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How to Decorate the Christmas Tree

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Well, it is now that time of the year again where the stockings are placed with care with hopes for Old Saint Nick to soon be here in our home. Plus, we are also beginning to decorate the Christmas Tree

See decorating our home on Thanksgiving weekend annually is a huge family tradition for us.

But before St. Nick can indeed arrive, there is so much to be done to get prepare.

What you may ask?

Well, like indeed to decorate the Christmas tree.

For some sure fire tips on how to decorate the Christmas tree with the best of them, see our tried and true family tips below that we have cultivated over the years.

Decorate Christmas Tree

1. Hang Tree Lights First

This is the first step to decorate the Christmas tree and one of the most important by far in my humble estimation right after the tree is indeed placed in the spot in your home that you are happy with.

My advice is quite simple.

First, try to get lights that have wire strands that match your tree color.  So, if your tree is the traditional green, you will therefore want green wire strands to match, camouflaged and hidden.

Once you are hanging the actual Christmas tree lights, you will want to start at the base of the trunk and work upwards towards the top of the tree on hitting ever major branch from front to back, as well.

My favorite are LED lights, because even though they are more expensive to purchase, they are the most protection being flameproof and completely safe to use on your tree, plus are a bit more energy efficient, as well.

Lastly, definitely use at least a strand of a hundred lights or more for ever foot that your tree stand tall, as the more lights, the brighter it illuminates the tree I have found.

2.  Next Up Comes the Tree Garland

After we string the lights on the tree, the next crucial step is to add garland on your tree.  I personally like red bows on my tree as a garland effect.

But that is just me when I decorate the Christmas tree.

Still whatever kind of garland you like and use, just make sure to add before you begin to add your actual ornaments.

Unlike the lights though, with garland, you want to start from the top of the tree and work down, slowly increasing the amount of garland between each section of your tree.

For every vertical foot that your tree stands tall, you should try to use two strands of garland, essentially a 2:1 ratio.

Honestly, you can use bows like us, beads, paper, ribbon, foil or even popcorn, but whatever your garland passion, just try to follow the above rule of thumb to maximize your garland potential.

3.  Finally the Time Has Come to Hang the Christmas Tree Ornaments

It is finally time for my family’s favorite part of tree decorating.  See, we have so many special ornaments that each year, my gang fights over which ones to hang first and where to place them.

My advice once again is pretty simple for this and usually tell my gang to place their favorites on the tree first–front and center.  As you want to showcase the favorites for all to see.

2014 Family Ornament from Ornaments of Love
One of our special ornaments.

Next up, I will always gently advise them to hang the larger ornaments with a good amount of space between them.

Once this is accomplished, I try to have us all add in generously medium and smaller ornaments to fill in the gaps.

I also try to make sure we have enough ornaments towards the bottom of the tree to create more visual interest.

Elsa Puppy Ornament 2014
Even our dog gets her own special ornament!

But I know those who have small kids and pets, this may be a bit of challenge still. See I can recall my girls each going through a stage where they wanted to touch and remove as many ornaments that they could reach with their little hands.  Then, our dog wasn’t any better by also having a bit of interest in ornaments her first year with us, as well.

However if you can hang ornaments towards the trunk of the tree without these kinds of intrusions, I say go for it.

And there you have it, three easy steps to make decorating your own Christmas tree a cinch and allowing you to have a holly, jolly Christmas this year!

[Tweet “Yummy cookies using @hboats to make w/ your little ones + coupon #PostfortheHolidays #ad”]

By the way after we trim our tree, traditionally we always feast on a yummy snack.  This year, we are enjoying Honey Bunches of Oat-meal Craisin Cookies.

Why Honey Bunches of Oats® though?

Cereal Aisle at Target

Because Honey Bunches of Oats®, which can be purchased at your local Target are so yummy and perfect to use for baking oat-meal type cookie.

Honey Bunches of Oats Cereal Box at Target

Plus, purchase participating Post Cereal Brands now and enter the SING© movie sweepstakes for a chance to win the $100,000 grand prize plus the chance to instantly win lots of prizes including movie tickets, speakers and more.**

Honey Bunches of Oats Cereal Box with SING Movie at Target

Honey Bunches of Oat-meal Craisin Cookies

Decorate Christmas Tree

oatmeal-craisin-cookies-on-the-plate
Yield: 0

Honey Bunches of Oat-meal Craisin Cookies

Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 10 minutes
Total Time: 20 minutes

A yummy, new holiday themed traditional oatmeal cookie.

