I used to decorate Christmas trees professionally when I worked at City Flowers and Geranium Lake Flowers. We worked on mostly huge trees in building lobbies, hotels and offices, but I learned a lot of neat tricks that work on any size tree. Here are five that I think are the most useful:
1. String your Christmas lights from the bottom to the top. Weave the lights in toward the trunk, then out to the end of the branches in a horizontal “W” pattern all around the tree. When you need to move from branch to branch, your lights should cross to the next branch by the trunk, not cross out at the tip of the branches. The goal is to avoid seeing the strings out at the ends of the branches. Use green pipe cleaners to wire the strings to the branches if the strings are hanging down.
2. If you are decorating a large tree (taller than 7 feet), string the lights in sections of the tree, not all around. This makes it quicker to remove the lights after Christmas.
3. Use wide garland, preferably fabric to hide exposed light strings and gaps between the branches. Garland that is at least 8″ wide can hide a multitude of tree imperfections and provide unity of color to your ornament collection.
4. Hang your ornaments in groups, starting with the biggest ornaments first. Hang the ornaments in a diamond-pattern to evenly cover the tree. Wire them to the tree using green pipecleaners if the ornaments are heavy or fragile.
5. If you have an ornament collection that is widely varied in color, shape and style, buy about two to three dozen ball ornaments in one color to unify the collection. If the balls match the garland’s color, all the better.
Decorating a Christmas tree is one of the best parts of the holiday season, and these tips will help make your tree look spectacular this year!
