For the Holiday Card I just naturally started with the pine tree version of the Christmas tree. For me I think it will help to define the whole look and feel so best to start with it.
I started with a cone. I added some edge loops so that I could scale those in to make the tiers. Then I added another set of edge loops just above the edge that was the over hang. Then I selected the polygons between the new loop and the very edge one and I extruded
them. I used the extrude -by polygons option to get them to separate and extrude along their own normals. Unfortunately, because of the angle coming off the cone they all pointed up. The nice thing though is because all those polygons were still selected I was able to just use the transform tool and move them down to where they look right.
This works pretty good. Though at the moment it looks a lot like a small silver tinsel Christmas tree we had for years when I was growing up. Still the idea works. 
I want it to have some variety to it so I tried rotating each level of branches just a bit so that they are off center from each other some. I think it helps as well.
Unfortunately, when I stepped away and didn’t get back to the project for a few days, I didn’t remember my spacing of where I was extruding my polygons from and I’ve now got things a bit more spaced out than I think I want, or at least, more than is consistent with
the first set of levels that I worked on.
One of the things I did to add some variety to things was to resize, or scale the polygons at the end of each arm/branch that sticks out. By doing that it sort of reshapes them a bit and makes it more visually interesting.
Since I intend to smooth everything when I’m done, and possibly add some snow patches I though I’d have a look at what things look like with turbosmooth applied. The good news is that it’s going to achieve the look I am going for. It also points out that some of my level of branches are a bit flat. I want them to be a bit fuller like the fourth one from the top. 
As you can see I’ve got a bit more basic shaping to do as well as some adjustments to relative spacing.