To tell you about our Christmas trees, I will need to tell you about one of my greatest treasure finds – EVER!

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This incredible box is built of old road mileage signs, cut down into a box. The man who made it didn’t even care enough about the signs to put them upright, for him, it was just a box.

I found this box in a back corner of a yard sale in Massachusetts last September. It wasn’t for sale and when I asked the guy about it, I am pretty sure he thought I was nuts. He was selling items from his Uncle’s estate and didn’t think anyone would want it.

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I happen to know this box was meant for me. How? The inside panels actually say how many miles it is to Putnam! Yup, that’s my box cause my name is on it!

And, it is the miles (approximately) from my amazing girlfriend’s (Betty's) house, who I was shopping with, to my house!

I absolutely love the graphic nature and the worn texture of the paint. And, if you shine your headlights on it, it does reflect!

Right now we can’t access the “Putnam” panel because we flipped the box so the words were right side up, put the “top” on the bottom, added a piece of plywood to the bottom for stability and added casters.

Eventually I would like to upholster the top, but in the meantime, I love the box for our tree.

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Our tree is set inside another amazing treasure – this old factory bin, found in NH last year.

I placed a pretty cheapy basic tree, sprayed with spray on snow. It is my experience that stuff can make even the cheapest tree look pretty!

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Then I began filling up the tree with vintage treasures: a few vintage ornaments, some sparkly snow flakes, vintage clock faces and vintage chandelier crystals.

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Then for my “garland” I used some simple twine and vintage lace trim.

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I also had some really pretty Blessed Mother ornaments as well.

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All in all, it brings some pretty sparkle to our basement. If you want to see more of our basement this Christmas, you can go here.

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Then of course, we have our traditional family tree upstairs in the living room.

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This tree is filled with all of the ornaments our kids have made and the ornaments that we have given them each year. This tree makes my heart happy.

This year we also had a little fun and added a bright tree upstairs for the girls as well.

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I hope you enjoyed our trees, if you would like to see our whole Christmas tour, you can visit here.

I will be sharing this post with some of the link parties you can find here.

And of course, I am joining Sarah over at The Thrifty Decor Chick for her Tree Party!

thrifty decor sheet

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Thanks for reading.

December 14, 2011 — Laura Putnam