the INSPIRED creative ONE: Christmas Tree Tutorial

Some may think i'm a little bit nuts that my Christmas tree is already up but if I had it my way, I would never take it down! I LOVE the way festive Christmas tree's and decorations make you feel. Tree's are definitely my specialty. I decorate around 15+ every year for different family members and friends and I've been doing this for many years! I hope these pictures can help you get a visual of the steps I decorate my tree in but I may be doing a video tutorial on one of the other trees I will be doing!

Step 1:

If you don't have a tree already, decide on what kind you want. We had to go with a really skinny tree this year because our area is so tiny, our other one would have never fit in this corner! This one was bought this year at Walmart for $68! if anyone else is interested in this one, it was the letter D tree! We also have a flocked tree that I love but it wouldn't look good with the type of ornaments I have. I decorate my flocked one with fun bright purple/ pink/ orange colors. Just something to think about.

The first step is string your lights! Don't be skimpy when it comes to getting lights for your tree! A full size 7 ft. tree I usually put on around 800 lights. This one is 6.5 ft. and is about half the size in width as my other one so I used 300. (If your using lights from previous years, be sure to check if they work!! I've been the unlucky person who had decorated her entire tree to find out my dang lights weren't working. Long story short I had to redo the entire thing.)

Step 2:

If you're buying ornaments for the first time, decide on a color scheme. When I decided mine, it was because I scored some huge ornaments at a garage sale all for only $2! So I went with the traditional red/green/gold. Once you've got your color scheme, match your ornaments to your ribbon or mesh.

Start by decorating your tree by sticking one piece of mesh or ribbon at the top center of the tree and going straight down with it, bunching it deep into the tree every few branches so it stays in place. If you have a few colors of ribbon or mesh you'll be working with, be sure to distribute them evenly on the tree. Also, do them at different levels and heights to add some dimension. Cut all your pieces at different lengths so you'll have some variety.

Step 3:

Once the ribbon is on, you'll start putting on your ornaments. If you have a variety of colors, try not to place the same colors too close together. If you have a few different styles, use the same technique and don't put them too close together. If you have anything big (like my ball ornaments) I try to distribute them evenly on the tree. I never put two that are next to each other at the same level either. The easiest way to explain what I do for this part is I use a zig zag technique.

Once my bigger ornaments are on, I then start putting on my smaller ones. A little trick of mine is I don't actually hang them on the tree, I just shove them in. My big ornament balls are hung by branches but everything else on my entire tree is literally just shoved in between branches.

Step 4:

The last thing I do with my tree is fill it in with my sparkly twirly sticks and my little gift boxes. I had some pretty large gaps still so I got some plain little gift boxes, wrapped them and put cute ribbon on them. This really added to my tree and was much cheaper then buying large ornaments. Once the entire tree looks full, I stuck my topper on! I got these at Michaels a few years ago but i'm sure you could find something similar at any craft store. I have 2 red, 2 green and 2 gold sticks with little balls on them and I stuck them in the top at different levels and then pulled them apart to add some width.

This next part doesn't have to do with decorating the tree but i'm sure every mom out there can relate. Curious little babies that think the Christmas tree is a toy put out for them to play with! The second my tree was up my little twins crawled right over to it and pulled everything off they could reach. Surly there had to be a way around this, and me and my husband came up with something great!

This little wooden box for the tree to sit in! My husband built it and then stuck a little stool in there to prop it up to make it stand off the ground a little bit. This solved our problem!! They couldn't reach the bottom branches if they wanted to! If you don't have a carpenter husband and aren't good with things like this, I would suggest getting some type of decorative stool to set your tree on! I've also had a lot of friends tell me they put a gate around it to block it. Hope this can give any moms out there some ideas!