Oh, Cecilia: Bayley's Christmas Wonderland: How To Light a Live Tree

So we’ll ignore the fact that I’m a Christmas decoration junkie, and say that for the sake of this post, I went ahead and decorated my Christmas tree, a week before Thanksgiving…*insert hapless shrug here*.

Luckily my roommate (and significant other) is a very patient and understanding man with a certain employee discount, and knowledge of when live trees are going to be arriving at our local home improvement store.

But on to the purpose of today’s tutorial: how to string lights on a live tree!
The secret is in the tucking. Start from the bottom and go around the tree, stringing the lights from the tip of the branch, back in to the trunk, and then back out to the edge of the branches again!

For every foot of tree, you’ll need approximately 100 lights, especially if you’re looking for that “designer tree” look and that beautiful inner twinkle, (for our 7ft tree, we used about 650 lights).

The next secret lies in the garland.

I used three different types this year, bushy tinsel, a string of beaded balls, and a very sparkly “branch” garland. I like the fullness of the tinsel, the texture of the balls, and the twinkle-boost of the “branch”. The bushy garland should stay towards the front of the tree branches, to add that full effect. I like the ball garland to stay loose and droopy on the branches, and the sparkly branch garland gets tucked back amongst the lights, where it can better catch and add to the lighting.

All of this, along with careful placement and balance of shiny and sparkly ornaments, will be sure to give your tree a special glow this Holiday season!