How do you properly wrap lights around a Christmas tree?

Do not wind the lights around, this is a common mistake that you will regret in January. You want to run the lights up and down the tree, then go around, zig zagging up and down all the way. That way they will come off much more easily (and really, go on more easily too). Remember, the lights are points, not lines. Ignore the wires and focus on the lights as points.

After that it all depends on the look you are trying to achieve and how many lights you have. I like to get a multi-layered look by putting some lights deep in the tree by the trunk, some midway out, and some nearer the ends of the branches, but never all the way out at the end, that makes the wires too visible.

I actually start from the bottom and wind them around the tree, it works just fine.

We start at the top. That insures there’s a plug up there that the angel topper will plug into. We go round & round the tree, too. When you take it down, just go in reverse. Easy.

I go with a bottom up approach. And I use a sine wave approach.

Easy if you want to walk in endless circles around the tree. Or if your tree is small enough that you can have someone spin it for you. Or if you want to take the tree down and roll it down the driveway while you peel the lights off. My way you can just pull off a string at a time and only have to make one circuit of the tree. It’s much easier.

@Snarp If there’s two of you, all’s you have to do it hand it back & forth.

if you want something that really looks good, twirl the lights around every couple of branches(on the same level) and start from the top down. that’s what my mom does(she got the tip from a professional decorator)...it takes a while but her tree always looks amazing.

Just cover the entire damn thing in tinsel so you can’t tell what’s under there. That works too. :D

Bottom up, round and round, easy and I end up with a plug at the top for the tree topper. But I suggest that any way you get them on they’ll look pretty. The only really important thing is that tinsel MUST be put on a few strands at a time!!! My kids tease me because I’m such a slacker about most stuff but this is the real and only rule for tree decorating.

The lights go on first, so as not to interfere with the decorations. I always plug them in first, so I know the cord will reach, then gently lay them on the branches in a circle. I have the tree on a moveable base, so I start with it in the middle of the room, walk around and around and then push it back when I’m all done decorating it.

I agree with JP—I start from the bottom, with the lights plugged in so you know if you get a short. Especially on the bottom branches, you have to zig in and out.

I use a special extension cord for Christmas trees. It plugs into the wall and has a switch at the bottom. There are outlets at intervals along it. I begin by running this up the trunk from the bottom and fastening it with green twist-ties.

Then I plug each string of lights directly into this cord instead of into one another. I start at the top, and make sure there is a yellow light for the star. We wind them in slack loops so that as the branches sag there is some give to them. It takes two of us to pass them back and forth as they go around, but I have done it alone when I was younger and more limber. For a six-foot tree standing on a box, we do need a stepladder so we can reach over the top.

At the bottom, where half of the tree is against the corner walls, we stop wrapping and just zigzag back and forth on the exposed sides of the tree.

I start at the top, partly cos that’s how my dad always did it, & partly cos my treetopper is lit up, too, & needs to plug into the light set. I only put them around the tree at the very top, where I can reach from one spot. Then I do them in a zig-zag, but side to side instead of up & down. Minimizes messing about w/the ladder! I also like to do this after dark, w/the lights plugged in, so I can see if I did a crappy job. (And fix it!);-)

I used to start at the bottom and go up, ending with the lighted angel.
Now I cheat. I bought a fiber optic 4’ tree last year and I set it on the end table moved to the front windows, plug it in and DONE!

Since the boys are non-Santa believers anymore, they don’t even care much about putting orniments on it. However, they do insist on getting out my serphan nativity set that grandma bought 15 years ago. Lot’s of boxes to unpack, but it is beautiful. Afterall, that is the reason!

I do artificial trees… and wrap each damn branch with lights. The stupid tree looks great and I managed to locate the freakin’ plugs in convenient places for being plugged in. My poor fucking hands get eaten up something awful by the time I get done stringing lights.

For live trees, I go up and down.

Lights on first.
Start at the top. go down the left side.
Move down to the first tier of branches, and go to the right.
When you reach the near-back of the tree, move down a tier, and circle left.
Repeat until you hit the bottom.
Doing it this way hides the cord, and makes it very easy to remove.

I guess what all this adds up to is—there’s no “properly.” There’s just whatever works.

I’m a winder. I just wind it around the tree. It works just fine. I’m not usually worried about efficiency of removal when I’m setting it up.

A friend of mine wraps the lights around the branches- it looks great but I don’t have the patience. (Plus I would need a lot more lights…)

I’ve got 5 days to put up the tree.. I just can’t decide how to do it.
Too many good suggestions.

It only takes half a day to put up the tree. Do whatever you want, it really doesn’t matter, and is easy. But my way really is the easiest.

Oh, I forgot to mention that when I do my fake tree, I leave the lights on. If a strand isn’t working by the time I get it up again, I unwind that damn strand from that freakin’ section of the stupid tree and just re-do that.

Easy peasy… if they all work. But they don’t which is why my mom makes me do it. :P

The tree is going to look beautiful no matter what.

Put the lights on first. Then the tinsel garlands (the long sparkly boa-like things) if you use those, plus paper chains, beads, and anything else that comes in strings. Then the hanging ornaments. Then the icicles (some people call those “tinsel”) last. By then everything is so beautiful and sparkly that as long as you have a fairly good coverage with the lights, it just won’t matter.

Merry decorating!

@Jeruba GA

I’m a horrible procrastinator. The tree is set up. That’s about as far as I got.
@Jeruba, I lurve you.

I set up my tree today too. It took about 5 minutes. All the lights are working. Didn’t decorate because I have to locate the decorations, but I decorate the front and let my mother complain that there are no ornaments on the back and let her climb back there to fix it. Muhahahaha! My plotting has become an art when it comes to decorating!

I’m a bit of a Christmas Nazi – and I freak out if anyone touches my tree. @johnpowell basically just made me swoon. I didn’t speak to my sister once for 2 days because she put red and white pipe cleaner candy canes on the tree. The theme was silver and gold, for fuck’s sake. It was all pale cream colors and soft lighting. She butchered it. Hmpf.

Being a Christmas crazy person – I fully endorse his method.

Go to Google and search for Tree Go Round, the stand that manually rotates to make decorating simple and easy. No more walking around or reaching around the tree. Wish I would of had this stand years ago.

bottom up :)