How to Design a Christmas Tree

Week Two: Hints and Frequently Asked Questions

“How do you come up with the ideas for your trees?”
We generally imagine some themes, pick our color palettes, and go for it. Themes or palettes give you some
discipline for your design and keeps the tree from looking cluttered.

Get your inspiration from anywhere! Choose favorite colors to make it simple. This year we have a “Jim Morrison” tree, along with “Doris Day.” Do customers recognize who is Jim and who is Doris? No… but if we just threw the two sets of decorations onto trees they’d notice that the store looks like a load of you-know-what.

As you work, keep editing, but don't be afraid! What you pictured in your head might not happen in real life, so go ahead and ditch that ribbon or garland if it rubs you the wrong way.  On the other hand, if those huge teal ornaments don't make any sense "logically" with your palette of silver and gold but you can't help but love them, keep them!   Trust that instinct.


“Do I need ribbon and picks and ornaments and garland? What’s the point of each of them?”

You might not need them all, but it's difficult to use only one.

Meet Jim.
He has ribbon, ornaments and picks,
but garland was too much!

1.  Ribbon. Ribbon helps fill initial holes between branches and creates a constant throughout the tree. It also makes [lateral] lines, which picks and ornaments don’t do. If you don’t like ribbon, try some garland.

2.  Ornaments. If you design a tree without any ornaments, it will either look really awful or really awesome. You’ll have to trust yourself on that one.

3.  Picks. Picks help fill out a tree, especially if you have a thinner tree or one without many tips. You can also use multiple picks at the top of the tree if you don’t have a topper. You might not need picks, but they add texture and shapes that ornaments can’t give you.

4.  Garland. Garland can be that perfect finishing touch, or it can turn your classy tree into a cluttered mess. If you already have a noticeable amount of ribbon, or if you have many picks that stick out farther than the tips of the tree, you probably won’t need garland. If you only have a bunch of ornaments and a little bit of ribbon, a simple drape of garland will work well.




“Can I use tinsel?! Does anyone use that anymore?!”
 Sure! Go for it!


As we said in the previous article – If you don’t know what is aesthetically good looking on a tree, just focus on creating balance of design elements, especially shape, color, texture, and size. Also, don't forget to add some that twinkle and light.