GIFT BOX COVER: Get a box with a cover. It should be large enough for your tree stand to fit into. Cut a hole in the top center where your tree trunk will go. Wrap the top and bottom separately, embellishing with ribbons or bows as you wish. Set the stand inside the box. Put the tree trunk through the hole of the top of the box, then set the trunk down into the stand. You should be able to lift up the box cover enough to fit your hands inside to tighten the screws, or to add water if you're using a real tree.
GIFT BOX COVER #2: Instead of sticking your tree in one, big wrapped gift, collect a bunch of small, or narrow boxes. Wrap and decorate them. Pile them around the tree stand, hot gluing them together so that it looks like a stack of gifts is laying at the base of the tree.
YULE LOG COVER: Go to the grocery store and pick up a bag of chopped firewood. Get some plastic evergreen garland or holly leaves. Decorate the logs with the garland or leaves, either by wrapping them in spirals, or clipping some and gluing them to the top. When you're done, arrange the logs around the tree stand, either in a tee-pee or a stack, depending on what works best with your stand.
ROCK COVER: Use some river rocks or large quartz crystals to stack up around the tree stand.
FOREST FLOOR COVER: Get a piece of oak tag paper and make it into a cone large enough to cover the tree stand, then tape it to that size. Leave a hole at the top for the tree trunk to fit through. Get some spanish moss from the craft store and glue a layer on the outside of the cone. Go into your yard or the park and pick up some twigs, pinecones, small stones, or whatever else you can find that interests you. Alternatively, you can go to the craft store and get little flowers or leaves. Glue them over the moss. The covering will look like a forest floor. If you're using a real tree, leave a hole in the back of the cone large enough to fit in the spout of your watering can.
CHRISTMAS BALL ORNAMENT COVER: Take your tree stand, a hot glue gun, and several boxes of plastic ornament balls (assorted sizes and colors give a nice visual appeal). Begin stacking the balls around the tree stand. As you go up a level, hot glue the balls together. Important tip: Don't glue them all in one big, round chunk around the tree stand. It will be too hard to move them and store them. Make several pieces that can be placed together in an interlocking pattern, but that can come apart in three to five clumps for ease of use.
SNOWY MOUNTAIN COVER: Get a sheet of sparkly cotton meant to look like snow. These sheets are sold in most stores that have Christmas decorations, and are very inexpensive. Place it around the tree stand. Get some little houses to go on the snowy mountain, or some cute little ornament figures, such as snowmen on skis going downhill.
CHRISTMAS CARD COVER: Wondering what to do with those old cards from previous years? Use them to cover that tree stand. Cut a cone of oak tag paper to fit around the stand, leaving the hole for the tree trunk on top (and for watering if you have a real tree). Glue or tape the old cards to the stand. You can either put them side by side so they can still be opened and viewed, make a collage out of their covers, or overlay them haphazardly to look like you've thrown a stack of cards at the bottom of the tree.
STUFFED ANIMAL COVER: Get a large stuffed animal, such as a lounging jungle cat, and lay it to cover the tree stand. Or, get a bunch of small stuffed animals and pile them up at the bottom of the tree.
FLOWER COVER: Make a paper cone out of red oat tag that covers your tree stand, leaving a hole for the trunk, and one for watering. Get some silk poinsettia flowers. Pluck the blossoms off the stems and hot-glue them to the cone, covering it completely. If you prefer to use white poinsettias, use white oat tag paper.
