I got the idea for a Brazilian jiu-jitsu Christmas tree a few months ago because my husband (and kids) trains in Brazilian jiu-jitsu (BJJ) and Judo. I thought it would be fun to surprise him with his own little tree this year. I stuck with a BJJ theme and just added a few judo “ornaments”. I searched Google for ideas but didn’t see any Christmas trees decorated with a jiu-jitsu theme like I pictured. There was one with martial arts belts wrapped around a Christmas tree, one full of medals, and one that had MMA gear on it, but that wasn’t what I had in mind. I decided to come up with my own ideas, so I’m going to go ahead and say that I invented the Brazilian jiu-jitsu Christmas tree! *adds it to resume*
The first thing I wanted to do was find out if there were any tree skirts with a jiu-jitsu theme, which I was pleasantly surprised to find out, yes, someone already came up with that idea. I can’t claim that invention, sadly. There were a lot of choices, but it was too big of a coincidence to pass up the panda one because that’s the exact photo my husband has as his background on his phone. I couldn’t find a jiu-jitsu tree topper, and the usual ones wouldn’t have fit the theme. That’s when I decided on a Santa hat and luckily, found this one that was perfect.
I did have a snowflake garland and mini ball ornaments wrapped around it, but it didn’t work so I just stuck with the idea of only using his purple belt and patches instead. It was much more fun to have jiu-jitsu patches and judo patches as ornaments instead of balls anyway. I needed to think of more ideas for small things that could be used as ornaments, but that also doubled as Christmas gifts.
That’s when I thought of a keychain and bracelet. I also found those online and can I just say how cute is it that the person who makes the keychains even adds little stripes for you? I did end up buying some ornaments that were just that, and can’t be used for anything else, but they went with my idea so well that I had to get those, too.
So, that’s the story of how I invented the Brazilian jiu-jitsu Christmas Tree and I won’t let anyone tell me otherwise! Have you ever done a theme that didn’t include typical Christmas ornaments? You can find ornaments for just about anything these days, and if not, get creative like I did and “invent” your own. 😉