How to decorate a beautiful Christmas tree

Decorate the Christmas tree together 

Decorating the Christmas tree is a phenomenon that people can become very fanatical about. There are people who start shopping for special baubles and Christmas ornaments as early as August to decorate their Christmas tree with a new theme that year. Another group of people takes their long-cherished Christmas decorations out of the storage boxes and makes it a true family tradition to decorate the Christmas tree together. Whether you prefer to decorate the Christmas tree all by yourself, or involve your children in decorating the Christmas tree, it is always useful to follow a certain structure. This way you always get a beautifully decorated Christmas tree.

Decorate a fake Christmas tree or a real one 

The first question is of course: which Christmas tree type are you? Do you take your plastic Christmas tree out of its box every year, then bend the branches nice and straight and separate the needles a bit? It saves you a lot of work, because you don't have to worry about falling needles that you still find everywhere in the house months later and the Christmas tree doesn't need water to stay fresh longer. Nowadays there are such beautiful fake Christmas trees that they are almost indistinguishable from the real thing. A real Christmas tree of course has the advantage that it spreads a wonderful pine scent in the house and many people actually enjoy having a Christmas tree with imperfect branches. A crooked branch here and an open spot there give an authentic atmosphere to the Christmas tree. And it is of course a fun tradition to pick out a beautiful Christmas tree together.

Do you decorate a large Christmas tree or a small one? 

Then there are also people who love a colored Christmas tree or find it useful to find a fake Christmas tree to which the lights have already been added. Still others prefer several small trees that fit on the windowsill, for example, while others look for a giant Christmas tree that reaches all the way to the ceiling. In that respect, there are many different Christmas trees available and these different Christmas trees also require their own way of decorating. So first look at what kind of Christmas tree you want to decorate, because that will be your starting point.

Decorate the Christmas tree with fairy lights 

Whether you want to decorate a large Christmas tree or a small Christmas tree, there is one thing that should never be missing. The Christmas lights. This is the absolute basis for decorating a Christmas tree. Choose dreamy cluster lights with small lights close together, traditional large fake candles or a string of Christmas lights in all kinds of flickering colors. The Christmas lights set the tone for the style of the Christmas tree. If you want to create more depth in the Christmas tree, you can use two different types of lighting. Let the smaller lights hang a little more on the ends of the Christmas tree branches, while you hang the larger lights near the trunk of the Christmas tree. For a nice distribution of the lights, start by decorating the top of the Christmas tree and twist the string all the way down in a spiral shape. Tuck the lights under some branches here and there so that the pine needles light up beautifully. When the Christmas lights are in, the first step of decorating the Christmas tree is complete. Then decide in what style you want to decorate the Christmas tree. Do you go for traditional Christmas colors such as red and green or do you opt for something softer, such as a Christmas tree decorated with pastel colors?

Photo: John Lewis.

Decorate the Christmas tree: small and large baubles 

Once you have decided in which color and style you want to decorate the Christmas tree, you can start choosing the right Christmas ornaments. Christmas baubles come in endless shapes, sizes, colors and themes. So it can be quite difficult to find a good balance in Christmas ornaments when decorating the Christmas tree. A handy trick for this is to use a few of the same Christmas baubles as a base. Depending on the size of the Christmas tree, choose six or eight of the same Christmas baubles in a medium size. The color of these Christmas baubles is also your main color. Spread these medium-sized Christmas baubles nicely over the entire Christmas tree in a triangle shape. So you only hang one or two at the top of the Christmas tree, hang half of the baubles in the middle and hang the rest at the very bottom. Now that the base is hanging, you can continue decorating the Christmas tree with Christmas ornaments of other sizes and colors. Let your creativity run wild and do what you like. A golden rule is to work from top to bottom, with the smaller ornaments hanging at the top of the tree and the largest ornaments hanging at the very bottom of the Christmas tree.

Add fantasy figures to your decorated Christmas tree 

The regular, round Christmas bauble is a good basis for decorating the Christmas tree. Once you have hung the baubles on the tree, it is time to give the tree a personal touch and add special Christmas ornaments. These can be unique heirlooms that used to hang in grandma and grandpa's Christmas tree, but these can also be new Christmas ornaments to mark special moments. Such as the birth of a baby or buying a house. The type of Christmas ornaments you choose to decorate your Christmas tree says a lot about the style you want to create. If you choose natural ornaments, such as pine cones, trees and stars, you are opting for a traditional, quiet Christmas tree. If you choose Christmas ornaments such as balloon animals, gnomes or birds with Santa hats, you are opting for a more playful Christmas tree.

Create balance in a richly decorated Christmas tree 

Now that you have hung all the basic ornaments in the decorated Christmas tree, it is time to look at the balance. Do not hang two identical Christmas baubles or ornaments directly next to each other, but ensure an even distribution. Another useful tip to add more depth to the decorated Christmas tree is to work in clusters. Choose three or four different types of Christmas ornaments to decorate your Christmas tree and make a group of them. So one of each type of ornament that you hang together. You make several groups from this composition and hang them in different places on the Christmas tree. This way you ensure enough variety when decorating your Christmas tree, without the Christmas tree becoming messy. Fill the empty spaces with Christmas ornaments of which you only have one. The special Christmas ornaments. These deserve a special place and stand out even more because of the repeating group of Christmas ornaments. You can also choose to use the same shapes, but in different sizes or colors. And it also works the other way around: different shapes, but in the same colors. This way you create a beautiful balance in your Christmas tree and it makes decorating the Christmas tree a lot easier.

Your decorated Christmas tree in your home 

Now that the Christmas tree is beautifully decorated, it can be proudly displayed in a beautiful spot in the house. To enhance the effect of the decorated Christmas tree, we have one last handy trick. Let the Christmas tree theme return to other places in the house. Repetition is always better when it comes to interior design. Allowing elements from the Christmas tree to appear in other places in the living room creates recognition and enhances the atmosphere of the decorated Christmas tree. So after decorating the Christmas tree, it's time to decorate the rest of the room. Look at the theme or colors in your Christmas tree and reflect these elements in your home. For example, if you have chosen a quiet Christmas tree with pastel colors, let the same colors appear in your home in the form of vases, tea light holders and wall plates. Add some pine branches here and there, for example on the windowsill, above the fireplace or as a wreath on the wall. Hide a few of the same Christmas ornaments or baubles in the pine branches that you used to decorate the Christmas tree. This way you turn the space into one attractive whole.

Enjoy your decorated Christmas tree 

Perhaps the most important thing after all the effort: enjoy the result! Make a delicious mug of hot chocolate, put on some nice Christmas music and light a roaring fire. Now it's time to sit back and admire the end result. Is the Christmas tree decorated completely as desired or is there still an empty corner in the Christmas tree that needs to be filled? When you have a real Christmas tree, you automatically have to deal with uneven pine branches. Look carefully at the overall picture and whether the branches coincide nicely with the rest of the environment. If your Christmas tree has many shorter branches on one side, then that is the ideal side to turn towards the wall. After all your efforts to decorate the Christmas tree beautifully, is there still a Christmas bauble hanging crooked? Then let it hang out of place and enjoy the imperfect. Merry Christmas!