How to style a Christmas forest around a bottle garden with mini trees, pinecones and warm lights.
To create a Christmas forest around a terrarium, combine a bottle garden with a few miniature fir trees, pinecones and a thin string of warm white lights. The terrarium is the green centrepiece, the mini trees form the forest around it, and the lights add the glow. It takes less than an hour and the result sits comfortably on a shelf, sideboard or windowsill.
A full-sized Christmas tree takes up a lot of room, and not every home has it. A miniature forest gives you the same atmosphere in a much smaller footprint. A glass bottle adds something a plain shelf scene lacks: you can see the plants, the moss and the layers inside, so the scene has depth from every angle.
The approach also keeps the festive part flexible. The terrarium stays as it is, while the decorations around it can change from Christmas to winter and back to spring without rebuilding anything.
For this idea we use the Fat Joe Green bottle garden DIY kit. Fat Joe is a large, rounded bottle of 29 cm across and 30 cm high, which gives the scene a strong centre. The kit contains the Fat Joe terrarium with an LED cork in size M or L (batteries not included), three terrarium plants (Asparagus, Fern and Fittonia White Tiger), a refill and starter package with three fresh green moss balls, 1.75 litres of terrarium soil, 0.75 litres of hydro pellets and 35 grams of activated charcoal, plus a step-by-step guide and care instructions.
A note on the LED cork: it is purely decorative. It gives the bottle a soft glow in the evening, but it is not a grow light and does not replace daylight.
Follow the guide in the kit: drainage layer, activated charcoal, soil, plants and moss, then a light watering and the cork. Because the ecosystem is closed, it largely regulates its own water and humidity. Watering is often needed only once or twice a year.
Put the bottle a little to one side on your shelf or tray. An off-centre centrepiece looks more natural and leaves room on the other side for the trees. Keep the decorations around the bottle rather than inside it, so the plants have room and you can still open the cork.
Odd numbers look best. Place one tall mini tree behind the terrarium and two smaller ones in front, at different distances. Vary the pot heights by standing a few on a small block of wood. A forest looks convincing when the trees are not in a straight line.
Scatter a few pinecones and twigs between the pots and press some natural moss around the base of the trees. This links the trees to the green inside the bottle, so the scene reads as one landscape instead of separate objects.
Drape the fairy lights loosely along the shelf or behind the trees. Choose warm white rather than multicolour for a calm effect, and keep the cable and battery pack out of sight behind a pot. The lights stay outside the bottle, so the terrarium itself is left alone.
On a windowsill, keep the trees low so they do not block the daylight your plants need. On a sideboard, you can build the scene deeper, with a taller tree in the back. On a dining table, a tray makes the whole forest easy to move when you need the space.
For a quieter look, stay with two colours: green and natural wood, with a touch of terracotta. For a warmer, more festive feel, add gold or cream accents through the pots or a small ribbon around one of the trees.
The terrarium needs very little attention. Place it in a bright spot, out of direct sunlight, and open the bottle for a few hours once a month. Keep it away from candles and heaters. The decorations around the bottle can come and go as you like.
We recommend keeping the decorations around the bottle rather than inside it, so the plants and moss keep their space and you can open the cork easily.
No. The LED cork is purely decorative and does not replace daylight. Place the terrarium in a bright spot without direct sunlight.
Because the ecosystem is closed, watering is often needed only once or twice a year. Opening the bottle for a few hours once a month is recommended.
Use a small battery-powered string of warm white lights and keep it on the shelf around the bottle, not inside it.
Ready to build your own? Explore our Christmas terrariums for more starting points, or read why a terrarium makes a sustainable gift too.
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