Decorating your Christmas tree may leave you trying to figure out what kind of mistakes you may make while you are decorating the tree. This can vary from the living tree or the artificial tree you have bought, but no matter what you will want to have some tips to make sure your tree is looking perfect all the time.
1. Tree Selection Is Key
The first thing you need to realize is the trees look will really start to depend on the style and type of tree that you have bought. What you need to realize with a real tree is the species can make a difference in how easy it will be for you to decorate the tree. While pine trees have gotten quite a good reputation for being the preferred tree, you need to realize these trees are harder to decorate and often can lose their needles really quick once they are cut. If you want to have a tree that will last you a long period of time, then you will want to consider the firs or even the spruce trees. These are going to have some very strong branches that will hold up the ornaments easily, but also will not have the same type of needle point that is present with some of the pine trees. An easy way to avoid this type of issue is to look at the artificial trees. Some of the artificial trees you can find are actually going to come pre-lit and this will make it easier for you to get the tree up quickly and easily.
2. Check The Trees Health
If you are using a real tree, make sure you are getting one that is nice looking. The way to test this is by bending the branches, which if the branches snap the tree is not fresh and will not be worth your time decorating, but if the tree branches bend easily then you will have a great tree. By bending easily, but not snapping it means the branches have plenty of water or in some cases sap inside of them, which will make it easier for you to decorate. As an old adage, if the branches do break easily, then you will not have a good tree. You just have to remember if the branches snap when you are checking them, you will notice that your floor will be full of needles quickly, but also the branches may not support your ornaments.
3. A Tree Skirt While Putting Up
A Christmas tree skirt is not only beautiful, but it is a useful item to have on the tree. That is because the skirts will collect the needles for you and depending on the type that you get, you can find some of the mats will allow you to have a way to wrap up the tree once you are done with it.
4. Be Careful With The Lights
When it comes to the lights it is very important for you to sort all of your lights out. When you do this, it will make it quite a bit easier for you to get the lights on the tree and check the lights over for any broken bulbs first. The good news is the modern lights tend to have a reduced chance of sparking when you change a bulb, but you need to remember some people still use the older bulbs and this can spark when you try to change out some of the bulbs.
5. Pets And Kids Can Ruin A Tree
Now, a key thing is and I hate to admit it for myself is the fact that if you have dogs, like I do, or younger kids, like I do as well running around you may have some issues with them getting tangled up in the light cords. This will mean they will pull the cords off of the tree without realizing it and sometimes they can pull the tree over as well. Since this is the case, you may want to consider some of the artificial trees that already have lights on them.
6. Get The Tree Decorated Properly
Make sure you have the tree decorated properly and in a way that it is not going to look overloaded on any single side with ornaments or lights. A good thing to remember is the larger your decoration is the lower on the tree it should go for falling, but also it will look proper on the tree. When you have the larger ornaments on the bottom, it will look more natural, but the smaller ornaments will look better at the top of the tree as well. This will give you a great looking tree, but also make sure it is going to look proper and not really challenge any of the smaller limbs on top with a large ornament.
7. Tinsel Advice
Tinsel is a great decoration to have on your tree, but you need to realize you need to make sure you spread it out evenly. If you are getting the tinsel looking like it is clumped around the tree, then you will want to redo the tinsel. You can do this by putting it closer to the edges of the tree branches. By putting it closer to the branches edges you will notice it is going to be easier for you to have a great looking tree that does look like it has ice hanging off of it.
8. A Theme For The Tree
Themes are something that I do not really think about when I am working on my tree. However, I have followed quite a few experts in the Christmas decor niche and they all say you should find a theme for your tree. This can vary from anything like the type of ornaments you are going to have on the tree, but also the color of the tinsel and other items. Personally, if I do a theme it is based on more of what my kids want to have on the tree than what I want to have.
9. Family Heirloom Decorations
If your family is like mine, you probably have some ornaments that have been handed down for several generations. This is definitely something you want to have on your tree because it is a family heirloom, but also will give your tree a unique touch. Not only that, I have found some of the ornaments from my grandfather still have some of the same smells that I remember when I was growing up.
