How to Make a Glove Christmas Tree

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I’ve been seeing Christmas trees made out of gloves for years but have yet to see a single “How to Make a Glove Christmas Tree” guide. So I decided to make one myself.

Hey! After you make your glove Christmas tree why not decorate it with nurse Christmas ornaments?

Nurses are creative individuals. You have to be to do the job. There’s no nurse around that hasn’t had to get creative to dress a wound properly, manage time effectively, or appease a seemingly inconsolable patient. Creativity is just the name of the game in nursing.

Unfortunately, working holidays is also a big part of the nursing game. One holiday that many nurses find particularly difficult to work is Christmas. So many nurses miss the time with their families and familiar traditions.

But there are no reasons to let working holidays completely bum you out. There are plenty of ways you can spruce up your work setting and maybe even create a few new holiday traditions– like perhaps a glove Christmas tree.

Instructions to Make a Christmas Tree out of Gloves

It should be noted that there is more than one way to skin a cat and thusly more than one way to make a Christmas tree out of hospital gloves. The instructions that follow are the steps I used. I will also add notes at the end to account for steps I would try for my next tree.

Picking Good Gloves

If you’re making this at work, you are likely going to use what they’ve got in stock. There are so many different kinds of gloves, and some of them lend themselves better to this process than others. For example, I found that latex gloves are the only ones I could find on the shelf that would blow up like a balloon. Vinyl gloves did inflate, but not very large, and it was a real challenge to tie a knock in the cuff to hold the air inside them.

You can see the differences between latex and vinyl gloves below.

The first step is to blow the gloves up like balloons. You can twist the wrist of the glove around to secure the air, and carefully tie a knot in the wrist. This is not the easiest thing in the world, it may take you a few tries, but can be done. If you are using gloves that have no stretch to them, you may have to deflate the gloves a little.

Securing the Gloves Together

Determine a method to secure the gloves together. I decided to do this with yarn. I took the yard and made slip knots and inserted the tied-off wrist into the knot. This created a chain of gloves.

Building a Base

You then have to devise some form of a base to mount the gloves on. In my case I wanted to mount the gloves to themselves, so I built a starter base of 4 gloves. It could be considered a tiny glove Christmas tree on its own, but I like to consider it more of a glove pyramid.

Building up the Tree

After you have built the base for the Christmas tree, you will need to start building it up. For the tree I built, this means to position the string of gloves around the bottom and layering it up and into a tree shape. I did use yarn in various places in the tree to secure it so that it kept its shape without falling over. It is worth noting, however, that even with this the glove Christmas tree is still rather delicate.

Decorate the Tree

You can get creative with items you have around, or you can bring it items specifically for the tree. I would recommend choosing items that are soft and light. A garland and bows work well.

The Result

Ta-Da! You have a glove Christmas tree or at least a mass of gloves that somewhat resembles the shape and feel of a Christmas tree.

Inflatable Christmas Tree

If the glove Christmas tree just isn’t coming together for you, you could also go the quick and easy route and just get an inflatable Christmas tree, which is probably just as much fun, and way less hassle. If you really want to nurse it up, you can hand foley garland, and nurse Christmas ornaments on it.

Bonus Medical Christmas Fun

How about decking the halls with boughs of urinals! Or… you could just use urinals as stockings. What’s weirder and nursey than that?

Notes: The construction of the tree can be made in various ways. One factor that I would change the next go-around is the structure of the base. I would probably build something out of cardboard to secure the gloves. I would probably also use duck tape or some other form of tape to secure the gloves to the cardboard or poke holes in the cardboard and pop the tied-off glove wrists inside to secure

See our previous post for more examples of Christmas Trees made out of gloves. You can also find 15 Fun Christmas Nurse Ornaments that will make any Christmas tree feel a little more nursey.

Please let us know in the comments your results in making this tree!