Take a hammer, and break up a small stack of CDs into individual “chips”, small as you can get. Then add a nail to the mix, and punch a hole through the approximate center of each chip.

Now start running dental floss through that hole — you may want a toothpick or needle-nose pliers (what, you have needle nose?? those make breaking the CD up into chips in the first place SIMPLE — but you still need the hammer and nail) to help thread it through.

About the time you run out of enthusiasm, or dental floss, wrap the whole garland you’ve just made around a Pringles can and snap the lid closed on each end so the chips don’t get away.

When you get home for Christmas, distract everyone from “so, um, how’d finals go?” by whipping this thing out and draping it artfully (uh, well…) around the tree.

Voila!