PUTTING LIGHTS ON YOUR CHRISTMAS TREE LIKE A PRO
No Christmas tree is complete without fairy lights, adding a festive twinkle and a gorgeous cosy glow to your home.
When I was creating my course, How to Style Your Christmas Tree Like a Pro, I asked “what is the thing you struggle with the most about decorating your tree?”. Almost overwhelmingly the feedback was that you found putting the lights up the most frustrating part of the process.
Unless you have a pre-lit artificial tree (or are visited by a magic Christmas elf), like it or not, you are most going to need to learn how to put lights on your tree, but if you follow my method, it needn't be a headache.
Putting up your tree lights
Step 1
test your lights
Test your lights (preferably long before you decorate your tree in case they need replacing).
Step 2
prep your lights
Prepare your lights by untangling them and counting the number of lights
Step 3
calculations
Divide the number of lights by three in order to divide the set into thirds, marking the first and second third using ribbon or string.
Step 4
More light prep
Wind the lights onto a cardboard spool, starting at the end without a plug/battery, and finishing at the plug/battery end.
Step 5
prep your tree
Now prepare your tree by using three pieces of ribbon or string knotted together and draped over the top, roughly divide your tree into thirds.
Step 6
turn on the lights
Put the lights on the tree switched on (providing they are LED lights as they are NOT hot to the touch), which allows you to better see how evenly distributed they are as you go along.
Step 7
start to unravel
Unravel a few lights from your spool.
Step 8
drape your lights
Starting at the back and bottom branch of the tree bring the first light up to branch level and start draping them along the bottom row of branches, until you reach the dividing ribbon.
Step 9
keep some slack
As you go, make sure to keep some slack in the wire so there’s room to easily move sections of the string of lights to higher or lower branches if you need to. Keep unravelling more lights as necessary.
Step 10
more draping
Moving up to the next row of branches drape the lights along them in the other direction until you meet the other dividing ribbon.
Step 11
zig zag to the top
Continue this zig zagging motion in your first third of tree until you reach the top of the tree.
Step 12
finish the first third
Hopefully your lights dividing ribbon is now also at the top, meaning one third of your lights has filled one third of your tree.
Step 13
adjust your lights
If this isn’t the case, now is the time to adjust your lights accordingly, moving them up or down branches so that the lights are evenly distributed- it is easier to see when you take a step back from the tree.
If you get to the top and there are are big gaps in the tree move the lights up or down a row of branches until the lights feel balanced.
Alternatively, if you get to the top of the tree and you have lots of lights left over start to guide the surplus lights through the tree, creating more slack which allows you to add in more rows of lights (n.b. if you only have a few extra lights then don’t try to create more rows, instead just create more slack so the lights are more evenly distributed.
Step 14
repeat
Repeat this process in the second third of the tree, in reverse, this time moving from top to bottom.
Then repeat this process once more in the final third of the tree, moving from bottom to top.
Step 19
tidy up your lights
Once you are happy with the positioning of all your lights, tuck the wires into the tree so that they are less obvious
Step 20
tidy up your tree
Remove the ribbons from the lights and the tree (make sure to save these to reuse).
taking down your tree lights
Follow these simple instructions to ensure that next year your lights will be ready to go, saving you time and making the process stress-free:
Step 1
ribbons
Tie your lights ribbons back on the wire, marking out your thirds (don’t worry about being completely accurate, a light or two either way is not going to be noticeable).
Step 2
remove the lights in sections
Pull your last third of lights off the tree (ie. NOT the plug/battery end), and wind this back around your spool.
Repeat with the next section.
And finally repeat with the final section until you reach the plug/battery pack.
What next?
Discover more about How To Style Your Christmas Tree Like a Pro with me in my beginner friendly online course.
