If you love decorating your Christmas Tree in a new theme each year, the current financial crisis might have you in the doldrums. Or, if you just look forward to adding new ornaments when decorating your Christmas Tree for the season, there may not be money in your budget for it this year. Don’t worry. You can still have a good time and add a new look to your tree with just a few simple ideas.
Christmas Tree Decorating Ideas: Many Trees for Me
For me, the traditionally decorated Christmas Tree is the best. From a very early age, my family and friends gifted me each year with ornaments. As older relatives passed on, I have inherited their antique and vintage Christmas ornaments. In addition, I traveled extensively early in my career and collected ornaments on my travels. The problem for me a few years ago became how to use all of these ornaments and still have a tree that looks pulled together.
Some time ago, I decided that the best way to showcase these ornaments was to have multiple trees. Antique and vintage ornaments appear on my main tree in the living room. Sports related ornaments can be found on a smaller Christmas Tree in the den. Ornaments that showcase my hometown and other places I’ve lived or traveled can be found on a Christmas Tree in the foyer.
If you have the space and time, take a look at the ornaments you have collected and divide them in groups to hang on more than one tree. You’ll enjoy your favorite ornaments more when they are highlighted this way.
Christmas Tree Decorating Ideas: One Tree Only, Please
This year, due to more of our budget going to a house remodeling, I’ve decided to stick with one Christmas tree for decorating. However, I’m still using many of the ideas I’ve developed when decorating multiple Christmas trees. I’ll just be a little more creative about it.
For example, Christmas ornaments that stand upright may be found tucked among the books on my bookshelf or among pictures of relatives on the back of the piano. Another nice place to display Christmas ornaments is in a large mixing bowl. Large pewter, silver, or glass bowls work well for this, too. Tuck fresh greenery (be careful not to get sap on cloth ornaments) or garland in the bowl along with the ornaments.
Or, deck a doorway with garland and hang some ornaments all around (less breakable ones near the places where they might be bumped, of course). To secure the ornaments, wrap the ornament holder with wire and wrap securely to the garland. See my tip in the next section of this article about wrapping ornaments with wire.
Christmas Tree Decorating Ideas: My Best Decorating Tips
Pulling Your Christmas Tree Together
The one tip I always adhere to when decorating my Christmas Tree(s) is to use something that ties the entire tree together. Usually, that is one style of ornament that I purchase in multiples.
In previous years, I have used silver icicle ornaments, red faux apples, green and red tassels with matching garland, and I once went through a Victorian phase and used red hand-tied bows.
My current favorite is to use plain round, red glass ornaments in three different sizes so that everything doesn’t look too “matchy”. These ornaments are easy to find at WalMart and Big Lots as well as garage sales and Salvation Army-type stores. You might even find a friend or relative who would be willing to give you some just to get them off of their hands.
I’ve been using the round red ornaments to tie my tree together for a few years now and since most of these ornaments aren’t of the highest quality some of them have been scratched or the color has rubbed off in places. Don’t worry, unless these “boo-boos” are just glaringly obvious they add to the charm. Feel free to use them on your tree, anyway.
The trick to this decorating technique is to put these matching ornaments on your Christmas Tree first. Put them all over your tree. Stand back and squint to locate any empty spots. That way, you’ll have your “matching” ornaments distributed all over the tree and you can then fill in with your other ornaments.
By having one set of traditional round red ornaments placed all over my Christmas Tree, I find that I can mix my Hallmark ornaments with my handmade ornaments, my collectible ornaments, and my vintage ornaments and my Christmas Tree still looks great.
Wiring Your Ornaments to the Christmas Tree
My second tip involves wrapping ornaments on the tree. While you are at Big Lots purchasing matching ornaments for your Christmas Tree, pick up some wire ornament hangers, too. Find the largest wire hangers and get the cheap kind – the ones that bend all over the place and are basically useless. Straighten one hanger from tip to tip, wrap one end of the straightened hanger on your ornament’s hanger attachment, twist to secure and place the other end of the straightened hanger where you want it on the tree.
Determine how far you want the ornament to hang from the branch, then attach, bend, and twist the remaining end of the hanger to the branch. The ornament is too far from the branch? Place the ornament in your hand and very carefully wrap ornament and he ornament hanger wire around the branch – one time usually does it – and you have a perfectly placed ornament on your Christmas Tree.
This tip is also great if you have curious cats that want to bat at ornaments to knock them down. It’s almost impossible for them to dislodge the ornaments if you wrap the ornaments on your Christmas Tree this way. Plus, they can’t play with or try to eat the wire ornament hangers because they are almost impossible to remove from the Christmas Tree until you unwrap them at the end of the season.
Yes, it will take a while to remove these ornaments from the Christmas Tree when Christmas is over. And yes, you might have to replace all of these hangers next year. But it won’t cost much to replace them and it is worth it for the piece of mind if you want to protect your ornaments and your pets.
