I don’t believe there is a right way to decorate your tree, it is all down to personal choice and having fun together as a family, but I have put together a few very simple tips for you.
Measure
Measure the area you have chosen for your tree so you know it will fit perfectly. Ensure there are plug sockets for the lights before hand too.
Location
choose the right location. Your tree does not have to be in the lounge, so put it where it best compliments your home. If you have small children or pets, male sure-it is in a safe area too. If you are worried about it falling it over you could also have a real tree outside that you see from the inside and decorate with lights and baubles.
Fluff up
Once the base is up, make sure your fluff out all the branches so the tree looks nice and even, if you have a fake tree they can be scratchy on your wrists and lower arm so pop on a pair of rubber gloves.
Lights first
Put up the lights before the decorations, but make sure they all work first. Hang them horizontally and if you haven’t got many don’t worry about lightening the back as you can’t see that part anyway. Bonus is they are a whole lot easier to take them down once Christmas is over!
Lights on
Keep the lights on whilst decorating, this will save you from hiding any and keep your tree at its brightest.
Colour scheme
Choose a colour scheme wisely to compliment your tree, go for rich reds, glamorous gold or sparkling silver
Fill in the gaps
When popping on your baubles and decorations fill in any gaps you spot and try to be consistent in your choice of colours. Avoid hanging the same colours next to each other unless you are-using one shade.
Tree Skirt
Add in a treat skirt as they really do create a beautiful effect and can hide away the wires for your lights.
Special task
Get the younger family members to add on the Christmas star or angel.
Stand back
Stand back and admire your masterpiece and fill in any gaps.
Set up your ironing board so it is the right height for you to be comfortable then no stretching or back ache, grab your presents and wrap away.
Putting up a fake tree
Pop on a pair of rubber gloves when fluffing up your fake Christmas tree to save all the scratches on your arms.
Christmas Lights Hacks
If like most of us your Christmas lights come out all tangled and the elves get blamed for the mess, then you need this hack!
Grab yourself a coat hanger and simply hook one end of the lights to the hook on the hanger and wrap around or use the tube from your wrapping paper and wrap around. The following Christmas your lights will be tangle free.
Wrapping storage bag
If you hate your wrapping paper being everywhere and never being able to find your scissors then you need to get yourself a wrapping storage bag.
Put all the wrapping paper tubes inside along with the tags, ribbon, bows etc and you will have everything to hand.
Toilet paper tube
Keep of hold of your toilet paper tubes, cut along and then use this to keep your roll of wrapping paper in tack.
Sharpen your scissors
Kitchen foil will never sharpen your scissors, but it can certainly improve their performance, because the foil will clean the blades and remove little burs from the cutting edge. So grab a piece of foil and get them scissors performing better.
Smells like Christmas
Imagine giving your Christmas cards then scent of Christmas.
Pop your cards in an airtight container or sealed bag and add in a few cotton balls with your festive smelling essential oils such as evergreen or peppermint. Leave over night and then your cards will smell like Christmas.
Send off and the card will hang onto the smell for 2 weeks.
Glitter hack
Clean up glitter from Christmas cards and decorations by placing an old pair of tights over your vacuum nozzle.
Or
Try the balloon trick. Blow it up, rub it on the carpet (or your hair!) to create some static electricity.
Roll the balloon over the leftover glitter and you’ll be left with a sparkle covered sphere!
The Dreaded Pine Needles
As beautiful as real Christmas trees are, if you have carpets and have tried hoovering the needles up, youâll know the only time they ever seem to come out of the carpet easily is when they are stuck in your feet!
Plus who wants to get the vacuum out for a few stray needles
Duct tape is the answer!
Simply wrap around your hand a two or three times, sticky side out, and use to remove them quickly and easily.
Polish up your silverware for Christmas dining
Don’t spoil a delicious Christmas dinners with tarnished silverware.
Make your cutlery shine with a bicarbonate of soda and salt.
Lay your silver wear in a bowl of warm water and sprinkle in a good helping of both
Leave soaking for 15 minutes.
Dry and buff using a lint free cloth.
Christmas dirty dishes
Who has time for scrubbing dirty bunt pans over the Christmas period.
You can rescue them quickly and save yourself lots of scrubbing time by adding in a used tea bags.
Wet the marked area with warm water and pop in your used tea bag.
Enjoy your dinner.
Then once finished easting simply pour away and the burnt bits will disappear before your eyes.
Wrap wine bottles with socks
Grab a pair of festive fluffy socks, pop the bottle of wine into one of the socks, fold the other other and tie around the neck to look like a scarf, this makes a great pressie and they get two lovely presents in one.
Use family photos instead of gifts tags, adds a nice little touch plus when you are out and about delivering makes it easy to recognise whose is who.
Christmas day box
Keep your essentials handy for Christmas day, add in batteries, screw driver, bin bags and anything else you may need to access quickly to keep the kids happy when opening the presents.
Dinner table
Collect wine corks to use as place settings. Simply slit along the long side of the cork and slide in a name card for a quick and easy place setting.
