Every year, the average poker junkie can expect to get some sort of poker-related gift from friends and family because of his love of the game.
Chances are, if you're that poker junkie, you've got dozens of decks of cards, more than a couple sets of poker chips and various other poker paraphernalia that you don't really know what to do with. You may take a set out once in a blue moon to play with buddies, but what do you do with all this stuff if you're mostly an online poker player?
You could go the regifting route, or you could use some of those items to decorate for the holidays and really show off how much you love the game.
Poker Chip Garland
There are two ways you can go about making a string of poker chips to make garland for your Christmas tree. The first way is to use some string and hot glue, and you'll be able to take it apart again fairly easily if you want to be able to use the poker chips for a game again.
The second way is going to put some holes in your poker chips, but the garland will be tougher to break and reusable for a few years. If you're hoping to have a poker-themed tree for more years to come, this may be the way to go for you, but you're going to need a good drill.
So, for Option A, you'll need a spool of kite string or any sort of strong string, a glue gun and some glue sticks. All you have to do is put a spot of hot glue on the poker chip where you want to attach the string, and then lay the string into the hot glue. Be careful not to actually touch the hot glue - you need those fingers for playing online poker still.
You can glue the chips up close to each other along the string or spread them out a bit to get whatever look you prefer. Keep in mind if you're spreading them out that you'll want some color of string that looks good on your tree then.
For Option B, you'll need a drill with a bit good for drilling through plastic or clay depending on what kind of poker chips you have.
To prevent chipping and breaking, put a piece of masking tape over the chip where you want to drill your hole. Drill through, then just run your string or fishing line through the hole and tie it off to hold it in place along the string. Once you've got the final poker chip on the string, tie off the end, and you've got a poker garland ready to put on the tree.
Playing Card Ornaments
With a hole punch and some gift ribbon, you can easily turn a deck of cards into a set of 52 ornaments for your tree as well. The basic directions are:
- Punch a hole in the playing card where you want the ribbon to go.
- Put a piece of ribbon through the hole and tie the ends together to form a loop.
- Hang on the tree.
If you want to get really creative, you could start by cutting the cards into Christmas shapes like stars, stockings, candy canes and more. Or you could cut the people out of the face cards so you've got little jacks, queens and kings to hang on the tree.
Favorite Player Tree Topper
What Christmas tree is complete without a topper of some sort? As long as we're going along with the poker theme, might as well finish it off with your favorite poker player sitting at the top.
Imagine having Daniel Negreanu, Phil Hellmuth or Doyle Brunson presiding over your holiday fun rather than the usual star, angel or Santa Claus.
Perhaps you've got a few poker player posters you've been given over the years, or some old poker magazines you subscribed to before you discovered PokerListings.
From that poster or magazine, cut out the face of the player you'd like to immortalize on the top of your tree. You may need to reinforce the image with another piece of paper glued behind it so the face will stand up on the top of the tree.
Then roll a sheet of paper into a cone and glue to keep it in that shape. Glue the cone to the back of the face you're going to use, and once it's dry, it's ready to sit on the top of your tree.
Once you're all done, you can kick back on the couch with your laptop loaded up to your favorite real money poker site and think to yourself as you gaze upon your poker tree, "Martha Stewart would be proud."
Related Article: Poker gift ideas for all bankroll sizes
