Grand Little Place

Putting ribbon on a Christmas tree is a classic element that can elevate your Christmas tree and give it a designer look. Whether cascading vertically top to bottom, added as ornaments, or wrapped as a garland, ribbon adds interest and fullness to even the most scraggly of tree.  In this post, I am sharing my favorite way to decorate a christmas tree with ribbon with my best tips & tricks!

Early in our marriage Chris & I inherited his grandparents Christmas tree.  It’s got a ‘vintage charm’…as in it leans and is a little thin – ha!  Each year as it was pulled out of storage I vowed to replace it, only to immediately put it out of my mind the second it was packed away.  When we moved into our house several years, weeks before Christmas and stressed beyond measure, I decided I couldn’t take one more thing looking undone.  This poor little Christmas tree ended up getting the brunt of my attention as I looked for ways to make it look more full.  I’ve shown our basement Christmas decor before.  I don’t switch it up that much year to year and you can see the general set up here.  The basement is where all of our ‘fun’ ornaments and decor live.  Both trees have plenty of handmade ornaments, but all the colorful decor goes down here in our family space.  To tie in all the colorful elements I use a red & turquoise color palette as the base.

 

Now, lets get to the ribbons!  For best results you will want a wired ribbon that is at least 3″ wide.  Wired ribbon is the easiest to use for holiday crafts, including gift bows.  You can see my full tutorial on how to make Christmas bows here.  Red & turquoise wired ribbon can be somewhat difficult to find, especially in thick widths.  If you find yourself in a similar situation you can do what I did and glue two ribbons together – or in my case I tripled the width since I did a layer of red on both sides.

How to decorate a Christmas tree with ribbon:

• Step 1:  LOOSELY wrap your Christmas tree with your ribbon.  This is especially easy if your tree is shorter like mine.  Take a branch from your tree and wrap it around the end of your ribbon at the top of the tree.  This will allow you to walk around the tree and wrap it.  Don’t worry about placement or where the ribbon is spaced at this point, just get the ribbon generally on the tree.

• Step 2:  The most important step that MOST people ignore is making the ribbon have dimension.  Beginning with the top layer of the tree you need to create ‘sections’ with the ribbon.  Walk around and ‘pinch’ the ribbon together, using a branch to secure it.  Work your way around the tree and alternate where the ‘pinches’ are.  This gives your tree dimension, movement and makes it look more full.

These two steps are all you need to know for how to decorate a Christmas tree with ribbon – it really is that easy!  These steps not only transformed our scraggly little Christmas tree but has also kept it out of the dump!

When it comes to decorating a Christmas tree you have to work in layers.  I add ribbon after the lights are on the tree and before any picks or bulbs are added.  Once the ribbon is in place I go thru and add in my bigger elements & picks followed by any bulb clusters.

What type of Christmas decorator are you?  Are you an anything goes Christmas tree-er or do you like to keep things in a theme?  The basement is my attempt at marrying our personal decor with a color palette.  Tell me your holiday decor style in the comments!

Don’t forget to pin!