How To Decorate A Christmas Tree Professionally

Looking for how to decorate a Christmas tree professionally? You’re in the right place as I’m about to show you how to do exactly that.

One of the most exciting things about the Christmas season is moving around the neighborhoods and catching the sight of beautiful Christmas trees everywhere. This usually reminds me that truly, we’re in the Christmas season.

Decorating a Christmas tree is an age-old tradition in many homes, even though as you probably know, Christmas tree decorating didn’t gain popularity in the US until the late 19th century.

In the early days, Christmas decorations were mainly homemade ornaments but today, the decorations have taken a nice shape with aesthetically crafted souvenir ornaments, twinkling lights, garlands, etc.

However, hanging a lot of garland, ornaments, and dazzling ribbons on a tree without a clue on how to do it professionally can end up looking messy.

Decorating professional looking Christmas trees takes some practice, but the job will be easier if you keep a few basic tips in mind.

Where Did the Tradition Of Christmas Tree Come From?

The Christmas tree tradition was started by Germany in the 16^th Century when devout Christians brought decorated trees into their homes to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. And then in the 19^th Century, decoration of the Christmas tree gained popularity in the United States.

That said, here’s how to decorate a Christmas tree like a pro:

How to Decorate a Christmas tree Professionally

Getting a glittering holiday tree doesn’t have to be difficult as I mentioned earlier, you just have to understand how all the elements work together and some easy-to-follow strategies from Christmas tree decorating experts.

If you follow the 15 steps below, you’ll end up with a Christmas tree with a professional look and feel.

1. Select your Christmas tree location

Whether you’re planning to decorate a real or artificial Christmas tree, the first step is to decide where to place the tree, especially if you have limited space in your home.

Preferably, you should place it near a plug socket, so you won’t have wires littered across the living room floor. If necessary, you can also re-arrange furniture so the tree can be positioned where your kids and visitors won’t get in the way of your stunning holiday tree.

And if you have a real tree, choose a location that is cool (far away from fires) so it won’t dry out too much before the big day.

2. Measure the location

Having picked a perfect location for your tree, the next step is to measure the depth, width and ceiling height of the space to ensure it’ll accommodate the tree.

Additionally, you also want to consider the height of your tree stand as well as the topper so you can give your tree sufficient room so its branches can hang freely.

3. Fluff and shape the branches

Fluffing your Christmas tree branches will help make it appear fuller and more natural. Each branch should be separated so they fan out to cover every possible area.

It’s also advisable to bend individual branches to fill in the gaps. A properly shaped Christmas tree is an attractive sight to behold regardless of how lavish or minimal your decorations may be.

4. Get Matching Decorations and Colors

Although you might not necessarily need a Christmas tree theme, many of the professionally decorated Christmas trees showcased during the holiday season are usually decorated to create a specific look.

Whether you choose to use a theme or not, this is the right time to gather all your decorations and ornaments, so everything is ready so you can be sure things coordinate perfectly. And for decorating newbies, simple themes are often the easiest to pull off successfully.

There is a range of possible themes you can use such as:

• The whimsical and fun red and white candy cane Christmas tree
• Hallmark Christmas ornaments with dates printed on them to create a memorable tradition
• Wild bird decorations and rustic ornaments look fantastic in a cabin
• Silver and blue snowflakes and other winter ornaments would also look fantastic on a white flocked tree

Choosing colors that go well with the tree location and keeping to a theme can be a significant part of your tree-decorating skill. If unsure, choose a simple scheme.

Greens, golds, and reds are a perfect fit for a traditional-style for Christmas, while white and yellow lights as LEDs can give a more blue tone. For a winter look, go for blues, silver, and purples or for a more minimalist tree, choose silver, white, and traditional wooden decorations.

Variety is the secret here – don’t go too matchy with your decorations and theme throughout your tree and your home.

Furthermore, parents may equally wish to decorate their live Christmas tree using homemade tree decorations that their kids have designed.

Cooks, bakers, and those with a youthful perception on the festive tradition may also want to build a theme based on Christmas decorations designed from candy.

5. Hang your Christmas tree lights

Now that you’ve carried out the initial assignments, the next step in how to decorate a Christmas tree professionally is to add the lights.

Tree lights generally come on white or green wire strands, although there are also black variations nowadays, which is better if you have a black Christmas tree.

The best thing is to go with a strand color that matches your Christmas tree so the wire will not be so obvious. Additionally, illuminating your tree from the inside out will give it the most vibrant look.

Begin from the base of the stem and work your way up, putting lights around every main branch, and going from the stem to the tip and back.

You can choose from these four popular types of Christmas lights when decorating your Christmas tree:

LED lights

The LED Christmas tree lights are one of the latest types of Christmas lights and they do not produce heat. They’re generally more costly, but they are fireproof, flameproof, and totally safe to decorate a Christmas tree with.

Bubble lights

The bubble lights are designed to stand straight up on your Christmas tree’s limbs. Once the liquid tube on top of the light heats up, you’ll see bubbles floating up and down inside the tube just like lava lamps.

Globe lights

The Globe Christmas tree lights are usually round and come in a variety of sizes. They’ll look like balls of color on your tree, and while their glow is typically softer than mini lights, they produce enough light that’ll cover a larger area on the tree.

Traditional incandescent lights

The traditional incandescent Christmas tree lights are the most popular type of tree lights, and they come in different colors and sizes. They can warm up the branches of a real Christmas tree, which will release the aroma of pine into your room.

