Make A Hidden Christmas Tree Watering System

Many people are passionate about having a live Christmas tree, but topping off the tiny water dish in the stand is a pain. Avoid getting poked in the eye with a handy stealth watering system. Over at the DIY site Instructables, user Ricky Spears got sick of wrestling with his tree every time he wanted to top off the quickly depleted reserve of water under his tree. His solution is both cheap and a great time saver. You’d never guess it by just the photo above, but the large gold present under the Christmas tree houses a gallon of water to help top off the pan under the tree.

Every bit of water lost to the tree or evaporation is replenished by the reservoir. Essentially he found a bucket the same height at his tree stand, a box big enough to camouflage the bucket, and by combing the physics of siphoning with small feeder tube he has an automatic tree watering system. If the system needs to be topped off he doesn’t have to risk getting his eye poked out trying to get to the pan at the bottom of the tree, he just lifts the lid of the present and pours more water in the bucket. For more details on his construction methods, check out the well written tutorial at Instructables.