Hello friends!  How are you today?  I am really enjoying this week.  My decorating has got me all giggly inside.  Do you know the feeling I am talking about?  I have the lights on the tree while decorating and Pandora on the Christmas music station.  I am just rockin’ around the room decorating.

Today I want to share with you how I set up and decorate my Christmas tree.  From taking it out of the box to finishing up with the last ornament.  I pretty much do this technique with all of my trees.  I put up 7 Christmas trees and two smaller one’s in my foyer each year.  Let’s just say after that many trees I could do it in my sleep.

I will share with you how I work the tree by fluffing, shaping and decorating it.

Below are the steps I take when decorating for the holidays.

1. I always decide what color palette and what type of theme I want to do in the room before I start.

The one I am sharing with you today is one of my 3 guest bedrooms. The colors are; Aqua with golds, silver and white.  The theme will be snowflakes.   I am obsess with snowflakes this year so you will see a lot of them in my holiday decor.

2.  Figure out where I am going to put the tree.

I put my tree every year in the corner.  It has electrical outlets near by so I won’t have to mess with extension cords or hiding cords.  If you have follow me long you know I have a thing with cords showing.

3.  Shaping the tree.

This part is crucial.  The tree is the focal point of the whole decor.  Take time and make sure that you shape the tree.

After the season I put the tree away in the box that I bought it in and store it until the next year.

I open the box and check the lights to make sure they all work before setting it up.

After checking the lights and taking it out of the box I put the stand together.

My tree is a 6 foot tree and has only two sections.  First I work with the bottom section.  I put the top section to the side while shaping the bottom part.

TIP:  Leave the lights on while you decorate,  if you bother one of the lights normally the whole strand will go off.  It is better to keep them on in case one is disturbed, you can fix it or replace the strand of lights without having to take everything off.  Does this sound like a person who had experience this problem before? ha!

I start with the bottom section and start fluffing and shaping.

I do a layer at a time.  It is hard for me to show you my technique on the tree so I will show you how I shape and fluff the branches with a single branch I have.

This is what the branch looks like when I first begin.

I am going to call the little parts of the branch, fingers.

I start at the back and work myself to the front.  I do a “V” technique doing alternating V.

1. I start with the back two fingers and make a V
2. The next two make a V to the right side
3. The next two make a V to the left side
4. start back at #1 until I come to the last two fingers
5. I spread the last two out in front to form a V

After I have all my Vs done I go back and pull them lightly toward me.  *On a real tree the fingers tend to grow toward sunlight. *  I do this to all the branches.

Look at the difference.  Before and after.

Can you tell just by shaping the branch how fuller it looks?

After I have the bottom section done I add the next section and do the same technique.

I take a step back and check to make sure everything is the way I want it to look.  If I see something I don’t like,  I just go and fix that section by rearranging the fingers.

4.  Adding twinkle lights to the inner part of the tree.

I like the looks of a little movement in the tree.  I add a strand of twinkle lights to the inner part of the tree.  I stay close to the pole of the tree running it up and down.

TIP:  this is my rule of thumb;   use 100 strands of light to a 6 foot tree and 200 strand of lights to an 8 foot tree and  300 strand for my 11 ft tree.  It just gives a little more sparkle to the tree.

5. add the topper to the tree.

On this tree I didn’t add a bow or a spray of picks I went with floating snowflakes.  One of my favorite designers that I follow on youtube had done something like this one year and I just loved it.

I did this without causing damage to my ceiling.

I purchased all the snowflakes from The Dollar Tree.  I used nylon thread and small straight pins.  When I remove the pins from the ceiling, the pin marks are so tiny that you cannot even tell I had them up.

I took the thread tied it to the snowflake and the other end to the pin.  Pinned it into the ceiling.

6.  add ribbon to the tree.

I love this ribbon.  It goes nicely with my bedding in the room.  I found this a couple years ago at a warehouse in our area.  I placed it on the tree with a zig-zag pattern.  I also weaved it in and out.

Take the beginning of your ribbon and pleating it between your pointing finger and thumb. I placed that at the top part of the tree.

TIP:  To secure the ribbon to the tree at the top.  I use a piece of floral wire to wrap around the branch.

I took the ribbon and started weaving.  I leave a little extra gap between each weave.  I pinch the ribbon and tuck it in the tree.  I secure the ribbon with one of the branch’s fingers wrapping it around the pinched ribbon.  I start at the right top and zig-zag down to the left, then the right, then the left until I reach the bottom.

  8.  Adding the statement theme.

I found large snowflakes at The Dollar Tree.  I purchased 7 of them.  I placed them in a zig-zag pattern opposite of the ribbon.

8.  adding picks to the tree.

I like to add a pick arrangement to add some thickness to the tree.

TIP:  always use the number of picks to how many feet your tree is.  Example: My tree is 6ft so I made 6 pick arrangements.

I used a greenery pick, a blue glitter pick  and a few white berry cluster.  I had the picks for several years now.  I got the greenery pick from Hobby Lobby, the blue pick was a bundle at Kirkland’s and the white berry cluster was from the Dollar Tree.

I place them in the same zig-zag pattern opposite of the star position.  I place the picks where I tucked in the ribbon.

TIP:  when sticking them down make sure you go in at an angle.  It helps to secure the pick better.

9.  adding the round ornaments

I always start with the accent color.  With the larger ornaments being placed on the tree first.

TIP:  On the larger round ornaments I keep them on the lower part of the tree.  Also, I use the number half the size of the tree.  Too many larger round ornaments will look to bulky.  On my 6 foot tree I place three larger round ornaments.

For the larger round ornaments I look for spaces (holes) in the tree.

See this area, right of the star, you can see right through the tree.

I added one of the larger  round ornaments to fill in the bare space.

Doesn’t that make the spot look better?

Once I have all the accent ornaments on the tree, I put the neutral colors and specialty ornaments on the tree.

I just love the floating snowflakes.

I hope my tutorial was clear and you were able to follow along with me on decorating my tree.  If you have any questions please feel free by asking me either in the comment section or you can email me HERE.

Now let’s take the tour of my guest bedroom all decorated for Christmas.

For those of you that follow me on Facebook.  Here is the DIY Christmas stocking.

Remember the DIY book wreath.  What do you think?  I made the little snowflake frame art also.

I hope you like touring my guest bedroom and how I created my tree.  Let me know what you think!

I truly appreciate you stopping by.  If you have any questions on anything you see in the room, please let me know.

As always, don’t forget to follow me on Instagram and Facebook.  And jump over on Pinterest and see what all I pin.  I would love to follow you on your journey so come find me, follow me and I will be sure to follow you back!

Don’t forget to sign up to NEVER MISS A POST so you won’t miss one thing this holiday season from me!  Friday will be another one of my guest bedrooms.  Come back and see what color palette and what theme I have for that room!

Stay strong and stay blessed!

Terrie