No matter what getting your Christmas tree decorated and up is a good thing. However, one thing that you need to realize is it can be a pain as well to decorate your tree. That is why I have provided some of the advice you will like to have to help you in getting the Christmas tree you have or are getting properly decorated.
Tuesday, November 28, 2017
Sunday, November 26, 2017
How To Find Affordable Christmas Decorations Today
It was not that long ago, about 30 years ago, that only the wealthy would be putting up the larger Christmas displays outside. The reason is it would take a lot of money for people to buy the decorations, but often if people wanted to get a great display they would end up getting someone to install it and hope they could afford the higher utility bills.
Now, though, everything has changed and a lot of people are doing the decorations for themselves, but also with LED lights not having to be as concerned about the higher utility bills. What else has come down in price and started to become more affordable is the inflatables people are able to use in the front yard.
When it comes to finding all the different Christmas decorations you will notice the Internet has really opened up the world to a variety of products you can find. What else is nice is you can often find all the Christmas decorations at a price cheaper than what you can imagine. Often, you will notice that you can find inflatables at some of the best prices available.
The downside is you do have to do some shopping around to find the best website for deals, but it does have a tendency to pay off big in the savings you get. What is really nice is you will find that you can find some sites that are Christmas specific and they tend to have the largest decoration selection on the market. These can vary from the giant snowmen that can tower over you, to the icicle lights, but also to the inflatable nutcracker displays as well.
If you are looking for a larger blowup, it is important to realize they will have motors that are going to run constantly and will need to have electricity supplied to them. What else is a negative with the inflatables is they tend to have a short cord, which means you need to get an extension cord to help power them.
Sometimes, you will notice you can find some of the smaller inflatables that can sit on your porch and need to have some power, but it may have a long enough cord to reach around your house. If you find some inflatable Christmas decorations for your door, you may find they are going to look like a wreath, but would often have something that is cute like Rudolph or Santa on the wreath.
What else is nice is when you are looking for Christmas decorations you can find great pricing available, but you can even notice some inflatables for prices well below than what you would expect to pay. All that you have to do is make sure you spend a few minutes of research to find the best prices on the products you are looking for.
Now, though, everything has changed and a lot of people are doing the decorations for themselves, but also with LED lights not having to be as concerned about the higher utility bills. What else has come down in price and started to become more affordable is the inflatables people are able to use in the front yard.
When it comes to finding all the different Christmas decorations you will notice the Internet has really opened up the world to a variety of products you can find. What else is nice is you can often find all the Christmas decorations at a price cheaper than what you can imagine. Often, you will notice that you can find inflatables at some of the best prices available.
The downside is you do have to do some shopping around to find the best website for deals, but it does have a tendency to pay off big in the savings you get. What is really nice is you will find that you can find some sites that are Christmas specific and they tend to have the largest decoration selection on the market. These can vary from the giant snowmen that can tower over you, to the icicle lights, but also to the inflatable nutcracker displays as well.
If you are looking for a larger blowup, it is important to realize they will have motors that are going to run constantly and will need to have electricity supplied to them. What else is a negative with the inflatables is they tend to have a short cord, which means you need to get an extension cord to help power them.
Sometimes, you will notice you can find some of the smaller inflatables that can sit on your porch and need to have some power, but it may have a long enough cord to reach around your house. If you find some inflatable Christmas decorations for your door, you may find they are going to look like a wreath, but would often have something that is cute like Rudolph or Santa on the wreath.
What else is nice is when you are looking for Christmas decorations you can find great pricing available, but you can even notice some inflatables for prices well below than what you would expect to pay. All that you have to do is make sure you spend a few minutes of research to find the best prices on the products you are looking for.
Saturday, November 25, 2017
Advice To Make Christmas Decoration A Breeze
Face it, decorating for Christmas is one of those things you will either love or you will hate. Often, people will end up getting all the decorations out and start to panic on how long it will be before they can put it back in storage. In this article, I am going to try to change all of that by providing you with some great information that can change your mindset on Christmas decorations.
Make Sure You Bring Yourself Into The Decorating
It may seem like it is a little odd, but you need to make sure you put some of your own likes in the decorating.
This is going to come from anything that goes from selecting the decorations to even looking at the type of tree you are going to get. Remember you are decorating to make yourself happy, not to be competing with the neighbors.
Find Lights That Work All The Time
Nothing is worse than plugging in your Christmas lights and find half of the strand is out because of a single bulb. You could be tempted to throw out the entire light, but first, you should realize the bulbs are quite a bit cheaper than getting a new strand of lights. To avoid this problem you should get a tester for your lights. This is going to make it quite a bit easier, a little time consuming, but easy to find out which one of the lights is out. If you have the extra money, you will want to start to replace your older strands with new strands that are going to allow the strand to stay on even if a light bulbs is out. With a serial light string, you will find that if one bulb goes out, all of the bulbs are going to go out. This is why we have recommended replacing the light bulbs as quickly as possible to fix the issue. Then you will notice that any bulb that goes out, it will only be the one bulb that is out that is going to be easier to fix.
Decorate The Table For Christmas Dinner
The table is going to be one of the main focal points while celebrating Christmas. So you should make sure you get the Christmas tree decorated, but also find a centerpiece, even if it is a fruit basket for the table to provide a festive look for the table.
Make Everyone Feel Welcome
Usually, if you are hosting a Christmas party you will have a guest, to ensure they feel welcome, you should make sure they have a place marked for them at the table. If is a simple thing to do, but it will make your guest feel ten times better about coming to your home.
Stocking are another thing you will have hanging on the mantle so you will want to make sure you have personal touches added to them as well. A great way to make the stockings look a little bit more personal is to add to something the kids or adults like, but even stitching in the name will be helpful as well.
Hang The Mistletoe
The holly bush and the mistletoe should be hung up around the house. I know this may seem a little odd, but the holly berries for some reason almost always seem to add in a great look to the home and make it feel quite a bit more welcoming than what you would get in other houses.
Wreaths For The Doors
Now, this is something that a lot of people have a tendency to overlook, which is going to be sad, but it takes very little work to get the wreaths out for the doors or even the garage. When you do hang the wreath, you will find a wreath hanger is a great option, which will make it quite a bit easier to get it hanging properly. You will notice you can use a magnetic hook, which is nice, but at the same time it does require metal, but if you have the extra space you can use the door hanger for the wreaths that goes over the top of the door.
Keep The Traditions Alive
While you may not think about this at times, you need to realize with the families tend to have traditions that you need to keep alive. This can even be broken down into figuring out how all the decorations are going to be laid out and what is going to need to go where, but also by assigning areas to the family members to make them responsible for the decoration. This will allow you to have a unique decoration pattern for the home because each family member will have their own idea of what it should be looking like.
Decorating for Christmas is not something you should take lightly. However, it is also something that you are going to tend to have a fear of doing as well. This is why I have provided you with some tips that should make it easier for you to have an easy time decorating your home, but also not have to worry about how long the decorations will be up before you have to put them away again. The key thing is to have fun with the Christmas season.
Make Sure You Bring Yourself Into The Decorating
It may seem like it is a little odd, but you need to make sure you put some of your own likes in the decorating.
This is going to come from anything that goes from selecting the decorations to even looking at the type of tree you are going to get. Remember you are decorating to make yourself happy, not to be competing with the neighbors.
Find Lights That Work All The Time
Nothing is worse than plugging in your Christmas lights and find half of the strand is out because of a single bulb. You could be tempted to throw out the entire light, but first, you should realize the bulbs are quite a bit cheaper than getting a new strand of lights. To avoid this problem you should get a tester for your lights. This is going to make it quite a bit easier, a little time consuming, but easy to find out which one of the lights is out. If you have the extra money, you will want to start to replace your older strands with new strands that are going to allow the strand to stay on even if a light bulbs is out. With a serial light string, you will find that if one bulb goes out, all of the bulbs are going to go out. This is why we have recommended replacing the light bulbs as quickly as possible to fix the issue. Then you will notice that any bulb that goes out, it will only be the one bulb that is out that is going to be easier to fix.
Decorate The Table For Christmas Dinner
The table is going to be one of the main focal points while celebrating Christmas. So you should make sure you get the Christmas tree decorated, but also find a centerpiece, even if it is a fruit basket for the table to provide a festive look for the table.
Make Everyone Feel Welcome
Usually, if you are hosting a Christmas party you will have a guest, to ensure they feel welcome, you should make sure they have a place marked for them at the table. If is a simple thing to do, but it will make your guest feel ten times better about coming to your home.
Stocking are another thing you will have hanging on the mantle so you will want to make sure you have personal touches added to them as well. A great way to make the stockings look a little bit more personal is to add to something the kids or adults like, but even stitching in the name will be helpful as well.
Hang The Mistletoe
The holly bush and the mistletoe should be hung up around the house. I know this may seem a little odd, but the holly berries for some reason almost always seem to add in a great look to the home and make it feel quite a bit more welcoming than what you would get in other houses.
Wreaths For The Doors
Now, this is something that a lot of people have a tendency to overlook, which is going to be sad, but it takes very little work to get the wreaths out for the doors or even the garage. When you do hang the wreath, you will find a wreath hanger is a great option, which will make it quite a bit easier to get it hanging properly. You will notice you can use a magnetic hook, which is nice, but at the same time it does require metal, but if you have the extra space you can use the door hanger for the wreaths that goes over the top of the door.
Keep The Traditions Alive
While you may not think about this at times, you need to realize with the families tend to have traditions that you need to keep alive. This can even be broken down into figuring out how all the decorations are going to be laid out and what is going to need to go where, but also by assigning areas to the family members to make them responsible for the decoration. This will allow you to have a unique decoration pattern for the home because each family member will have their own idea of what it should be looking like.
Decorating for Christmas is not something you should take lightly. However, it is also something that you are going to tend to have a fear of doing as well. This is why I have provided you with some tips that should make it easier for you to have an easy time decorating your home, but also not have to worry about how long the decorations will be up before you have to put them away again. The key thing is to have fun with the Christmas season.
Friday, November 24, 2017
A Quick History Of Christmas Lights
However, even this small hazard is a lot better than losing your entire home due to a candle catching your tree on fire. Even, with the safety of glass being added over the candles, it was still going to have some challenges that could lead to the home burning down. Some people would be so smart they even used some of the metal lanterns they could buy at the store to light up the tree.
As for the use of Christmas lights, it would take several years before they would become widely available on the market. Some rumors were even started that it was one of Thomas Edison's assistants who would use only specific lights around Christmas, but that is rumored. This rumor, though, was the start of the Christmas lights that we have become so familiar with. Before the advancement of the LED light bulbs to the night light, the early Christmas lights looked like the night light bulbs.
What is even worse is the light bulbs were large and strung along over a large strand. If you are really looking for something interesting you can find these same bulbs in some of the older antique magazines. The downside with these bulbs is they were like some of the older light bulbs that if they hit the floor you would be finding glass for weeks after Christmas. It would take until the 1970s before the mini lights would start to come around. The concept for the mini lights was pretty much the same as the original and it would be something that a lot of people would notice.
However, one aspect that the mini lights did provide people was the chance to use these for decorating more times in the year, rather than just during Christmas, just think about the older office parties you see on television with the mini lights strung up around the office. What is really amazing is this was the start of the icicle light craze. These Christmas icicle lights are the ones that you are able to see around the porches of some of the houses. With the Great Christmas Light Fight show, you will notice that it is has become a competition to see who can have the best house and at times you will see the icicle lights in use.
With the advent of the LED lights you will notice that you can buy these in comparison to the standard lights, but instead of having the dangers of the bulbs, it is rather easy to see the LED lights are cooler and brighter. Not to mention, the LED lights have a tendency to last you quite a bit longer and if one of the lights does go out, the strand will typically stay on. This definitely makes it easier when you are trying to string together the lights on the tree and notice after you have them on that a bulb went out and you have to go through the entire strand to find the one blown bulb. This has never been an easy task to deal with, and now it is possible to enjoy the sparkling vividness of these LED lights this holiday and for many years to come.
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