It's never a bad time to make a NeoPixel project, but the holiday season certainly does lend itself to creating large-scale, blinky, colorful displays. In this project, we're taking the classic Christmas tree shape, cutting it out of wood and mounting some NeoPixels in the tree to create a festive yuletide light display.

The whole thing is controlled by a Circuit Playground Bluefruit board, which sits proudly on top of the tree in a 3D printed star with all ten of its NeoPixels shining brightly and swirling along with the additional pixels on the tree.

Project Video

Supplies

To create this project, you'll need:

Electronics

shot of a Black woman's neon-green manicured hand holding up a Circuit Playground Bluefruit glowing rainbow LEDs.
Circuit Playground Bluefruit is our third board in the Circuit Playground series, another step towards a perfect introduction to electronics and programming. We've...
$24.95
In Stock
Glowing NeoPixel Mini Button PCB wired up to a microcontroller
These are the smallest NeoPixel breakouts around! Tiny, bright RGB pixels to your project. These little PCBs are only 8mm x 10mm and have two sets of three pads on the back for...
$4.95
In Stock
Silicone Cover Stranded-Core Wire - 30AWG in Various Colors laid out beside each other.
Silicone-sheathing wire is super-flexible and soft, and its also strong! Able to handle up to 200°C and up to 600V, it will do when PVC covered wire wimps out. We like this wire...
Out of Stock

3D Printing

Filament for 3D printers in various colors and types stacked together.
Having a 3D printer without filament is sort of like having a regular printer without paper or ink.  And while a lot of printers come with some filament there's a good chance...
Out of Stock

Other Supplies and Tools

1 x 2 x 4 Plywood
2 x 4 piece of plywood
12 x Plastic Ornament Baubles
Plastic DIY ornaments
1 x Shellac
Shellac to seal the wood
1 x Foam brush
Brush to apply shellac
2 x Sand paper
120 and 220 grit
1 x Wood filler (optional)
Wood filler in case any issues after drilling
1 x Jigsaw
Jigsaw to cut the wood
1 x Drill
Drill for holes
1 x 1 inch Hole Saw
1 in. hole saw for the bauble holes

Don't feel confined by these supplies though for the tree body and NeoPixel mounting options. You could use fabric, cardboard, foam, etc. to create your own tree shape.

This guide was first published on Dec 25, 2019. It was last updated on Mar 28, 2024.

This page (Overview) was last updated on Mar 08, 2024.

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