How decorated Christmas tree

A beautifully decorated Christmas tree can light up the holiday spirit of everyone who sees it. Here's how to make sure your tree looks exquisite and classic.

1

Choose a tree. Your tree is your canvas, so it's important to select a good one — gorgeous ornaments can do only so much for a scraggly tree. Some people prefer the look and smell of a real pine or fir tree, while others like the reliability of a fake one. Whatever you choose, here are some points to think about:Get a well-shaped tree. If you're getting a real tree, make sure you see it out of its netting. Look for full, evenly-spaced branches and a symmetric shape that tapers toward the top. If you're setting up a fake tree and shaping the branches yourself, try to bend them so that you can't see the inches of space between each layer of branches.Set up a tree stand and skirt. For real trees, you'll need a tree stand with a deep water reservoir, which you should fill only after the tree is in place.

Set up a tree skirt around the floor to catch any falling needles and make clean-up easier later.Consider a pre-lit tree. If you've already decided on an artificial tree, you might want to buy one that already has tiny Christmas lights on the branches. Putting up the lights is the worst part of the process for most people — if you can skip that step, you'll be able to spend more time and energy on other aspects of decorating your tree.

2

Pick a color scheme. Sticking to one color scheme will make your tree look cohesive and complete. Keep in mind that you might want to choose something that doesn't clash with the room the tree is in, and that you might have to concede some space for childhood or heirloom ornaments that clash with the rest of the tree. That said, here are some popular color schemes you could try: Classic Christmas colors, red and green. Accent the green tree with red ornaments, garlands and ribbons. If you want to add some pizzaz with one metallic color, try gold or silver. Red, green or clear lights would work best with this style.

Wintry colors, like blue, silver and purple. Use your tree to imitate the icy, glittering colors of a snowy Christmas. If you choose this scheme, try to avoid mixing in anything red, yellow, or golden. Pick clear or blue lights to go with it. For a truly minimalist winter look, use only white and silver decorations.
Metallic colors, such as gold, silver and bronze. The good news is that metallic colors are easy to mix, and you can play with one, two or three. They're best accented with clear lights.

Cool or warm colors. If you want a tree that's a little more diverse, try sticking to colors that are either cool (with blue undertones) or warm (with red undertones). For instance, a warm tree might feature red, orange and gold decorations; a cool one could have green, purple, blue and silver.

3

Pick a theme (optional). Some people select a specific theme for their Christmas trees, such as angels, nutcrackers or snowflakes. A theme can help your tree look cohesive, as well as making it stand out against other trees.

• If you tend to collect ornaments that are centered around a particular theme anyway, this could be a fun way to decorate your tree and expand your collection.
• If you're not much of a theme collector, don't worry about it too much — "Christmas" is enough theme for most trees!
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• Purchase ornamental bulbs (optional). Maybe you've already collected ornaments for several years, and you're planning on using those. If not, though, now's the time to get a set that will make your tree look elegant and classic for years to come. Consider these factors:
• Look at ornament multipacks. Most stores sell ornaments in boxes of six to 12, at a fairly reasonable price. Though you can add a few more interesting and expensive ornaments to the mix, these multipack bulbs make up the base of most people's Christmas tree ornaments.
• Stick to matte or shiny. If you're only using one color for bulb ornaments, you could try mixing up bulbs that reflect a lot of light with bulbs that have a flat sheen. Otherwise, it's safest to pick one or the other: shiny bulbs or matte bulbs.
• Mix sizes wisely. If you want to play it safe, keep your bulbs around the same size. If you're confident in your tree-decorating abilities, though, you could purchase a few different sizes to add some visual interest. Just make sure you mix them up so that you don't have any awkward clusters of large or small ornaments.
• Go with small lights. Tiny twinkles of light, instead of large plastic bulbs of light, will help your tree look whimsical and exquisite. Remember, your lights are there to accent the tree, not to be noticed.
• Try to choose lights that don't play music or flash, and stick to a color that works with your chosen scheme.
• If you want to make a fail-safe choice, pick white or off-white lights.