I’ve been on the hunt for the past several weeks to find a new star topper for our Christmas tree.  Although I’ve seen a variety of adorable alternate tree topper ideas, I like the tradition of a star atop the tree.  We used to have a large glittery copper paper star, that met an unfortunate demise when it fell off the tree and Bacardi ‘revamped’ it.  Last year we used an IKEA star, which is now on the nativity creche I shared last week.  It worked, but I didn’t love it and knew I wanted something new this year – besides, it looks a lot better with the nativity set than it did on the tree.

I was planning to DIY a star topper I saw on Pintrest but couldn’t find the right materials locally.  I also browsed Etsy for some ready to buy options, yet couldn’t find anything I loved.  So the top of our tree sat naked for the first few weeks it was up while I continued the hunt.  Luckily, during a recent stop at Walmart I spotted a gold colored faux mercury glass star that was ready to plug in and light up.

The box it came in was fairly beat up, so I looked for another one that hadn’t been abused, but after searching through all of the tree topper shelves I confirmed this was the last one in that style.  While it would still be pretty even if it didn’t light up, I didn’t want to pay full-price if I wasn’t going to get the glow atop my tree like I was envisioning.  Since it was quite early in the morning, the store wasn’t busy and a very nice sales associate helped me find an outlet make sure it still worked.  It lit right up as soon as he plugged it in, so I said I’d take it.

That night it went on top of our tree.  Since the plugs for the tree lights are in the middle of the tree and the star’s cord didn’t reach that far, I had to run an extension cord through the tree to plug it in.

It’s the perfect finishing touch to our tree and well worth the little extra effort and hunting.  It’s got a rustic and vintage vibe with the mercury glass look, yet is classic and modern too.  If only I’d known to search for mercury gold star to begin with!

I’m pretty sure we will be replacing the tree for next year – I’ll be on the hunt for a bargain during the after Christmas sales – but the size and style of the new star should work well with any tree we get, so I’m planning to enjoy it for many more years. 🙂