Last year, I had my Christmas tree up by the second week of November and totally skipped Thanksgiving décor. This year, I was determined to enjoy my Thanksgiving décor and resisted the urge to pull out any Christmas decorations until after Thanksgiving. However, now that Thanksgiving is over, it’s time for full speed ahead and the holiday decorating has begun!
In our house, I always start with the tree. I’ve been slowly changing the color scheme of our tree, which started last year with our turquoise and gold Dollar Store Icy Wonderland Tree. I know that changing the color scheme of a tree can be expensive and nobody wants that added cost during the holiday shopping season, so I’m sharing a few tips to keep the cost down.
Tip 1 – Change the color scheme slowly and in phases. For example, when I changed the color theme of our 2013 tree, I used our existing gold ornaments and added dollar store turquoise ornaments into the mix.
Tip 2 – Don’t be afraid to buy BIG ornaments for pops of color. I like shopping the dollar store to get the most bang for my buck. Use the smaller ornaments to fill the insides of the tree and towards the top.
Tip 3 – Shop the sales! Tree picks. ribbon, mesh, and flowers from craft stores are at the lowest prices during Black Friday and Black Friday weekend. Missed Black Friday? You can still find great sales or plan ahead for next year and shop the end of the season sales.
Following the tips above, I was able to give our 2014 tree a totally new look! I used existing ornaments and added in a few inexpensive red ornaments for a new color scheme – red, turquoise, and white. Want to see how I did it? Keeping reading and I’ll share a few tips on how I decorated our 2014 Christmas tree.
2014 Christmas Tree Decorating Tips – Red, Turquoise, and WhiteFirst thing I like to do is fluff up the tree by spreading out each branch.
Next, attach the mesh garland to the top of the tree with a zip tie or twist tie and loosely wrap it around the tree. You can also wrap a branch around the mesh to keep it in place. Once you have a placement you like, zip tie the garland to the tree in sections. Do not tie the garland onto the tree too tightly, you may need to adjust the garland later.Next, I like to get my large ornaments organized by size and color. Here are some of my old ornaments and some new ones for this year. Since I wanted to add a pop of red color, I picked up giant red and white glitter snowflakes, large glitter balls(not shown), and red berry picks(not shown).Tree Decorating Tips:
- Place the large ornaments on first and then fill in with smaller ornaments. I like to work from largest to smallest.
- Place flowers or ornaments to cover the areas where the mesh is tied to the tree. I used red poinsettia to cover these areas.
- Use zip ties or twist ties to make and attach the tree topper. Generally, I use three of each item for the topper – 3 bulb picks, 3 red berry picks, and 3 white stick picks.
- Place floral picks throughout the tree to add dimension and to spread some of the tree topper elements down the tree.
- Don’t be afraid to overlap the ornaments.
Once the tree is filled in with ornaments, my funny little daughter, who is wearing our stockings, applied “snow” to the tree. It may seem crazy, but our snow is actually fiber fill. The spiky branches will help keep the fiber fill in place, yet it can easily be pulled off and reused. I had so much fun decorating our tree with the new color scheme. I even wrapped our shelves with wrapping paper and made them look like stacked presents. I do this because it makes a nice back drop for Christmas day photos.
How do you like our finished red, turquoise, and white tree? What is your holiday color scheme this year? Do you change the theme of your holiday decorations each year?
Need more holiday decorating ideas? Check out these posts:
What a beautiful tree! The colors are so festive and appealing.
Wow Erlene! That’s so beautiful! I don’t use large ornaments either, but I love how it looks. I have my beach ornaments, of course, but I also have a bunch of others from our trips and the kids’ too. Maybe some day I can have a themed tree!
Fabulous! Pinned at my most popular board!!! Thanks for linking it up at the FineCraftGuild.com It’s fun having you partying with us. A new party will open in a mere few hours….
OMG this looks great! My tree is just Red & White. I need to get better with the mesh lol
Thank you for posting to Motivation Monday!
I’m totally in love with this! Pinned and tweeted. We appreciate you being a part of our party, and I hope to see you on Monday at 7 pm. We love partying with you!
Happy Saturday! Lou Lou Girls
Thanks so much. I’ll be sure to stop by and link up again.
We don’t celebrate Christmas so we don’t have a tree, but I must say – your tree is absolutely stunning!!
Thanks Winnie. For us, the tree really helps make the house feel festive.
What an absolutely stunning Christmas tree. I love, love, love the color scheme so bright and cheery! Thanks again for linking up with us at the Oh My Heartsie Girls Wordless Wednesday Link Party.
Wishing you a lovely day.
xx
Lysa
Co-Host OMHGW
Thanks Lysa. I really like the colors too 🙂 Thanks for co-hosting the OMHGW link party and taking the time to stop by my blog.
You are very welcome Erlene. Hope to see you on OMHGWW again this week.
Wishing you a wonderful Christmas week.
xx
Lysa
Your tree just POPs! The big ornaments are so striking. I’ve always gone with tiny ornaments, but it gets tedious putting them all up sometimes. Big ornaments. Huh. You’ve opened my eyes
I used to be afraid of large ornaments Then, I noticed that tree displays I liked the most always had large ornaments on them. Now, I’m not afraid to buy large ornaments and love it! I use the smaller ornaments to fill the insides of the tree and towards the top.
I’m going to need a bigger tree!
I’m in love… this is so gorgeous! I think I’ll do a mini one in my girls’ bedroom this week. Thanks Erlene!!
Thanks Jessica. How fun to do a mini tree in your daughter’s room. We actually bought a small 4ft. tree for the old ornaments…lol. The large tree is in the front room and the small one is all gold and in the family room.
That’s so gorgeous…I love it!!! I did red and turquoise in my hallway last year and I loved it so much, I moved it to my front porch this year. I wanted everybody to be able to see it!
Thanks Beth. Did you post your hallway on your blog? I had a gold and dark red tree for over 15 yrs. and finally started to changed the color last year. Of course, now my kids want the gold and red back…go figure.
I did post it. The porch is slightly different, but I used the basic color scheme and some of the decorations from my hallway, like the NOEL letters. I’m hoping to have it completely finished before I go to work today, but we’ll see!!
At least somebody noticed that you changed your colors. My husband seems to think ours looks exactly the same from year to year. His theory is “you’ve got the stuff on the cabinet and the tree over there and the stuff in the window,” etc., etc!!!
The red, white, and blue really stands out. I saw a similar in a magazine last night!
Did you? Which magazine? I’ll have to check it out so I can get more decorating ideas 🙂 Sad to see you leaving Home Matters, but I totally understand that you’ll be super busy with a new one on the way.
I absolutely love the colors of this tree! It looks so fun! Thanks for visiting the Bloggers Brags Weekly Pinterest Party! I’m pinning!
Thanks Christie. The colors make me smile and I feel so cheery when I see it. Of course, now my kids want to go back to a red/gold tree :-/
That is really stinKing cute! I love it. Our tree consists of half flattened branches, a mix match of lights that I’ve replaced over the years as the prelit ones burn out and ornaments that we’ve bought one another every year that we’ve been married. That’s nine years worth of ornaments add in two kids and you can picture a managerie of modge podge christmas decore 🙂
Thanks. I actually had the same tree (red/gold) for about 15yrs. and only started changing the tree last year. I think I would go crazy ornament shopping if I had to choose from any color…lol. It’s good for me to stick to certain colors to keep me in check. Someday I would love to have a tree with all sorts of ornaments on it 🙂