My favorite time of year has arrived! In my head, it’s essentially year-round, but it starts becoming socially acceptable to admit you’re listening to Christmas music the day after Halloween. …I’ve been playing it since April.

Last year I had a lot of my close friends make mention of my tree and ask how I decorated it. First of all, I took some serious notes from all the years of helping my talented momma decorate our tree. Secondly, I just do what I like and pick a theme!

I suppose the first thing you’d like to know is where I found my tree and the goodies to go along with it! All of this info will be linked on my LIKETOKNOW.it account, which you can find under the “Shop My Instagram” page here on the blog!

Last year I decided to purchase a fake tree and go for a flocked look. This tree is 8 feet tall and fluffs out beautifully! This is important- you want to find a tree that is dense, doesn’t lose needles when you sneeze in its general direction and that has an overall good shape to it.

Once you’ve found your tree, done a beautiful fluffing job and picked the best side to put on display, you can begin lighting your tree if it is not pre-lit. Make sure to wrap the lights evenly and really get them far back into the branches and bring them all the way forward along the branches to get a good depth effect. Next comes sorting through the decor. I have quite a mix: large flowers, pinecones, berry sprigs, snowflake ornaments, some sort of ribbon garland, assorted regular ornaments and then special sentimental or just cute and different ornaments.

Start with the big, space-taking objects and work your way down. I start with wrapping a ribbon around the tree, tucking it back quite a bit so it is still visible but not overpowering the other ornaments I’ll put up. Following this comes the large flowers I like to sporadically place throughout the tree. These are great to fill any noticeable gaps you may see, despite your best “fluffing” efforts. This is also where the larger snowflake ornaments come in handy.

Next come the “basic” ornaments. These are usually purchased in packs and a lot of times can be an assortment of shapes or colors but they generally match and belong in a family together to help achieve a theme for your tree. Be sure to avoid clustering like ornaments together – try to evenly spread things out, take steps back and look at the balance of the decor on the tree. This is a huge help for me! After my basic ornaments have been placed, I begin hanging my sentimental ornaments and all my “one-of-a-kind” pieces that just help to really personalize the tree. These sometimes very in shape, size and color so it’s a good idea to be strategic about where you place each one and how it can best fill the space and still be on display. Once finished with the hanging ornaments, I like to place my sprigs of frosted berries, my pinecones and any other natural looking “filler” pieces.

Last but not least comes the topper and the tree skirt. I know some prefer an angel or a star (I grew up with both) but lately I’ve been LOVING a big bow and a neutral tree skirt. I think these can really help drive home the theme or look you’re going for, so put some thought into these final touches!

I hope this helps y’all to develop a method for your Christmas tree decorating saga – I knew my mom was on to something when I noticed that every year we decorated in the same steps. Thanks Mom!

Don’t forget, to shop my exact tree (at an amazing price point) plus some great ideas for ornaments and decor, visit my LIKETOKNOW.it page https://www.liketoknow.it.com/stinamarina

Happy Decorating!