How To Decorate A Traditional Christmas Tree With Helpful Tips!

Helpful Tips For Decorating Your Traditional Christmas Tree!

A Traditionally Decorated Christmas Tree and How To Decorate It!

I have been really looking forward to this post as I am not sure I have really shared my Christmas tree decorating in a blog post before! Today I am talking all about how I decorate a traditional tree and helpful tips along the way. I am joining Kristen from Ella Claire & Co. as part of her beautiful Seasons of Home Series.

These tips will work for most tree shapes. To begin, I take my basic shaped tree (this was actually one we found second hand). I make sure to fluff things up really good before getting started.

Here you can see I laid out all of my stems and a variety of them. This is a really big step (in my humble opinion) from taking a basic tree to one that looks a bit more custom and higher end!

I evenly distribute the stems all throughout the tree. This includes berries and leaves if you use them. I also fold in my ribbon after that.

The last few years I have wanted extra lights and I really like using the wired fairy lights. I wait to wrap the tree in these until the steps above are done. That way they don’t get hidden or covered up. Another pro to using the wired (not corded) lights is that they are not very noticeable even though you are layering them on afterwards.

This is a big tree and honestly I just throw a rectangular table cloth around it for the skirt. This works great and most of the presents cover it up anyhow.

I also like to lay all of my ornaments out before hanging them on the tree. Please note though, I often will add ornaments/colors later that I hadn’t planned on. I just get going and find inspiration along the way. The process is flexible and fluid, so while there are these steps they can be altered as needed or changed along the way.

When talking about placement of ornaments, I don’t worry too much about where everything is going. Ornaments are beautiful and are going to look lovely no matter how you hang them. But I will say, that I try to incorporate many sizes, and scatter them up and down the tree. I like to have bigger ornaments at the top of my tree too. I think this keeps things interesting.

You can group things together and I prefer to have some ornaments close together.

Texture is important to me on our tree! So you will see glass, velvet, flocking, painted and paper ornaments mixed in with ribbon.

When thinking about colors and tones, I really like to make sure that the decorations are in line with how we have our home decorated too. Our home is really neutral overall so that isn’t too difficult.

I have added bits of deep red in the past and this year I really wanted a nod to very very traditional vibes. Even though I kept things a bit coastal with muted or rich blues… I loved how it was looking by putting in red with brown.

You’ll see that I have heirloom ornaments that are very old and some new ones too that I added this year. I have been trying not to change the ornaments too much and stuck to a budget when buying new additions. Adding color alone with ribbon and some red made the tree feel a bit different this time!

Wrapped presents really complete the feel of a tree and I keep things really simple ribbon wise.

I am amazed at the range of ornaments available these days. You can find high quality expensive pieces and there are great deals/options found at Craft and Dollar stores. Don’t forget about thrift stores and second hand options as well!

I am so excited to have finished this tree. Although, I am never really finished, haha! I tend to add things that I make or find throughout the season as part of the process. For example, I really wanted to find some nice big bare branches and haven’t had luck at the price point I want. So I did get some smaller twigs for now. They will hold me over till I find the thing I had my mind set on.

Thanks so much for visiting with me today! I hope this was helpful in sharing how to decorate a traditional Christmas tree!

Please make sure to visit my friends who are sharing below here too. Everything they do is beyond beautiful!

DIY Paper Ornaments- Free Printable Templates by Ella Claire & co. | How To Decorate A Traditional Christmas Tree with Helpful Tips by Zevy Joy | DIY Christmas Sweater Ornaments by City Farmhouse | Cozy Neutral Christmas Bedroom by Handmade Farmhouse

Black, White, Amber and Gold by Craftberry Bush | Nature Inspired Christmas Ornaments by Azure Farm | Gold Star Christmas Tree by French Country Cottage