We have a big, beautiful Christmas tree we decided to abandon in the basement this year. It’s not that we don’t love it, but the mammoth thing is nine feet tall and six feet wide and feels like the love child of a hippo and porcupine when you’re dragging it up a narrow flight of stairs. So instead of hauling and hoisting the big girl this year, we decided to go with a bare-bones six footer I bought really cheap a few years ago. I thought it was a good idea until my husband set it up in the living room — the poor thing just looked so sad, and short.

I thought and thought of ideas to add a few feet to the height of the tree and a bit of charm without dipping into my pocketbook. Suddenly it occurred to me that we had a large urn holding some dying pansies out front and it might just be the ticket. So my husband and I dumped out a bit of dirt, pulled off the tree stand and stabbed in the tree . I wedged some rocks and pieces of wood in place to secure the trunk and surprisingly enough it turned out to be quite steady. . . and cute. It also added about two feet to the overall height, and even withstood the decorating process, which included the help of a certain three-year-old boy.