Vintage Ceramic Christmas Tree Makeover

So I finally got around to fixing this sad looking thrift store ceramic tree I found for $4.00. I didn't take a before picture but, imagine this medium 8" tree with a string of light bulbs poking out of the holes of this ceramic piece. And the inside is covered with Scotch tape holding the wires against the inside wall so the light bulbs would stay put. Anyone who has ever had one of these trees would think it was laughable and pretty dumb looking.

It took me about an hour to peel all the tape off and pull the broken string of lights out to get it down to just the plain glazed ceramic mold waiting for those pretty peg lights. I found a bag of assorted medium plastic peg lights and shapes for $2.00 at another thrift store, and it had just enough of the white twist lights to use on the tree. (I still have the other assorted lights plus a white star if anyone thinks they need them).

So here's the tree back to its former glory

Doesn't it look much better? Do not use a glue for the lights that is acrylic or solvent based like super glue. Those kinds of glues will eat the plastic and damage the glaze on your ceramic piece. The recommended glue is actually Elmer's white glue or Elmer's Glue-All. So if one of your lights becomes loose, it's easy to get the glue off the finish and glue it back in with Elmer's glue.

This particular tree is a McCoy Ltd ceramic tree, 8 inches high and didn't come with a base or a light cord when I found it. The two I looked up on eBay didn't have bases either and had colored lights in them. I like the all white bulbs myself against the green glaze. I found a light cord that I thought could work with this tree. It's actually a cord that has a spring hinge that fits in a hole for a ceramic house or building, but has a flat side that could stand up on one end. Anything else was meant to screw into a ceramic base, that I didn't have. So I made a cardboard base for the light socket to stabilize it and keep it upright in the tree.

The recommended light bulb wattage for my medium tree was 15 watts tapered bulb. If your tree is about 2 feet tall, then up to a 25 watt bulb is recommended. Don't use a higher wattage bulb or your tree will get very hot and probably cause a fire. It's an enclosed space and you want to keep it as cool as possible. I got a 15 watt LED bulb from Walmart that only uses 3 watts, so it's very cool to use in my tree. Now I'll probably have to put it away and bring it out next Christmas since it didn't get finished this last year.