Do you have a whole bunch of empty tin cans lying around? We do. I think we may just have enough to build a mini version of the Great Wall of China ;-) So with Christmas coming up we thought it would be a good idea to use some of those cans and incorporate them into our Christmas decor.  We’ve got four purr babies and we have to be really careful what we put up at Christmas time. We’ve learnt the hard way that tinsel and fake trees are a purr baby magnets in this house. You do not want to wake up at 3 o’clock in the morning when that tree comes crashing down. Trust me, I know.  Armageddon is a whisper in comparison.

I recently saw the most amazing succulent Christmas tree on Craft Invaders  that was just WOW!!! So with that bit of inspiration floating around we decided to make our own succulent version using tin cans instead of a willow cone.

How to Make a Succulent Christmas Tree Using Tin Cans

Our tin cans were a bit big so we made them a shorter using tin snips and the rough edges were filed away to prevent serious injury. Smaller tuna tins would have been ideal but sadly we didn’t have any in our stash. Using a drill we made some drainage holes in the bottom of all the cans.

The frame for the Christmas tree is an old lamp base that we dismantled (thank you my beautiful friend Katrin for the idea). We ended up using three of those tube things and the round silver bottom bit for our tree.

The cans and the lamp base weren’t the same color, but as they say in the classics – there’s nothing that a bit of spray paint won’t cure ;-)

Once the paint was dry, we glued 5 cans together to form the bottom layer of the tree and 3 cans together to form the middle layer.

The first time we glued the cans together we tried using Gorilla glue, but they just wouldn’t stick nicely and it felt all wobbly. So we pulled them apart and re-glued them with steel epoxy glue. Now those babies are stuck for life. For a bit of bling we added some beads to the bottom and then planted the succulents. Lucky for us, our vertical garden produced lots of new off shoots so we had more than enough plants to go around.  BTW, if you want some awesome tips on how to grow and care for succulents then you need to see this post. We left the single can that goes on top of the tree empty so we could attached it properly once everything else had been put together.

To assemble the Christmas Tree, we inserted a thread bar into the bottom of the lamp base and then added one of the tubes and a lid. The bottom “5 can layer” was glued on to the lid  before adding another tube, a lid and then gluing on the “3 can layer”.

Finishing Everything Off

For the final layer at the very top we drilled a hole into the bottom of the remaining can, pushed the thread bar though and tightened everything up using a nut, before adding the succulent.

To complete the picture we added a silver star.

And our little succulent tree is stable enough to withstand anything the purr babies throw at it. Well I hope so any way :D

I think the beads add such a lovely touch, they almost look like rain drops.

I’m really keen to hear what you think about our recycled succulent Christmas tree. Is it something you’d add to your Christmas decor or do you prefer a more traditional Christmas tree?

Don’t forget to pin it for later.

Oh before I forget, if you’d like to make something similar or prefer to buy rather than DIY, we’ve got you covered Disclosure: Clicking on the links below, means we may receive a commission from Amazon. But don’t worry it won’t come out of your pocket, and it helps us come up with more crafty ideas to share with you

Sending you and your family much love and blessings as always.

Last update on 2026-04-15 / Source Amazon Affiliates