway, the “cherry on top” was actually a squishy spongey strawberry (a prop we had leftover from a photo shoot) that I applied faux sticker pearls on top and secured it with a hacked tree topper, also from the 99cent store.
And there you have it. Super Kawaii!
Here’s a video from my favorite queen of Harajuku J-Pop, Kyary Pamyu Pamyu. Her music (and videos) were on repeat while I was putting all of this together.
Anyway, I want to thank you again for supporting this here little blog, and of course if you haven’t already, please sign up to my newsletter to keep up with all the posts. And as usual, follow me on Insta for on the fly shenanigans. I hope your holiday is safe, relaxing, and maybe a little weird 🙂
(here’s a little Reel i made- click below to view)