How to decorate a Christmas tree?

The festive season is a fantastic excuse to decorate your home with beautiful ornaments and twinkling fairy lights. Choosing the perfect Christmas tree and spending time planning and decorating it with Christmas tree lights, tinsel and baubles, for some families is an annual tradition and marks the arrival of the festive holiday. When planning on how to decorate your home for Christmas, you’ll first need to consider whether you would like a real tree or an artificial Christmas tree. Both have their benefits, so we’ve put together some things you should consider when buying a Christmas tree.

Real Christmas tree

The enchanting smell of pine when you walk into a room, is why many people decide to buy a real Christmas tree, although you will have to keep on top of the needles that will begin to drop as Christmas Day approaches. You also need to make sure you don’t buy a real Christmas tree too early as you risk the tree beginning to look a little worse for wear. A real Christmas tree can often be the perfect partner for a traditional Scandinavian theme.

Artificial Christmas Tree

The beauty of an artificial Christmas tree is that you can invest in one tree and enjoy it year after year with zero maintenance. TJ Hughes sell a variety of Christmas trees online, from fibre optic Christmas trees that add a touch of magic to your home, to snow coated artificial Christmas trees and even 5ft weeping willow trees for a winter wonderland theme throughout your home. After the festive season has ended, simply remove your Christmas tree lights and decorations, take apart and store away until next year.

Where to put your Christmas tree?

Once you have decided on which Christmas tree to buy, it’s time to give it pride of place in your home. For a beautiful window display, consider positioning your Christmas tree in the front window of your home. Once Christmas lights are on the tree, it will light up your home and put a smile on the faces of passers-by. Your Christmas tree should also be the main focal point of the room and be visible to all when you’re in the room. If you’re putting your Christmas tree in the living room, it should be within sight of everyone sitting in the room, so that you can enjoy the tree and see the beautiful decorations on the branches. Of course, be careful to position your Christmas tree within close proximity to a socket in order to plug in fairy lights without causing any obstructions such as wires snaking across the floor, which could cause an accident.

How to choose the perfect Christmas tree theme?

Now you have bought and put up your Christmas tree, it’s time to get creative with the Christmas tree decorations. Choose a theme and begin to put together baubles, Christmas tree lights, ornaments and colour schemes to compliment your theme. We’ve put together a list of possible Christmas tree decoration themes below to give you some inspiration.

Traditional/ Nordic – Look out for delicate hand-crafted ornaments made from wood or metal. Hang on the branches of the tree and add a handful of pine cones and other rustic accessories to the tree to give added texture and depth. Think berry fairy lights, holly, ivy and gingerbread men.

Winter wonderland – Choose baubles in blue and silver and cover your Christmas tree with white snowflake Christmas tree lights. Consider fake snow for the base of the tree and add candy cane decorations.

Bright and colourful – For a playful Christmas tree design, choose a variety of brightly colour baubles such as pink, blue, purple and green. Pick eye catching and bold ornaments and add a helping of tinsel too. The louder the better.

Christmas fairy – For the ultimate fairy on the top of the Christmas tree look, choose pink and white baubles in a variety of shapes and styles, white tinsel and pretty icicle fairy lights.

How to decorate a Christmas tree? 

Step 1: Christmas tree lights

The golden rule is to start with the Christmas tree lights. This will help to make the wires of the lights as invisible as possible and will also ensure you don’t break delicate Christmas ornaments by attempting to hang lights half way through decorating your tree. Apply string lights from top to bottom, pushing the lights into the middle of the branches to hide the wires slightly. Space the lights out evenly and take a few moments to check whether there are any places with hardly any lights on and areas that are completely covered in Christmas lights. Adjust as you see fit and make sure the plug socket is within easy reach as you’ll need to turn lights off and on most days in the run up to Christmas.

Step 2: Tinsel, ribbons, strings of pearls or beads

Next, you’ll need to add any tinsel, ribbons or strings of pearls or pretty beads to your tree. Wrap around your tree as evenly as possible starting from the top down in the same way that you applied the Christmas tree lights. Wired garlands and ribbons are also a great idea, as you can mould the shape of the decoration to exactly what you want and add additional volume to the tree. If you have small bows, attach them to the end of branches once you have added any tinsel, ribbons or beads.

Step 3: Add the fairy to the top of the tree

This might seem counter intuitive but believe us this is the best order as once you’ve added the final touches to your tree with baubles and delicate ornaments, the last thing you’ll want to do is stretch to the top and attempt to put on the tree topper. Whether you choose a traditional star, angel, fairy or perhaps a snowflake or bird, you’ll find it a lot easier to do this before your tree is covered in baubles.

Step 4: Add baubles and decorations

Now it’s time to get creative. One option is to put your Christmas decorations into piles depending on colour and style. This will allow you to evenly space out the baubles and ensure your tree is covered and looks professionally decorated. Or, if you’d rather be free when it comes to Christmas tree design, pick and choose each decoration and keep an eye out for any sparsely decorated areas such as the sides, back of the tree and the base, which can often be forgotten in all the excitement.

How to store Christmas tree decorations? 

When it’s time to take down the Christmas tree, you’ll want to protect your Christmas tree lights and decorations by storing them away safely and securely. Here are a few tips and tricks to storing Christmas tree decorations:

  • Wrap Christmas tree lights around a square of cardboard to avoid them getting tangled up

  • Wrap your Christmas tree in cellophane to reduce its size and protect it from dust and damage until next year

  • Use egg boxes to separate out baubles and small Christmas decorations and prevent them from breaking

  • Use clear plastic storage containers to separate out Christmas decorations so that you have organised themes for next year

  • Use a coat hanger to hang Christmas garlands and keep them from being squashed under other decorations

We wish you a very merry Christmas from TJ Hughes and hope that our Christmas tree decoration buying guide will help you to achieve a magical festive season.