You simply want to experiment with different lighting patterns until you find the one you love; it’s also good to mix and match lights. For instance, you can highlight a white or clear light background with strands of colored lights that covers the outer layer of the tree.

6. Hang Beautiful Ornaments

Start decorating your Christmas tree with the biggest ornaments, evenly spacing them apart. Then cover the gaps with the small and medium ornaments, balancing the shapes for a uniform appearance.

Furthermore, you can choose a range of ornament shapes including icicles, snowflakes, traditional ball ornaments, bells, and teardrops.

If you have ornaments with different finishes and colors, hang the brightly and shiny colored ornaments before those with muted colors and dull finishes.

7. Add Baubles

Now, the next thing is to hang baubles to your tree. When doing this, start from the inside of your tree all the way out. It’s good to start with plain-colored baubles as the base, (use a cheaper, multi-pack) adding in more expensive, decorative baubles later.

The larger baubles should be hanged closer to the center of the Christmas tree to give it more depth, then hang smaller baubles towards the ends of the tree branches. Spread them uniformly and use different sizes and shapes.

It’s also important to be selective with decorating your tree, you don’t want to adorn it with every decoration you can find.

8. Add Garland

It’s always advisable to use two strands of garland for each vertical foot of a tree. Beaded garlands adorned from branch to branch look great, while foil or ribbon garland is most appealing when adorned loosely around the whole tree.

Hang the garland starting from the top of your tree, and gradually increase the amount of garland used as you move down the tree. The garland should be wrapped around the tree, not vertically.

9. Add Tinsel

Using a little tinsel, fill in every clearly blank spot on the tree. Tinsel can add lots of vivacity to a Christmas tree, even though it’s not suitable for all tree themes, it can be lovely when added to some trees.

This should be done as one of the last steps in the decoration process. If the tinsel is added earlier, it will be removed when you add the ornaments.

10. Add a Tree skirt

You can’t leave your tree without a skirt, that’ll be embarrassing. Except you want to show everyone the ugly plastic tree holder and your extension lead, you’ll certainly need a tree skirt. These skirts equally catch pine needles if your tree is a real one.

Tree skirts will help to hide wires and make the tree look much tidier and cleaner – without it, your tree will look so unreal. You don’t want people to see the workings of their artificial tree.

11. Place the Tree Topper

The next step to decorating a Christmas tree is to add the tree topper. Different types of toppers are available on the market. Some people prefer using the same topper every year, while others prefer buying a new one to match their tree’s décor and theme.

Angels and stars are still the most popular and traditional toppers. However, you can also add a large bow in a color that pairs with the theme.

12. Floral Pick Fix

If your Christmas tree lacks the full overstuffed designer look you want, then you can add about 20 matching textural floral picks evenly around the tree. Remember that they should match with your color scheme.

You can add floral picks that look like curls, balls, tree branches, or whatever appeals to you, apart from more flowers.

This will usually come handy when you have your kids help decorate the tree and they leave some holes.

13. Balance the décor

With the many decorations on your Christmas tree, you must make sure that everything is well coordinated and spread out as you like it.

From the top of the tree, arrange decorations towards the bottom. This will help you to easily check your overall design as you dress up the tree.

14. Layer and style ribbons

The final step (although not a must) is to layer your Christmas tree with attractive ribbons. You can use one type of ribbon or pair ribbons of different widths and different textures to create more impact.

Here’s also a video that’ll show you how to professionally decorate a Christmas tree:

Frequently Asked Questions about Christmas Tree [FAQs]

Below are a few of the frequently asked questions about Christmas tree:

How many ornaments should I put on a Christmas tree?

There are basically two rules to follow here:

Use 10 ornaments per foot for a tree up to 9-feet. But if the tree is more than 9-feet, use between 12 to 16 ornaments per foot. Let’s explain this on a table:

How many lights do you need for a 6ft tree?

It’s good to have about 100 lights per foot of a Christmas tree. But you may want to double that amount, depending on how much you love lights.

How much garland do I need for a 12-foot tree?

You can have about nine feet of garland for every foot, so a 12-foot Christmas tree will need 107 feet of garland.

What Does Christmas tree symbolize generally?

We’ve already talked about the history of Christmas trees earlier.

But to shade more lights on this, the timeless fir tree has been used traditionally for the celebration of winter festivals (Christian and pagan) for thousands of years.

Christians use Fir Tress as a sign of everlasting life with God, while the Romans used it to adorn their temples at the festival of Saturnalia.

What does the Christmas tree symbolize in Christianity?

Pope John Paul II (of blessed memory) referred to the Christmas tree as a “symbol of Christ” in 2004.

According to him, “this very ancient custom, enhances the value of life. During the winter season, what is evergreen becomes a sign of eternal life, and Christians are reminded of the tree of life of Genesis 2:9, the real image of Christ, Gods ultimate gift to humanity.”

How to Build a Christmas Tree | Conclusion

Decorating a tree during the Christmas season can create a lot of good memories for your family and neighbors, so don’t forget to have fun with the process.

As you can see, Christmas tree decoration is not a tedious task, all you need is a little planning and some careful attention to detail, and you will create a tree that looks like an expert decorated it.

By now, I believe you already know how to decorate a Christmas tree professionally. If you have any question about the process, kindly let us know via the comment section below. And if you enjoyed this post, help us spread the news by sharing it with your friends on social media.

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