A CALVERTON family has come up with the perfect way to dispose of empty beer bottles during the festive season – turn them into a Christmas tree.

Ben Bliss, his brother Stewart and their dad Andrew have created the eye-catching decoration using 413 bottles placed on a steel frame.

They hit on the idea after seeing similar oddball recycling efforts on websites from America.

But it took slightly longer than expected to down enough booze to create the "branches" and they had to call in help to get it ready in time for Christmas this year.

Ben, 26, who works for the family's building firm, said: "We originally planned to do it last Christmas but we never had time to finish it.

"With a few parties and a little help from our local pub, it is now completely ready for Christmas 2009."

Between their friends and the Admiral Rodney pub in Main Street, the Bliss family managed to get enough bottles for 15 layers and nearly seven feet of tree.

Brown cider bottles were used for the trunk, green beer bottles for the foliage and a clear spirit bottle for the star at the top.

Once they had enough bottles, the tree took just days to assemble.

Andrew, 51, used his expertise as an engineer to weld together the metal frame.

Ben said: "It's all made of steel underneath.

"It's built like a teepee and then we dropped smaller and smaller steel hoops over the top of it, so they'd stop at different points.

"Then there are spikes that the bottles are on upside down."

The men put lights inside to cast a beery glow across their garden.

Ben said they often have little projects on the go and mum Michele is quite happy to leave them to it.

He said: "We are in the building trade so we're quite practical. Last year we built a massive igloo."

The tree has already proved a hit in the village.

Ben said: "We've had a lot of people just stopping and looking at it."

The tree's lights were switched on by Ben's grandmother during a special ceremony on Wednesday.

They still have to decide whether to keep their decoration when Christmas is over, or take it to the bottle bank. Andrew said the tree was a fun and novel way to mark Christmas.

He said: "It's the lads' idea and I said I'd give them a hand. We worked together."

sarah.firth@nottinghameveningpost.co.uk