photos by Jared Smith

With Christmas, traveling, and family road trips just round the corner, I thought it would be fitting to have a few fun alternatives to the traditional family Christmas tree for the… not so traditional Christmas. On all of our travels recently, especially our recent cruise with Princess Cruises, it got us thinking about how not everyone plans to stay bundled up with chestnuts, a fire, and snowballs just outside their door for the holidays, so obviously a variety of ways to celebrate for every climate and region are in order!

This isn’t to say there’s a specific part of the world that only uses paper pom poms for celebrating (if their was, I’d definitely be there!), but this DIY pom pom Christmas tree is a fun alternative to the traditional decor, because the Caribbean doesn’t exactly call for a snowcapped douglas fir tree. Obviously it needs something far more colorful!…

The tomato cage will be the base of the tree, so you’ll rest the largest circle on a flat surface as the bottom. Start gluing tissue paper pom poms around the main metal circles, then use balloons to fill the inner parts of the tree. If you want the tree to last forever or for quite a long time, you can replace the balloons with tissue paper poms, too.

Continue gluing and filling up the empty spaces with poms, fringe, and balloons making sure the top staggers to a point just like a traditional tree.

Once it’s full, add a spritz of yellow fringe at the top for the star, and you’ve got yourself a tree that can definitely withstand travel and appearances no matter what the weather may be!

I still have a few more crazy Christmas tree ideas coming up for the traveler and out-of-the-box folks this week, but I’d love to know what your most non-traditional Christmas tradition is, so let me hear it!…

This post is made in partnership with Princess Cruises. Thanks for supporting the brands we love that allow us to bring you bigger and better content!