Do you love putting up your Christmas tree?
Do you have a rhythm that works well for you?
Would you like to know what the professionals know?
Early in my working life I worked as an interior decorator beside a decorator who put up Christmas decorations. Along the way, I picked up a few tips regarding putting up a Christmas tree quickly and efficiently.
Recently, I threw out our larger broken tree and replaced it with three 8′ trees. Since these trees are smaller, they go up much faster. I divided out the decorations that we had and gave each tree a theme. One tree has the traditional theme, another has neutral and green while the third one has gold, silver, white and glass. While there is not only one way to put up a Christmas tree, some patterns create a beautiful outcome.
- Grab your favorite hot drink like a hot chocolate, coffee or hot apple cider.
- Start playing your favorite Christmas music.
- Select a real or artificial tree.
- Gather all your supplies (ornaments, tree base, lights, topper, extra hooks).
- Put up your tree.
- Place tree skirt under your tree. Often the tree skirt catches everything dropping off the tree as it is being decorated. If needed, shake off snow or pine needles after all the decorating.
- Fluff your tree branches in a circular motion. For example, fluff all the branches along the bottom first moving to the next level up. Sometimes it is easier to fluff the tree in sections before putting it together.
- Put the topper on the tree. Currently, we put up three trees. Over the years, collected sprigs with various shapes and colors create exciting new toppers. Usually, my topper is about 18″-24″ wide.
- Apply anything like ribbon, beads or berries on a vine circling the tree.
- 100 lights per foot (9ft tree = 900 lights, 7ft tree = 700 lights.)
- Start with the lower branches. Lights should be laced into the middle of the tree and back out. Continue bringing dimension to your tree by bringing them along the length of each branch.
- Consider buying new lights for your tree every other year. Remember if you have an 8ft tree, buy 800 lights. I strongly encourage buying new lights each year.
- Organize your ornaments by size and color groups. For example, if you have 12 gold, 12 silver and 12 glass ornaments, begin with these. Start with the biggest ornaments and move to the medium sized ones. Zigzag the placement of your ornaments. Say that you place your first gold ornament at the top middle. The next one might be to the right, next down to the left and so forth. Stand back to keep the ones that are alike evenly spread out on your tree.
- Place largest ornaments near the bottom of the tree.
- If you have children in your home or visiting your home, place the glass or breakable ornaments closer to the top of the tree.
- As you work on the tree, stand back and make sure it is balanced as you work.
- Enjoy!
- If you run out of time, come back to it or just put away the extra decor for next time. Don’t stress. Just do what you can do each time in the time you allotted to put up your tree.
While you might have to decorate your tree by yourself, it can be a time of joy!! Granted it is always wonderful to have a handsome hubby or loved child or dear friend to enjoy this annual tradition. My ornaments include so many meaningful ornaments from my mother’s collection, gifts from my children, mementos from mission trips, photos frames of my children and so many more. Each year after Christmas, I buy 6-12 new ornaments that are just a fresh addition to our next tree. When I open up the boxes each year, there are a few new ornaments waiting.
More on Christmas:
10 Ideas for a Centered Christmas
High Hopes and Low Expectations for Christmas
A Christmas Checklist for Busy Moms
Joy of Giving: Veteran’s Christmas Lunch
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