How to Decorate a Christmas Tree

A tree that looks considered rather than crowded comes down to sequence and placement, not to spending more. This is the order we would work in, and the reasoning behind each step.

Start With the Tree Itself

Set the tree up and leave it for a few hours before you decorate. An artificial tree needs its branches separated and fanned — work from the trunk outward, bending each tip up and out until you cannot see through to the pole. It is dull work and it matters more than any ornament will. Check the tree is level and stable now, while it is empty, rather than after it is loaded.

Choose a Color Scheme First

Decide the palette before you open a single box. A simple structure that works: two base colors plus one accent. The bases carry the tree — classic red and green, or white and silver, or navy and blush — and the accent appears in about one ornament in eight, as punctuation rather than a third equal partner.

Metallics behave as neutrals. Gold warms a scheme, silver cools it, and either one will bridge two colors that do not quite agree. Pick one metal and stay with it; mixing gold and silver across a whole tree usually reads as accident rather than intent.

Look at the room, not just the tree. A tree stands against your walls, curtains and rug for a month, and a palette that fights the room will look wrong however good the pieces are. If you are starting from scratch, browse our Christmas tree ornaments and decorations by color before you buy.

How Many Ornaments — a Rule of Thumb

This is a decorator's guideline, not a fact: allow roughly 10 to 20 ornaments for every foot of tree height. The low end gives an airy, restrained tree; the high end gives a dense, traditional one. For lights, a common rule of thumb is about 100 bulbs per foot of height, again with more for a fuller look.

Treat these as a starting point. A narrow pencil tree needs fewer than a wide one of the same height, and a tree seen from one side only needs fewer still.

The Order to Hang Things

Work in this sequence. Each step is harder to do once the next one is in place.

1. Lights. Always first. Start at the trunk near the base and wind outward along each branch to the tip, then back in toward the trunk, so the wire disappears and the depth of the tree glows rather than just the surface. Test the set before you wind it on, and check our Christmas lights and home decor range for the length you need before you start, rather than finding you are two feet short at the top.
2. Garland or ribbon. Second, while there is still room to reach through the branches. Run it in a loose spiral from top to bottom, or in vertical cascades from the top down, and tuck sections in so it weaves through the tree instead of sitting on it.
3. Ornaments. Third, in the placement order described below.
4. Topper. Fourth. If yours needs both hands and a ladder, fit it before you hang delicate ornaments near the top, so you are not reaching over glass.
5. Skirt or collar. Last, once nothing else needs to be reached from the floor.

Weight and Placement

Depth is what separates a good tree from a flat one, and it comes from putting the right ornament in the right place.

• Heavy ornaments go on inner branches, close to the trunk, where the wood or wire is thickest and will hold the weight without drooping. Deep placement also catches the light and gives the tree an interior.
• Light and delicate ornaments go on the outer tips, where they hang free, turn, and read against the room.
• Medium-weight pieces fill the middle third of each branch and knit the two together.
• Largest ornaments toward the bottom, smallest toward the top. It follows the taper of the tree and keeps it from looking top-heavy.

For spacing, place ornaments of a kind in loose triangles across the tree rather than in rows or rings, and rotate the tree or walk around it as you go. Step back every few minutes: gaps and clusters are invisible at arm's length and obvious from the doorway. Fill any hole you find with a plain matte bauble deep in the branches rather than another feature piece.

Storing It All Afterwards

Let light sets cool completely, then wind each one around a rectangle of stiff cardboard with the plug taped down — it takes two minutes and saves an hour next November. Remove the batteries from anything battery-powered before it goes into a box.

Wrap glass ornaments individually in tissue and store them in a rigid compartment box, not a bag. Keep boxes somewhere cool and dry rather than in a hot attic, label them by contents, and note on the lid anything that needs replacing. Unpack next year with an eye out for cracked housings and frayed wire, and check our ornament collection for whatever did not survive.

Last updated: August 26, 2026