Ingredients

  • Butter 1/2 cup softened
  • Craisins 1/2 cup
  • Brown Sugar 1/2 cup
  • Vanilla Extract 1 tsp.
  • An egg
  • Flour 1 cup
  • Baking Soda 1/2 tsp.
  • Salt 1/4 tsp.
  • Honey Bunches of Oats® cereal 1 1/2 cups

Instructions

  1. First, preheat oven to 350º.
  2. Second, cream together butter and sugar.
  3. Next, mix in vanilla and egg.
  4. Then, stir in flour, soda and salt.
  5. Next, fold in Honey Bunches of Oats® Cereal and craisins.
  6. Then, ppoon by the Tablespoon-full onto a cookie sheet.
  7. Last, bake for 8-10 minutes, or until tops are slightly golden and edges are set
© Janine Huldie

Also, linking up with Kristi of Finding Ninee for this week’s FTSF, where the sentence is, “This holiday season, I…”

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Do you like Honey Bunches of Oats?

honey-bunches-of-oats-in-a-cup-watermark

What traditions do you have during the holiday season?

Do you like to trim your Christmas tree?

Signature 2015

About Janine

Janine is a published author of the books, The Mother of All Meltdowns and Only Trollops Shave Above the Knee. She has been featured on The Huffington Post, Mamapedia, Today Parenting Team and SheKnows. She also runs her own graphic design company at J9 Designs.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Seana Turner says

    I love Honey Bunches of Oats… it’s like dessert – yum! I remember tree decorating being interesting with the girls were little. My tip is to have extra hooks on hand. If the ornaments only have a small loop of string it can be hard to get it over the pine branch. Add a hook and it is easier. And then after you are finished and the kids go to bed, double check it all and make sure all of the fragile stuff is safely hung up high:)

  2. Ginny Marie says

    I love decorating the tree with my daughters! They used to always put too many ornaments at the bottom of the tree, due to their size. Now that they are growing up, the top of the tree gets some attention too!

  4. Jen says

    I have never thought to put more ornaments at the bottom of the tree in order to create more visual interest. Duh, but that makes sense. Going to take a look at my tree to see if things need to be moved around, well except for the clump of ornaments that Liese put up in the only place she decided to decorate on the tree. Yummy, recipe!

  5. Diane Roark says

    Janine,
    I love Honey Bunches of Oats too but I have never thought of making cookies with it. Your Oatmeal Craisins Cookies sounds extremely delicious. Oatmeal cookies are one of my favorite cookies.
    Please remind me again where you get your precious ornaments with your names on them. I love them!

    Many blessings,
    Diane

    • Janine says

      Aw, just another thing we have in common as I have always been a huge Oatmeal cookies fan, too. Oh and I have gotten the personalized name ornaments in the past from Ornaments with Love 🙂

  6. Mary says

    Wow! I read this post and actually said “THIS IS AWESOME!” out loud. I haven’t had my own Christmas Tree… ever! It’s crazy but true; I usually go to the east coast to enjoy Christmas with my family, but this year I’m staying home and hanging out with my Mother, which means…. I get to buy and decorate a tree, but I don’t know where to start. Thank you for this list, I needed it and didn’t even know it.

  9. The Rambler says

    I LOVE LOVE decorating the Christmas Tree. Normally, we start out with all of us…and then slowly teeter off until it’s just me. But I’m okay with that. I’m singing and dancing to my Xmas music (Pentatonix at the moment). The puppy hung in there until the end, I should say. Probably conspiring to see if this tree will be on her destruction list.

  12. Tamara says

    Scarlet calls garland “garling” and we never want to correct her!
    Ok, this is my most consistent favorite cereal. And that movie looks SO GOOD. We totally quote it already from seeing all the trailers for it.

  13. Marilyn Lesniak says

    Thank you for sharing your delicious recipe at the #RecipeSharingParty. I look forward to what you will share next week! We hope you’ll come back again next Thursday when we open our doors at 9:00 AM EST. Pinned, Yummed, Tweeted!

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