Lights first?
Garlands first?
Tinsel last, or angel / tree topper last?
Just curious … especially about the lights and garland … I always seem to do it wrong and tell myself that next year I will do it PROPERLY …
Also, what is your light wrapping technique? Zigzag down the front only, but ‘fake it’ so it looks like it’s going all the way around the tree? Do you start at the top or the bottom?
Help?
S.
Lights first. All the way around. Don’t hold to doing a spiral, or it’ll show. Make sure you don’t have too many lights of the same color together (and don’t do a single-colored tree, especially white. Yuk!)
Ornaments next. Make sure reflective ones reflect lights optimally.
Then tinsel or garland. If doing both, tinsel first.
Topper whenever.
When the HallGirls were home for Thanksgiving weekend, they and HallBoy put up the tree. Lights on first–wind them around the tree without any particular method of coverage. Bald spots are optional. Then, dig out of the bottom of the box, the tattered and beaten strings of fake beads. Repeat as the lights. Add more strings of tacky beads. Add some more strings of tacky beads. Then, randomly add ALL the Chirstmas ornaments in the box, even the ones that HallMom meant to throw out last year but forgot.
Honestly, I’ll probably go straight to Mommy Hell for saying this, but it’s the ugliest damn tree I’ve ever seen in my life. It’s so ugly I can barely stand to step foot into the livingroom. My only excuse is that I didn’t do a thing, except sit on the couch and watch them do it.
And, no, none of us were drunk. Why do you ask?
Well, I certainly have the inside scoop on how the pros do it (I worked in Christmas retail for several years), and I’m a bit of a tree nazi, so here’s my not-so-secret method to tree-decorating:
Lights (always) first. Bend and twist the branches of a fake tree into some semblance of tree-hood first. You need at least 100-200 mini-lights per foot of tree. I start at the bottom and go around in a complete spiral. Wrap each branch - I start at the inside of each branch, wrap out to the tip, and wrap back to the base of the tree, then go to the closest branch. NO wire should show if you do it right. I learned from the pros, what can I say. My mom just watched something on tv (think it was the White House holiday special) where the decorators started many strands of lights at the bottom of the tree and worked straight up (instead of the 'round in circles method.) I may try this next year. Now that you’re done w/lights, if you have a fake tree, further bend it into tree-hood.
Regular decorations (ornaments and such) go on next. Plan ahead and take a look at what you have and the placement of your tree. If your tree is in an inaccessible corner, you won’t need to put stuff on the back! You’ll need much more stuff for an all-around tree.
Think seriously about adding ribbon, silk flowers, garland, etc. All are a great way to make your tree look amazing. Buy slightly more than you think you will need. You can put these on while or after you are adding ornaments. If you add this stuff after ornaments you may need to re-position some ornaments.
You can apply strings of things (tinsel/garland, bead garland, popcorn strings, long lengths of ribbon) in several different ways. You can attach them to the top of the tree and bring them straight down the sides of the tree. You can start at the top and randomly drape the stuff down. You can spiral around. You can secure droopy stuff with wire or ribbon or w/ornaments on the tree.
Never, ever just throw random clumps of string tinsel at the tree. You will burn in hell! (joking) The small handful or single strand method looks much better.
Be creative in you choices and try to come up with some sort of plan - it will work out better if you have an idea of what you are going for.
That’s all I can think of for now - any questions?
I’m no Snowcarpet, but here’s what I do:[ul]
[li]Lights first. Clear. Started from the top, wrapped around in a spiral (I pull the tree out from the wall so that I can walk all the way around it for the first two steps).[/li][li]Garland next. Silver. Started from the top, wrapped around in a spiral that fills in between the lights.[/li][li]Ornaments next. I prefer to use the unique ornaments that I’ve collected over the years, but I have a couple of boxes of identical ornaments from when I didn’t have enough ornaments of my own. I put them wherever I want, filling in for the not-quite-fullness of the fake tree I use every year. I usually don’t bother with the side of the tree that faces the window, because the living room is on the second floor: it might be nice at night for someone to be able to see the lights, but no one will care if there are ornaments on the back of the tree.[/li][li]Star on top. Clear, lighted.[/li]Tree skirt last. Red with white trim (like a santa cap). Now the mostly-silver tree with red skirt matches the mostly-silver decorations with red candles and stockings on the mantle. :)[/ul]
Let’s see.
Last Friday we got the tree out, set it up, put on the 2500 mini-lights and spread out the branches. About 5 hours.
Saturday, got about 3/4 of the close to 500 red ornaments on the tree.
Suddenly, tree leans as if it were plucked from Pisa.
Run off to Walmart, get new stand.
We put tree in new stand, tree falls apart into three pieces.
Un-decorate tree, un-do all the lights.
Go to store to buy new tree on sale.
New tree on sale is sold out. Buy more expensive tree.
Monday, put up new tree and lights.
Tuesday, start putting on ornaments.
Wednesday, finish ornaments and put tree into corner.
If tree leans, or fall, wreath will be put where tree was.
That’s how we do it.
Wow … Snowcarpet … I’m speechless … I’ll have to look closely at a professionally decorated tree sometime to completely fathom that light-wrapping.
Thanks all…
Keep your ideas coming … (reading is MUCH easier than doing …) 
S.
Tree topper first, to be sure it “sits” right, so I can adjust as necessary without knocking other stuff off. Also so if it’s a lighted one, the end of the light string attaches to it.
Lights. Start from the top, proceed downward in a spiral. Plug in; adjust for empty spots and to balance the colors.
Ornaments. Again start from the top, use the smallest ones first progressing to the big ones at the bottom, with the added provision that if there are small children in the house, the bottom of the tree gets the unbreakable ornaments.
Tinsel strands, one at a time. (optional)
Garland. (optional)
Tree skirt.
That’s the way my big sister told me it had to be done when we were both teenagers, and I’m sticking to it. Even though she’s a couple thousand miles away now and probably doesn’t care how I deck the tree.
For some reason, nobody else in my family has any interest in doing this wonderful and fun-filled task. Well, in the early days of our marriage, my husband did, but he did it all wrong and half-assed and would not take direction.
I did the whole “wrapping around each individual branch down and back again and then on to the next branch” and man, my husband was mad when he took the tree down!
I need more ornaments-and I would like to use garland, but I’m afraid the tree will look trussed up.
We’ve always done lights first, around the tree in a spiral (adjusting for aesthetics, of course.) This year my mom gets a wild hair and decides to do it up and down. Looks okay, I guess. It’s just not the way I was raised. 
We just do lights, ornaments, angel and tree skirt, none of this garland thing. We did tinsel once in 1982, two houses ago, and sometimes we still find it in places and it gets stuck on our feet.