The Christmas Holiday is usually centered around the Christmas tree. Make your tree the best it can be with these helpful tips!

1. Selecting the Tree –
Fresh: Noble pine or Frasier fir are the most lasting. Give your tree a fresh cut before placing it into the stand. Add a commercial floral food in the right concentration into the water basin. Check water levels daily.
Artificial: They are so convenient, come in an array of styles and can be re-used for an average of 5 years. Trees come Pre-lit or un-lit, with incandescent lights or LED lights. See info below under “Lighting”
2. Selecting the Size –
Pick a tree size that is appropriate to the space. The size of Christmas trees in tree lot can be deceiving out in the open. Know your width and height measurements before you go. The dimensions for Artificial trees are posted on their shipping box or online in the Product Description page.
3.Pick a Style –
So many new styles of trees are available today in fresh and in artificial. Be creative, try something new! Go with a woodland tree, a flocked tree, a colored tree or feature or tinsel tree. I have seen even a rainbow colored-tinsel tree!

Now for the fun stuff-
Light up your tree! Just like new styles of tree, there are new styles of lights – clear, assorted colors, frosted, novelty. Lights come in different bulb styles too -the standard mini string-light style, C-series, G-series, rice, pearl, or Edison. On average I recommend hanging 50 lights/tree foot for a fresh tree, and 100 lights/tree foot for an artificial tree. An 8′ fresh tree would have 400 lights and an artificial tree would have 800 lights.
Follow the manufactures recommendation of how many lights to connect end-to-end. Incandescent lights average 3000 hours of illumination. LED lights average 100,000 hours of illumination.
Follow safety rules – use proper extension cords and power strips. Know how many amps are being generated from your lights so you don’t overload a circuit breaker with that tree that has 20,000 lights (talking from experience!)
Please, please don’t leave your tree lights on if you are not home! An unexpected electrical failure that sparks a flame is the worst thing to destroy your holiday.
Best Tip – connect your power strip to a Remote Control switch so you don’t have to crawl under your tree every night to turn it off. Home Depot, Lowes and Walgreen’s have these with their holiday merchandise.

Trim the boughs and branches! Pick the theme for your holiday decorations – Do you hang all the kids adorable homemade ornaments and paper stars? Make a special tree showcasing all their precious handy work. Keep it simple and enhance the tree with just homemade trim like string popcorn and paper chains, candy canes and colorful ribbon. The more you keep to a defined theme the more expressive and unique it will be. Or you can have that ”designer tree’ and pick a specific theme. Will your tree be a rustic Woodland display, angels on high, magnolia southern charm, a snowy winterland, or sparkling crystal shimmer? Maybe it will be all desert southwest, contemporary drama, or golden regal enchantment. Design a theme that reflects your style. There are no limits to Christmas decor. Make it your own!
Best Tip -On average I plan a dozen ornaments/tree foot. So an 8′ tree would have minimum of 8 dozen ornaments. I also accent the ornaments with “elements”. These textural elements add interest to the tree. Elements can be branches, pine cones, berry branches, foliage and florals, birds nests and feathers, fruit, novelty items. I follow the same rule – a dozen elements/tree foot. Therefore an 8 foot tree would have a combination of 8 dozen elements.

My Favorite Decoration – the Ribbon! I think ribbon gives the best “anchor” to the tree, establishes the theme and defines the color palate. I often use two or three ribbon styles on a tree. Today the market is flooded with gorgeous ribbon so you don’t have to use that good-ol red veltex anymore. My formula for ribbon yardage is to buy approximately 6 yards/tree foot. Our 8′ tree would have approximately 50 yards of ribbon. If you want more than one ribbon style then you will need 50 yards of each style.

Get the hot chocolate ready, gather the family around and have fun creating your Christmas showpiece!
Have the Merriest of Christmas and Holiday Joy,
~Anna~