Rob playing “Santa” to the birds and squirrels last year.
Rob and I feed the birds year round, but even they get a few extra treats on Christmas Day. Since 2009 we’ve set up what we call the “Critter Christmas Tree” in our backyard.
We don’t have a tree in the yard that would work, so we buy an evergreen from our local corner store and carry it to our backyard where we set it up. We may put a few things on it or around it leading up to Christmas day, but come the morning of December 25th, our backyard birds and squirrels wake up to a huge buffet on and under the tree. It’s fun for us to do and we enjoy watching them discover it. The Critter Christmas tree is now as much a part of our Christmas traditions as opening gifts Christmas morning.
We decorate the tree with fruit, bird seed cookies, and bagels spread with peanut butter dipped in birdseed. Underneath the tree is a variety of nuts, seeds, cracked corn and berries. Bird Seed cookie recipes can be found with the help of “Google”, but I included a link to a recipe at the end of this post.
The tree also provides extra shelter during the winter months, and we keep it up until spring for that reason. We also gather a few of our neighbors discarded trees to make a pile in the backyard for added shelter.
Below are a few pictures of our Critter Christmas Tree from different years. Rob and I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and wonderful 2016.
2010
2010
A Chickadee checks out the bounty. 2010
All of our regular backyard birds enjoy the goodies; Cardinls, Chickadees, Downy Woodpeckers, Nuthatches, Blue Jays and of course the squirrels. We do get a few surprise visitors from time to time.
American Tree Sparrow. 2013
2013
2014
Enjoying the tree. 2014
Merry Christmas! 2014
Click HERE for a video on how to make bird seed cookies.
Oh How Wonderful! I wish I could do something like that but a 6th floor balcony doesn’t lend itself to creating such a happy site for birds and critters. I hope you all, humans and others, have a great holiday, whichever holiday it is!
What fun! I love the photo of the black squirrel with the apple slice!