How To Light Trees Like A Pro

After 8 years of wrapping mini lights on all sizes and manner of trees, perfection still eludes me. I find some new, little nuance every year. But I am close, so close I can feel it. I can see it. After long days wrapping Christmas lights, I sometimes close my eyes at night and watch glowing orange, tiny plastic caps encircling brown bark. Am I romanticizing the fact that I spend inappropriate amounts of time thinking about other people’s trees? Yes, I am. And so, the following instructions could be merely the obsession of an OCD entrepreneur, or the genius of a true artist, or perhaps both. Here you go.

Number One. Before you even look at a tree, get your lights ready. Messy, tangled loops or mushed blobs are not going to be fun to unwrap an inch at a time while pulling through tight branch forks. Unravel the strand now, plug it in to test it, then roll it up into a tight ball beginning with the female plug.

Number Two. Choose a tree and make a plan. Now, most small hardwood trees have long, thin branches that don’t extend far from the trunk. This presents several problems. The densely packed, skinny branches are hard to make out individually, even more so when wrapped with lights. Even if you can wrap it without breaking those tiny branches, you’ll end up with a painfully bright, confusing cluster of lights.

On the other hand, don’t wrap just the trunk of a large tree. Although I will do it for clients who really want to, I think wrapping only the base leaves something to be desired. This is Christmas after all, spread cheer not disappointment. So, avoid super small trees and super tall trees. Instead, find a tree that you can reach all parts of, including within a few feet of the top, with outward spread of at least 3 feet and branches thick enough so you don’t have to worry about breaking them.

Now that you’ve found the perfect tree, let’s plan out the wraps. How do we want this tree to look? Well, here are a few guidelines.

Follow the shape of the tree. If a classic tree, meaning the tree looks like a triangle with a trunk, wrap the lights further out on the bottom branches and as you ascend, gradually bring the lights closer in. As you go, check all sides of the tree from the ground to make sure you’re aligning with this shape. You don’t want branches on one side wrapped noticeably further out or in and throwing off the balance.

Many trees do not follow a symmetrical shape. Do not use the lights to try to balance the shape of the tree. Remember this, our goal is to highlight the natural shape of the tree. To put this into practice, we come to our next guideline.

Get even more precise with your plan and decide exactly how far to wrap on each branch. You can do this by determining a branch size, smaller than which, you will not wrap. For small and medium-size trees, there is a literal rule of thumb here. If a branch is smaller in diameter than your thumb, it’s too small, so you will stop your wrap at the fork where the branches become smaller than your thumb. For large trees, wrapping every branch that is bigger than your thumb is just not possible and would be so bright, your neighbors might think Jesus is coming back. So, let’s adjust the rule of thumb a bit. You can simply up the rule of thumb to a 1” or 2” diameter but, the main goal here is to find a cutoff size that allows you to wrap 80-90% of the tree.

Once you have found a cutoff point, identify this point on several prominent branches. Now take a step back and make sure surrounding branches can be wrapped to a similar length. Note, you don’t want to worry about breaking small branches and ripping off foliage while wrapping. If your planned endpoints have lots of thin, new branches and dense foliage, move those planned endpoints closer in to the tree, to a point just before the small growth begins.

The spacing on these trees started perfectly on the trunks but got a little close on the upper branches. They still came out beautifully, but if shining into a bedroom window at night, might be a bit too bright.

Now, let’s say the trunk splits off into 2 or 3 primary branches. As you go up a primary branch, you’ll want to wrap most of the secondary branches growing off the primary. Size is important here, diameter and length. Now, if those secondary branches are close to your cutoff rule, go straight out on those branches at least a few feet or until your reach your rule. If a small secondary branch forks within the first foot or so, only wrap one of the offshoots straight out, another foot or so. But, if the secondary branches are only slightly smaller than the primary branch and have tertiary branches that beat the cutoff rule as well, then you will wrap the secondary out to your rule along with 1-2 tertiary branches straight out a few feet or until your reach your rule. On really large trees, you may even have quaternary branches that fit your cutoff rule. I encourage you to be detailed, but make sure what you’re doing can be matched on all sides without taking too much time or overcrowding your lights. And don’t forget to continue up the parent branch every time you finish a smaller branch.

Number Three. Start wrapping. We’re going to start our wraps from the trunk, plugging into the power cord at the base and keeping the lights turned on as we wrap, thereby any broken strands can be identified before we start wrapping. Plug in two strands at the base. Wrap them in opposite directions up the trunk and onto different branches of the tree. Spacing here is CRITICAL. On the trunk, wrap the strand with about 6” of space between each wrap. Do the same when you wrap the second strand the opposite way, making sure the trunk is evenly covered with no large gaps. And pull the lights tight as you wrap. Loose lights will sag and fall down. Only two strands will plug in at the base, the rest will plug in sequentially to the end plugs of those first two strands.

