Decorating Christmas Trees With Flowers

Twinkling Christmas trees always add so much magic to the holiday season. And with the addition of fresh floral Christmas tree decorations, you can enjoy those trees all year long. Today I'm sharing how to create a nature-inspired summer Christmas tree that mixes two of my favorite things together—Christmas and fresh flowers.

Balsam Hill artificial Sanibel Spruce decorated with ornaments and real flowers

What You Need

Christmas tree, foliage, and ornaments

I used a 7′ Balsam Hill Sanibel Spruce, but you can use whatever size or type of tree that you'd like. I think a tabletop tree would be just as beautiful as a full-size tree.

Summer Christmas tree with fresh flowers

Candles on top of a table inside a French Country Cottage

For the decorations, I combined earth-toned glass ornaments from Balsam Hill's Grand Forest ornament set, Globe set, and Beaded Gold set.

I loved how adding these Glowing Pinecone Garland strands to the floral Christmas tree really made it sparkle even more. And they're battery operated, which means they're perfect for the mantel or anywhere you don't have plugin access.

Frosted Winter Pine Cone Christmas Tree Picks

These Winter Pinecone Picks are a bleached color with a few frosty touches. They add a lovely natural base to the tree.

Fresh flowers and greens

For my summer Christmas tree, I chose fresh stems of spiral eucalyptus, blush and white peonies, burgundy dahlias, chocolate lace, and baby's breath. I chose Christmas tree flowers that will dry beautifully so I get to enjoy them longer.

To keep your Christmas tree flower decorations fresh longer, ask your florist to place them in floral water tubes. Decorating with flowers that are long-lasting when dried such as baby's breath don't need to use a water vial for individual stems. But flowers such as peonies, roses, dahlias, and hydrangeas need water in order to stay fresh.

How do You Decorate a Christmas Tree with Flowers?

Step 1: Use natural accents as a base

When decorating your Christmas tree with flowers and greens, create a base of natural-looking pieces like pinecone picks. This gives your floral Christmas tree a lovely woodland feeling. Leave the ends of your picks sticking just a bit further out to get a more rambling and natural look.

Summer Christmas Tree decorated with fresh leaves and flowers

Step 2: Add more greens

Tuck in bunches of eucalyptus stems into the branches of the tree until you have them filled in as you'd like. Create more volume with a variety of fresh sprigs that will dry beautifully.

Balsam Hill Winter Pinecone Picks and Eucalyptus leaves on Christmas tree

Step 3: Decorate with ornaments

For this nature-inspired Christmas tree, I've chosen rustic and woodland-themed decorations. When I decorate Christmas trees, I tend to begin with larger ornaments such as the globes. Then I fill in the spaces with smaller and more detailed ornaments.

Closeup of Balsam Hill Grand Forest Christmas Ornaments

Step 4: Tuck in fresh flowers

Insert fresh flower Christmas tree decorations into the tree branches. Think of the fresh flowers as ornaments and tuck them in wherever you'd place an ornament.

Summer Christmas tree decorated with flowers, pinecones, eucalyptus leaves, and Grand Forest ornaments

Start with the largest Christmas tree flowers. Tuck them into areas that need fullness. For this look, I layered the baby's breath and the chocolate lace on top of the eucalyptus. Then I tucked the peonies into the branches. These white flower Christmas tree decorations work well with the neutral color palette. Finally, I added the burgundy dahlias for a twist of bold, rich color to my floral Christmas tree.

White peony to decorate a summer Christmas tree

Step 5: Add Christmas tree lights

As a finishing touch, place the pre-lit pinecone garland. Simply string the garland across the front of the tree and tuck the battery pack into the branches to conceal it.

Pre-lit Pinecone Garland on Christmas tree

Step 6: Check your work

Stand back and see if there are any spots where you need to make adjustments. This will help you make sure your summer Christmas tree with flowers have a balanced look throughout.

Summer Christmas tree decorated with pinecones and flowers

Summer Christmas tree decorated with pinecones and flowers in a French Country Cottage

One of the best things about using greens and fresh flowers for your Christmas tree is that you can enjoy the feel of Christmas time all year long—just change the flowers for each season. During the holiday season, Christmas trees decorated with flowers add a beautiful and unique element to your decorating.

Want more floral decorating ideas? Find out how you can transform your home workspace with flowers.

As the founder of lifestyle blog French Country Cottage and editor of Romantic Homes magazine, Courtney is known for bringing chic aesthetics and vintage elegance to her designs. Courtney offers readers creative ideas and decorating tips inspired by the ongoing renovations on her 1940s cottage home.