Wow!
It is that time of year to drag out the trees, boxes of ornaments, untangle the lights, and start the annual sojourn of the mystical tree decorating festivities.
Where should we start? I suggest with the tree itself. After getting the tree safely out of wherever you stored it and unpacking it out of the box and putting it together (hopefully you purchased a hinged tree at this point) then you need to fluff the thousands of little branches out.
I know this is time consuming and a bit rough on the hands, but it is well worth the effort to do it right. Taking special care to unfurl all the needles and unfolding the branches one by one, you should be able to see the beautiful start of a grand looking tree taking shape in about 30 minutes or so.
After all we really are not going for the Charlie Brown look are we?
Next hopefully you already placed the tree where you wish to display it or are shortly after moving furniture and cleaning the cobwebs you just realized were there. Yikes!
Now comes the very fun part, installing your lights.
It is really hard to decide how many lights are too many, but we usually go with the standard of 100 per foot of tree. This can be adjusted according to the size of the tree itself, Because some are more robust than others.
Starting at the base and the trunk of the tree we like to put an extension cord to be able to plug the lights into as if you get too many plugged in to each other you will learn the aggravation of blowing fuses in the light strands. and wind it on the trunk so that it is easier to get the other lights plugged in. Brown or green colored ones also look better and are easier to hide too.
It is a wise thing to check your lights BEFORE putting them on the tree itself.
Ok, so starting at the base of the tree again start weaving the lights from the trunk to the tips of the branches and back again, occasionally wrapping one of the needles around the wires to hold them in place. Continue this all the way to the top and you are gonna have the beginning of a gorgeous tree.
Author Byron Pittser, over 18 years experience as a retail florist owner and operator and top quality floral designer. 3rd generation family owned florist.
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