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HOWTO make a terrarium inside a Christmas ornament

Cory Doctorow at 8:47 am Thu, Dec 8, 2011

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This fairly straightforward HOWTO teaches you to build a tiny terrarium inside a clear glass Christmas tree bauble.

If you love terrariums as much as we do, why not trim your holiday tree with a some of them? With just a few materials and some fresh plants, you can create ornaments featuring these glass-enclosed garden worlds to make your home jolly and bright. We think they're much more fun than your typical store-bought ornaments, and unlike those shiny green balls you'd see on a generic Christmas tree, these terrarium ornaments can stay out long after the yule tide comes and goes. Read on for our step by step tutorial to learn how to make your own!

DIY: How to Make a Terrarium Christmas Ornament! (via Neatorama)

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

MORE:  holidays • housewares • howto • maker • xmas

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  • thehighandlow

    I did this a few years ago and it didn’t turn out as well as I expected. The glass ornaments are SOOOOOO fragile! They break if you even breathe on them too hard.

  • chaopoiesis

    Oh man, this post makes my heart sing.

    I’m already seeing a Christmas tree hung with clear glass ornaments containing tiny living Christmas trees, each of which is hung with ultra-tiny clear glass ornaments…

  • Rich Keller

    This would be fun to do to bring life to an artificial tree. I have a couple of metal table top trees I could decortate with these. I want to make aquarium ornaments with sea monkeys living in them, too.

  • Brainspore

    A real terrarium buff would just build a giant glass dome over their Christmas tree.

  • Guest

    What an amazing idea! I’m not Christian myself, but I have to say this would look beautiful on a tree. And Christian or not, I’d love to have some of these hanging around the house year round.

  • Morkl

    I want one with an ant farm in it.

  • Melinda9

    I don’t know if it’s because of where I live [CT (damp and humid)], but every terrarium I make ends up growing fungi and mold and the plants die. Very discouraging because I would love to have a terrarium. But I’m going to try these ornaments – maybe just with moss (of which I have plenty on the bricks in back) and little rocks or objects.

  • http://disqus.com/Kimmoth/ Kimmo

    How feasible would it be to attempt to create a relatively self-sustaining ecosystem in such a small space, I wonder…?

    Also, I feel the need to mention that I recently discovered the game Terraria, and it’s swallowing my life whole.

  • Peter Gordon

    I just can’t handle those click through steps… just put it all on the one page!!