Branch out this year

Eric Cortina, the creative director at Roger’s Gardens, creates his own fake Christmas tree at home because he likes big gaps between branches to show off ornaments. “It’s not perfectly symmetrical,” he says. “It’s perfectly imperfect.”

The materials and tools needed to assemble his tree: an 8-foot landscaping tree stake, a 7- to 8-foot-tall artificial Christmas tree (no lights), bolt cutters, a drill, gravel and a container such as an urn.