The Art of Decorating a Christmas Tree

Happy Thanksgiving  everyone!

So there is an art to decorating a Christmas Tree.  I've had mine up for two weeks.  Don't yell at me.  I'm following in family tradition.  My grandma used to put her's up in September and leave it up till February.  Okay, a slight exaggeration.  But she knew how to appreciate the holiday decor. And also, I do so much holiday decorating throughout the season for other people, that if I don't get mine up first by the time I get around to doing it the quality is seriously lacking.

My friend Susan has a Christmas decorating business that I am privileged to be involved with every year.  With that and all the floral design I have done through the years, I have developed a system.  So this year Chaney is old enough to really soak in the decorating wisdom and I thought it was a good time to impress my methods upon my young.

Step 1)  Establish a Foundation.   Set up your Tree. This step would include lighting and fluffing.  There is an art to both.

Fluffing.  The task delegated to the munchkin.  Mainly because it is no fun and it can be dangerous.  She's gotta earn her stripes.  Okay, so it's not really dangerous.  But it is a little rough on your skin if you spend an extended amount of time in artificial evergreen.  The key to fluffing is to keep it natural.  Don't fluff your branches so that they look like you put the end of the branch in an electric socket.  Natural.  If you like fresh trees, your job is done for you.

Lighting.  While Chaney took care of the fluffing I handled the lighting.  We had a wonderful system.  She would fluff a branch, I would put each branch on the tree and light it as we went.  That's my preference for lighting.  Light each branch.  None of this circling the lights round and round the tree, you lay the lights up and down each individual branch.  With an artificial tree you can run the lights pretty much down the center and cross your branches over.  The effect is fab and it is less easily tangled.  Really.

Step 2) Assess your options. 

So the next step is to sort out the available decorations.  Best way to do this is to lay out your Christmas tree skirt on the floor and organize all your ornaments into groupings.  Another task for Chaney.  She did an excellent job.  Her tree will be beautiful when she's out on her own in 11 years.  This is also the time to decide who makes the cut and who doesn't.  Make a definite decision about what's going on the tree.

Step 3)  Framework.  Toppers, ribbons and garlands.  Whatever you put on the top of the tree goes first and then put on your garlands.  I usually choose the swirly swirl method with a garland and ribbon going diagonally down the tree.  The key to ribbon is puff.  Tuck in here and there so it creates some depth.

Step 4) Decorating. This is the part that get's tedious to me.  So many balls.  My method in this area is go big.  Start with your largest ornaments first.  The logic here is that if the larger ornaments are not placed well it is going to be more obvious than if the smaller ornaments are misplaced.  So I place all my large ornaments, then my next largest, etc.  Also I place all the ornaments of one kind before I move onto another.  But that may just be my organizational neurosis.  Next secret of ornament placement.  Diamonds.  I have found over the years that if you follow a diamond pattern it spaces everything perfectly. Lastly I place in fillers.  This would be your glittery, flowery, fillery-iny, items.

And Ta-Da.  You're done.

The decorating team.  Don't ask me what kind of face I was making in this picture.  I lack Kace's skill for taking pictures of myself, and I cut Chaney's head out of all the rest, so this was the only option.

This is my mantle take one.  I later decided it needed a redo, and this is how it looks now.

Better, I think.

The girls room and tree.  Pink and Green.

And the kitchen tree.  All naturals.  Kind of crazy, but fun.

So that's it.  Hope that everyone has a wonderful day stuffed with thanks. Then get out there and spread some Christmas Sparkle.