Notice, this tree was arguably too small to wrap but from certain angles spread out beautifully. Second, the trunk has only been wrapped with one strand, not crisscrossed with two. And it definitely should have been as the trunk and branches do not match.

When you get to the first branch, spread your wraps even further to 8-12” spacing. As the branches get smaller, the spacing will naturally get closer, but try to space your wraps as far as possible. Your exception here will be curves in the branch where a big spacing causes the lights to lose contact with the bark and jump the gap. Avoid this with a shortly spaced wrap. Altogether, large spacing means less wraps which means you’ll save time putting up and taking down. And I can’t stress this enough, but spread out spacing will produce a pleasant, classy look whereas close spacing will blind you like a solar eclipse.

Number Four. Wrap out onto the branch and then double back to the base of that branch. This is where you’ll appreciate rolling the strand into a ball. A balled strand makes looping around the branches while keeping the strand pulled tight much easier and faster. And when you need to release the lights to climb higher on the ladder or into the tree, it gives you something to wedge into a branch fork and keep the lights in place.

When you get to your cutoff point on a branch, feed the lights through the fork or over an offshooting branch to hold the strand in place and criss cross the wraps you just made back to the base of that branch. Because your spacing is so far, doubling back helps to fill in the gaps in your spacing and you don’t have to worry about it being too much light. Just don’t get too focused on filling in gaps. It’s more important to keep your spacing as far or further apart on the way back.

Next, at the base of your finished branch, if that branch shoots off of a larger branch that still needs to be finished or off of the tree base, then continue up the larger branch or base to the next offshoot, using the same wrap spacing and direction that you started with. If your finished branch is at the end of a larger branch that is also finished, then wrap all the way back down to the base of that larger branch and up to the next position in the tree.

If you are climbing the tree, you will undoubtedly be placing your feet at the base of branches. As you wrap more and more, these branches will be wrapped with lights. Try to avoid placing your weight directly on the lights as any rubbing caused by your movements can rip the wires from the bulb, causing the strand to go out. Plus, you’ve got the added danger of not having your weight directly on the wood itself. You can avoid this with one simple trick. When wrapping lights and transitioning from a larger branch to a smaller one, or vice versa, make the first and final wrap on the smaller branch go around the bottom so you have space on the top to place your foot. However, sometimes the smaller branch grows in a similar direction as the larger and you will find that when you pull the lights tight, the first wrap on the smaller branch slides away from the fork and shoots across the gap between the two branches. For both aesthetic and climbing purposes, you don’t want this. So, pulling the lights tight, make your first wrap on the smaller branch all the way around that branch to secure it into place and space out the next wrap so you still have a place to put your foot when climbing.

As your climbing up and down to retrieve your next light strand, be checking from all angles that you’re wrapping a good distance on all branches, not too far in or out. One final tip for wrapping: you don’t have to wrap every branch that is big enough to wrap. One lighted branch provides significant light to its surrounding area. Particularly when there are two or more small (meaning you will only wrap a straight line and back) branches growing close together, you can skip a few. The rule I follow is this: for 2-3 small, close branches, wrap 1; for 4, wrap 1-2; and for 5, wrap 2-3. When deciding which of multiple close branches to wrap and how many, I consider two things. First, I figure out which branches are most visible from the ground. And second, ask yourself how many such branches at that height are on other sides of the tree. In other words, will it throw off the balance of lights if I wrap 3 nearby branches instead of 2 for example, because the other side of the tree only has 1 or 2 at the corresponding height. Basically, you want the lighted branches to be spread in a consistent manner throughout the tree.

Number Five. Finish the Tree. As you continue up the tree, if a classic triangular tree shape, you will wrap the center spine of the tree with two opposite-direction strands just like the trunk and finish those either at the very top, or, if you have extra on one strand, bring it back down with very wide spacing and tuck the end plug under a wrap of lights. If the tree trunk splits into several large branches and you get to the top of the two last major branches with the two separate strands, you will need to wrap back down both of those so that all major branches have the crisscross wrap pattern. Depending on the length of your light strands, you can plug in one strand to the top of one branch, wrap down and then up the last branch, or you may need two strands to run down the last two branches separately. If there is still a little extra when you get down to the trunk, try to find an inconspicuous branch that has not been wrapped for you to end the strand or if you must, use very wide spacing and end at the base.

That’s it. Now get out there and start wrapping. Contact us to discuss lighting your trees for Christmas or any other outdoor occasion!