Christmas Traditions Trees

 

One of my favorite traditions at Christmas is taking my time to decorate our Christmas tree and is always accompanied by eating homemade mince pies and maybe a glass of mulled wine or hot chocolate with little floating marshmallows. This year is no exception after foraging for the tree with Mr D & Miss D  I will set aside Sunday evening to decorate my tree.Which got me thinking I should share all my Christmas Tree decorating tips I have learnt over the years, from how to hang lights to hanging ornaments. So here are my top tips:
Norway and blue spruces are naturally symmetrical, but their branches have awkward growths that keep ornaments from hanging freely. Clean them up with a little judicious pruning. With the tree standing upright, study it from a distance to see which areas need pruning. Then, prune small growths that jut straight out from the top and bottom of the branches. The lighter sections depicted in our illustration are the ones you'd want to trim away.



How to Hang Tree Lights:
You will need roughly 100 lights for every foot of the trees height.
Match your Christmas fairy light wire to the colour of the tree.
Turn your Christmas fairy lights on and keep them turned on whilst you decorate your tree.
Visually split the tree into three triangles vertically and work on each triangle separately, starting at the base of the trunk start by wrapping each string of lights in and out of the branches up to the top and back down. Try to keep the wires as concealed as possible. This method ensures you get a lovely inner glow to your tree and not just an outer shell of light.

Step back from your tree and squint your eyes, look for dark or overly bright patches, rearrange the lights to get an even light throughout.
When you are happy with the placement of your lights, use florist wire to keep any unruly lights in place.

Hanging ornaments:
You will need roughly 20 ornaments per foot
9ft of Garland
Try sticking to a small colour palette for a cohesive look. Ideally this should relate to or compliment the decor in the room your tree sits in.
Use a few overscaled ornaments for big impact.
Before you start, arrange your decorations by size and colour.
Start with the largest ornaments in one colour, hang them on tree so you get an even spread of colour. Continue by adding the medium decorations in the same colour finishing with the smaller decorations. Remember to place some slightly back into the tree, to give it a little depth. Repeat with each colour grouping so you get a lovely even tone of colour throughout the tree.
 Suspend ornaments from tinned copper wire instead of manufacturer-provided hooks, which can slip off branches, causing breakage. To make your own hangers, thread a 5-inch piece of wire through the ornament loop; twist the wire around itself several times to secure. To hang, wrap the other end of the wire around the branch until the ornament is secure.

Make sure you keep stepping back to look at your work as you go.

Here are  few of my favorite designs....