Tree Trimming 101

Upward Call wrote a post about her Christmas tree, saying it "won't win any prizes". Mine won't either, however, here are some old "florist" tricks to help with decorating your tree.

1. Use tonnes of lights. Yes, they are annoying to untangle, but lots of lights will hide a multitude of empty spaces, ugly patches, etc. Somehow the glow makes the hideous disappear. This year ours had one side that is missing a few branches, but it's amazing how the lights help. (Martha Stewart had a great idea for storage. Cut a piece of cardboard to the size of your plastic storage box and then wrap them around.)

2. Using ornaments within one colour family can help give visual impact. I have pink carpet in my house, which is a challenge when Christmas colours are red and green. However, I have managed to find pink balls, white doilies, Silver drop ornaments and burgundy apples. It works. You can try the same in shades of "blue, white and silver", or "red, gold and green", or "purple, silver, white", etc.

3. Throw in a few poinsettia blooms. Use odd numbers and distribute them evenly throughout the tree. I discovered this tip when we first started cutting our trees in the mountains, where they are less than perfect. I was standing back looking at my tree, thinking, "it still needs something". At Walmart, I had purchased a stem of velvety burgundy poinsettia blooms to make an arrangement and they were lying on the table. "Aha! Let's try these," I thought. It didn't take long to cut them up, and shove them deep in the tree, here and there. Voila! The tree was complete. Since then, I throw them in every year, and it sure helps to finish it off.

Hope these few tricks help you.