Christmas Tree Decorating Ideas
Christmas trees come in all types and styles. Sometimes you want nostalgia and the collection of sentimental ornaments amassed over the years, and sometimes a theme is just what you need to spark some creativity for a fresh approach.
This is an update to a post from the pandemic year when we delivered 7 different themed trees to spread some mulch needed Christmas cheer to the 7 floors of a commercial residence on lockdown.
Christmas seems to have arrived early this year. Christmas decor started going up barely after the jack-o-lanterns came down in our neighborhood. As I write, my children are decorating our tree with Marie-Kondo style, disdainfully holding up each ornament and asking me if it sparks joy LOL.
They are correct in that we have acquired way too many ornaments to fit on the tree and they have declared that to remain in the bounds of good taste, we need to edit. In all fairness, we at one time had 6 different themed Christmas trees so we did need all these ornaments for at least a few years. We are down to only 2 trees these days.
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In any case, we have been busy prepping for our commercial Christmas installations and this year our clients asked for something a little extra to increase the Christmas cheer factor.
We are creating 7 different themed trees and wreaths for the 7 elevator lobbies in the residential portion of the building in addition to our normal decor of the main floor spaces. We had a lot of fun brainstorming and shopping for ingredients for 7 different themes. Here is the result:
Birds of a Feather
bird houses
nests with eggs
bird cages
straw cardinals and feathered cardinals
Icy Blue Snow Fun
ice skate ornaments
toy sleds
white child size gloves
white snowball and ice blue mitten and stocking ornaments
Palace of Sweets
nutcrackers
oversize lollipops
gingerbread men
large wrapped-candy ornaments
Traditional Old-Fashioned
vintage paper mache ornaments
sleighs and teddy bears
assorted gold and brass ornaments
nutcrackers, santa, and snowman ornaments
Woodland Wonderland
fuzzy reindeer
feathered owls
rustic metal ornaments and jingle bells
plaid ornaments
Royal Blue and White Snow Angel
snowflakes
flocked pine cones and white flocked ivy
lace angels
royal blue ornaments
Peacock Glamour
peacocks
large gold pears
teal sequined fern fronds
light teal berry branches
A few months ago we ordered the 7 slimline trees along with 14 36” wreaths and 75 yards of garland for the new additions to our Christmas projects. This week we uncrated and fluffed the greens.
Fluffing faux Christmas greens is best done wearing cotton gloves to protect your hands. This will prevent your hands from looking like you intervened in a cat fight :)…ask me how I know this?!
For step-by-step tips on the process of decorating to get a designer-worthy look for your Christmas tree, even including your sentimental ornaments, see THIS post.
Once fluffed, we added lights to the trees. Pro tip: zig zagging back and forth from top to bottom in quadrants rather than wrapping around the tree, makes it much easier to apply the lights evenly.
We used bamboo file storage boxes for the tree bases. The scale was just right for the size of the trees, and after Christmas these can be used to store the ornaments for each tree.
lollipop ornaments | peppermint ornaments | wrapped candy ornaments (similar) | gingerbread house ornaments | cookie ornaments | nutcracker ornaments
When shopping for tree ornaments, don’t limit yourself to strictly ornaments - there are many times where other things will work even better - stuffed animals, nests tucked into branches, gilded or silvered sprigs, leaves, or berries, flocked or glittered greens and pinecones…
When decorating a Christmas tree, just like in floral arranging, or designing a room, it is important to vary the shape, size, and texture of the ingredients for an engaging finished product.
For each tree, we made 3 large multi-ribbon bows to coordinate with the ornaments and branchy sprigs. Here is a sneak peek at the garage with the assorted piles of bows and ornaments sorted and ready to assemble
And here are some peeks at the decorated trees all assembled and ready for transport. I’m sure the neighbors are wondering WHAT is going on in our garage.
We loaded all the trees and wreaths into a rental truck and seat-belted them in for the ride to their destination!
Choosing a favorite tree is like choosing a favorite child! They are each unique and I love different things about each one!
For more on Christmas Decor check out these posts: