Editor’s Lighting Tip: Worried you missed a spot? Step back from the Christmas tree and look at it with your eyes crossed. Where you see dark holes, rearrange Christmas lights, and fill in voids. Editor’s Lighting Tip: Thin out branches before decorating to make each light and ornament have more presence. Editor’s Lighting Tip: Use three 100-light sets per foot for a fresh Christmas tree, and 50-light strands for an artificial one. Editor’s Lighting Tip: Pick lights in a color that matches your key ornaments (in this case, orange). That way they enhance the color scheme rather than draw away from it. Editor’s Lighting Tip: If your artificial tree is not prelit, wrap miniature Christmas lights securely around the branches so you can permanently attach them to the tree. Light each section separately. Don’t allow the light strands to cross sections or the points of assembly—sections will no longer come apart easily. Editor’s Lighting Tip: If your Christmas tree can only be seen from one direction, string all the Christmas lights on that side of the tree. Editor’s Lighting Tip: Small twinkly lights and colored lights make more of an impact when you layer several strands and pair them with reflective ornaments. Editor’s Lighting Tip: To illuminate your unique Christmas tree from the inside out, string lights around the base of the trunk and work your way up the tree, wrapping individual branches from the trunk to the tip of the branch and back. Editor’s Lighting Tip: Use Christmas lights all of the same wattage. This will prevent power surges and prolong the life of the bulbs. Editor’s Lighting Tip: Watch ads closely for the best sales on Christmas lights as it gets closer to tree decorating time, and be open to where you shop for Christmas lights—the hardware store, grocery store, and crafts store are all good places to get your lights. Editor’s Lighting Tip: Match the color of your Christmas lights with the color of your ornaments to create a classy, monochromatic look for your Christmas tree theme. Editor’s Lighting Tip: The best way to untangle Christmas tree lights is by winding the strands on your arm, making sure that you don’t pull on any of the bulbs while unwinding. Before you start untangling, plug in the strand of lights to see which bulbs need to be replaced—don’t wait until the lights are on the tree to find out which lights don’t work! Editor’s Lighting Tip: The best way to store Christmas tree lights is to wrap them on your arm when taking them down and secure the finished circle with a tie in the middle. If you saved the original box, slip them around the cardboard that came with your lights and store them in the box. Manual and motorized coils that are specifically made to store Christmas tree lights are another option for light storage. Editor’s Lighting Tip: For a fun Christmas tree theme idea, pick up some lights that put on a show, such as LED lights that blink to the tune of popular Christmas carols or just on their own. Editor’s Lighting Tip: Green Christmas tree lights add subtlety to a holiday evergreen. Decorate with green and silver ornament balls to complete the look. Editor’s Lighting Tip: For a bold look on your Christmas tree, try decorating with bigger lights. Bigger lights cover more area, so lessen the number of ornaments you use so your tree isn’t too crowded. Editor’s Lighting Tip: Create the same snowy effect for your Christmas lights by sprinkling faux snow on top of the strands once they’re hung on the tree. Editor’s Lighting Tip: Plug your Christmas tree lights into a special dimmer outlet so you can raise or lower the lights depending on the holiday mood you want to create.
