Think back to the night last December when the tree was finally up. You switched off the overhead light, walked to the doorway, and something looked off.
Decorator Dorothy of @DecorWithDorothy says she knows the feeling well. Last season she dressed 26 Christmas trees in clients’ homes, and in nearly every garage she opened bins full of the same purchases doing almost nothing.
Her verdict is blunt. It was never the tree, she says, it was the nine things people bought to put on it.
A Box Of 100 Tiny Ornaments Can Still Leave Your Tree Looking Bare
The first purchase is in almost every cart in November, a big box of 60 or 100 tiny matching balls, about an inch and a half across, for $20 or $30. It feels like a bargain, but Dorothy says a tree is seen from 10 or 12 feet away, and a ball the size of a walnut disappears into the branches.
So you hang all 100, step back, and the tree still looks thin. The natural reaction is to buy another box.
Her fix is bigger ornaments. About a dozen balls four inches or wider will do more for a seven-and-a-half-foot tree than every little one in that box. Twist three small ones together with florist wire and hang them as a cluster, and you have turned 100 specks into 33 real ornaments.
The $1 Ribbon That Sags Like A Wet Handkerchief
Number two is the cheap spool of narrow ribbon with no wire in the edges. It looks pretty on the roll, but she says it has nothing to hold its shape, and by the time company arrives the bow loops are hanging down.
What you want is wired ribbon, two and a half inches wide or more, so you can pinch and poof it and it stays put all season. Craft stores often run their Christmas aisles at 40 or 50% off, so there is rarely a reason to pay full price.
Pinch a loop in the store and let go. The wired ribbon springs back, and the other folds over like tissue. The narrow ribbon you already own is not wasted, since it works well for tying ornaments onto branches instead of metal hooks.
Inflatables Spend Half The Day Face Down On The Lawn
The third purchase is the inflatable, from the eight-foot snowman to the whole blow-up family, priced from $50 to well over $100 apiece. Dorothy says they only look like anything while the fan is running, so for half of every December day the neighbors drive past a heap of nylon lying face down in the yard.
The fabric also fades in the sun, and a seam eventually lets go. She has opened client garages with three or four of them piled up, each with one little tear.
Her alternative costs about $30. Fill the planters by your door with cut evergreen branches, many tree lots will hand you trimmings for free or a couple of dollars, then add red berry picks and a battery strand of warm white lights with a timer. She adds that if your grandson runs to the window every night to see the snowman, keep it, because her warning is about the next one you are tempted to buy.
A $12 Skinny Garland Looks Like A Green Pipe Cleaner
Number four is the skinny garland, nine feet for about $12. Draped across a mantel, she says you can see the wire running down the middle, while the full garland at nicer stores can cost $100 or more for the same length.
Her trick is to buy two of the cheap ones, lay them side by side, and twist them into one rope. Then spend 15 minutes fluffing every tip so nothing lies flat, and tuck a pine cone, berry stem or sprig of eucalyptus in every foot or so.
Look for any spot where the wire core still shows, and that is exactly where the next pick goes. She suggests doing the work on an old sheet in the garage because cheap garland sheds, and keeping every inch of greenery well clear of a fireplace opening.
Full Christmas Pillows Go Flat And Musty In The Garage
The fifth buy is the whole Christmas throw pillow, insert and all, at $30 or $40 apiece. After 11 months crushed in a bin, she says, it comes back flat and a little musty.
Buy only the covers, which run $10 to $20 and zip right over the inserts already on your sofa. She uses an insert two inches bigger than the cover, so a 20-inch cover sits plump over a 22-inch insert the way a catalog pillow does.
When the season ends, four covers fold flat into one gallon bag.
Why The Stores Sell You Whole Matching Trees
Dorothy also explains how Christmas is sold. Big stores dress whole trees head to toe in one theme, with ornaments, picks, ribbon, pillows, a tree skirt and a mantel sign all from one collection, and copying one tree can run to several hundred dollars.
Next year there is a new color story, and the quiet message is that yours is last year’s. She says nobody planned it in a back room, but a store does well when you replace, not when you rework.
That is the setup for number six, the fancy tree skirt in velvet or monogrammed fabric at $40 to over $100. By the second week of December it is buried under presents, so she suggests a faux fur throw gathered around the base, a plain linen or burlap tablecloth folded into a circle, or a basket or galvanized tub around the stand.
A 16-Piece Holiday Dish Set Hogs A Shelf All Year
Number seven is the full set of Christmas dishes, 16 pieces with holly or plaid for $60 to $100, used for one dinner or two. Dorothy says a stylist keeps the white dinner plates, because white makes food look its best, and layers around them.
Under each plate goes a gold charger from the dollar store, about a dollar and change each. On top goes one Christmas salad plate per guest, the only thing you buy, so if a grandchild drops one you have lost a salad plate, not a set.
Her Mother Kept Glass Balls In Egg Cartons
The eighth purchase is the special ornament storage box, about $30 with rows of cardboard dividers. Dorothy says the dividers buckle after two winters in a damp garage, and her daughter’s clay angel from second grade never fit in a little square.
Her mother never owned one. She kept her glass balls in egg cartons, one to a cup, and some of those balls hang on Dorothy’s tree now without a chip after four moves.
For bigger pieces, plastic cups hot glued into a shallow box make a nest, and a liquor store will often give you boxes with dividers inside. In January she packs the handmade and family ornaments in their own labeled box on top of the stack.
The $40 To $80 Tree Topper That Always Leans
The ninth and last, which she saved because it is probably what people spend the most on, is the big lit star or heavy angel for $40 to $80. Every year, she says, you are on the step stool reaching over the branches while the topper leans, because the top stem was never built to hold that weight.
On nearly every tree she dresses, she uses a spray instead. Three to five long picks, such as berries, glittered branches and a pine cone stem, are wired together at the base with a few tails of wired ribbon falling from the center.
Before the top section of an artificial tree goes in the pole, lay it across the kitchen table and wire the spray on at elbow height. The tree is crowned before it is finished standing, and Dorothy says that means 20 minutes on the couch with your grandchildren instead of up in the branches.
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