We love unique Christmas tree themes, and if you've seen our blue Elvis tree or our Portuguese tile tree, you know exactly what I mean. This year we challenged ourselves with an unexpected new tree color — pink — and found the perfect them with carousel horses.

Unique pink Christmas tree

When our friends at King of Christmas sent us a new pink flocked tree this year, we were instantly in love. It went up in minutes, is pre-lit, and looks gorgeous with those unique flocked, pink branches.

Decorating this pink beauty like a carousel was an easy decision to make, but figuring out exactly how to do it took some thought. We knew it needed a tent-shaped topper, poles, horses, and lots of bright and pretty decor.

Making the carousel tent topper

We started with the tent-like topper that is a key element of any carousel. We used a technique very similar to my DIY tree collar idea, which uses a hula hoop to ensure a perfectly round shape. But this time, we used two hula hoops, and put them on the outside of the ring, so that the edges were nice and rounded.

Then we covered it with some stretchy, sparkly silver fabric, leaving just enough play in the middle to be able to stretch up to a pointed top.

We wired a foot-long piece of 1" PVC pipe to the very top of the tree for support, then simply set the ring on top, and let gravity do the rest. The fabric hung from the pipe and stretched into the perfect pointed top.

Adding the poles

You certainly can't have a carousel without some poles, and we made those using 1" PVC pipes. We wanted them to be silver to match the topper, but we didn't want to use paint because we've always struggled to find a truly metallic looking silver paint.

Then we had a brainstorm idea — we made the poles look metallic quickly and inexpensively by just covering them with some shiny metallic silver wrapping paper. Instant "metal" poles!

We inserted 6 poles among the branches of the tree, letting them rest on the floor, tucked behind another hula hoop tree collar. We put the top of the pipes under the fabric tent and attached them securely with plenty of hot glue.

Creating the horses

The horses are the most iconic part of any carousel, so we cut size of them (one for each pole) out of foam core, using these three carousel horse patterns that I designed, which I'm happy to share with you.

I traced the patterns (two of each design) onto foam core and then cut them out using — are you ready for this — my scroll saw. I stumbled on this idea and it worked so perfectly for cutting such detailed shapes. Be sure to check our my YouTube video to see how to cut curves and shapes in foam core using a scroll saw.

Once the horses were cut out, Jo painted them using DecoArt's Extreme Sheen metallic paint in colors that coordinated with the ornaments we would be using later.

After painting the horses, she added some simple bridles and reins using thin metallic washi tape.

Decorating the tree

With all the parts built, it was finally time to start decorating the tree. We started with the horses, and attached them to the poles with tape, alternating between high and low for each horse.

To finish off the tent topper, we cut a hole in a silver ball and stuck it over the point, making a perfect little finial. We also painted some wooden stars in the same colors as the horses and hot-glued them around the topper.

Then we stuck in some white curly sequin picks from Hobby Lobby and these gorgeous pastel glass ball ornaments with metallic sheen that we found at World Market.

The finished pink carousel Christmas tree

And with that, our pink carousel Christmas tree was done! It came out exactly like we hoped, and even better than we thought it would. We wrapped the presents in the same shiny metallic silver wrapping paper that we used on the poles, so it would all match.

The topper makes the whole thing so charming and nostalgic, with its sparkly silver fabric and colorful stars.

And the horses! They look so caught in motion that I swear sometimes I think I can see the tree spinning 'round and 'round.

Can you think of any more perfect way to decorate this unique pink flocked tree? We think it would be an especially great Christmas tree theme for a nursery or daycare center, or for anyone who loves pink and carousels, just like Jo's neighbor's daughter... she wanted to take the tree home with her as soon as she saw it!