How to Decorate a Festive Halloween Tree (With Shiny Brites!)

Halloween trees can be charmingly cute or seriously scary.

They are like Christmas trees, but decorated with fall colors and dressed up for the spookiest of holidays. Think pumpkin string lights, spider web tree skirts and witch hat tree toppers.

Here’s everything you need to decorate a Halloween tree. And don’t miss the printable mini tree skirts below!

Decorating with a Halloween tree

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Pick Out a Spooky Halloween Tree

Start by finding the right tree for your space, considering size and color. Large trees offer a big canvas for lots of Halloween decorations, while mini trees can be more affordable and fit on tabletops anywhere in your home.

I chose this 24-inch tree.

When it comes to color, Halloween trees are often black, orange or purple. You could also opt for a white or silver tree that can be reused for Christmas to save money.

Mini Tabletop Trees

Mini black Halloween tree
Purple Halloween tree for the tabletop
Tabletop black Halloween tree

Large Trees

Tall skinny black Halloween tree
Silver tinsel tree for Halloween
Black Christmas tree for Halloween

Light Your Halloween Tree

Next, think about theme as you select lighting. Are you all about candy corn like this? Or more about spooky black and white decorations like this?

Halloween tree lit up with orange lights

I chose a spider theme with a web tree skirt and spider ornaments. You may be able to find lights that tie in with your theme. Here are some ideas.

Orange string lights
Purple spider string lights
Pumpkin string lights

Hang the Cutest Halloween Ornaments

Once I learned that there are Shiny Brite Halloween ornaments, I had to have a Halloween tree. I built my theme around these mini ornaments by Christopher Radko.

Box of Shiny Brite Halloween ornaments for a Halloween tree

Read More: All about Shiny Brite

They usually release several different types of Shiny Brite Halloween ornaments each year. I love the retro style and fun colors.

There are tons of Halloween ornaments out there to match any theme. And you might want a set of plain ball ornaments in a festive orange, silver or purple color to help fill in the tree.

Mini Ornaments

Felt cat ornaments
Orange ball ornaments
Assorted Halloween ornaments for a mini tree

Larger Ornaments

Nightmare Before Christmas ornament
Spider web ornaments
Ghost ornaments

Add a Halloween Tree Skirt

It’s easy to DIY your tree skirt with low-cost materials. Maybe you could use an orange blanket, or try spooky spider webs from the Dollar Tree.

Felt is a great material for making tree skirts. Check out my DIY tree skirt tutorial to see how it’s done. You could customize it with Halloween shapes that match your theme.

There are also ready-made options available here on Amazon. Or if you have a mini tree, try one of my printable tree skirts.

Spider web tree skirt for a mini Halloween tree

Free Printable Tree Skirts

I designed a set of 8-inch tree skirts to use like a doily under a mini Halloween tree. There’s a cat option, a retro star option, and the spider web tree skirt I used.

Printable Halloween tree skirts for mini trees

You can download the mini tree skirts in my resource library. Print out your favorite or try them all.


More Halloween Tree Decorations

There’s a lot of room to get creative. Streamers make a festive statement, and retro decorations can look cute or creepy stuffed into a tree.

You could even choose a black ceramic Halloween tree like this and skip all the work of decorating. 😉

Halloween garland decoration
Vintage Halloween witch, skeleton and cat decorations
Black ceramic Halloween tree for the tabletop

More recently, my Halloween tree collection has grown! It’s easy to make these fabric cone trees for a spooky display.

Collection of orange, black and white Halloween trees on display

Plus don’t miss my other Halloween decor ideas.


4 thoughts on “How to Decorate a Festive Halloween Tree (With Shiny Brites!)”

  1. Oh Tara so many cute and clever ideas to bring a little cheer and “happy”to this Halloween/fall time of year (2020). Love the way you have yours decorated and set up to enjoy in your D.R. Since most of us are in our homes and social distancing its nice to have a little whimsy to bring some kind of feeling of “normalcy” . (Love the purple tree and way to many cool ornaments to drool over! 😉 .)

    Reply
    • The colorful trees are so fun in purple and orange and candy corn! Some people spray paint them to get the fun colors. Next year I might add our silver tree to the mix and have a big Halloween tree with the mini one. The tree is definitely adding cheer and it’s nice that we can enjoy it from the couch and dining table. Since it’s going to be an indoor type of Halloween this year, extra decorations are a must for me!

      Reply
  2. You know, I’ve never given too much thought about decorating for Halloween. I have always just thrown up a cheap plastic skeleton on my door and called it good. But I absolutely love the idea of a Halloween tree. I do happen to have a mini Christmas tree that I could probably find a few things to put on to give off a Halloween vibe.

    Reply
    • Same here, I have one box of Halloween decorations to my five boxes of Christmas stuff! But this year has been rough, summer was a bust, so I really wanted some extra cheerful fall and Halloween decor. And little trees are so fun! I bet your little Christmas tree will make a cute Halloween tree.

      Reply

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