Where do you start? How do you go from there? How many strings do you use?
Do you start at the top and spiral down? Start at the bottom and spiral up? Do you just hang near the ends of branches or do you do some on the “inside” of the tree too? Do you hang the strings vertically? Do you stick the tree in a corner and just light the “front”?
My own method is generally “spiral, top down.” I’ll use two strings of multi-color lights. The only good place for a tree in my house is the corner of the living room, so sometimes I definitely half-ass it and just hang lights on the “front” of the tree. Nobody really notices.
Lol it’s a great debate in my house. I like to follow along the branches from trunk out to the tip, so a zig zag pattern? The other half does a loose spiral. My way looks prettier but takes longer.
I pull the tree away from the wall so I can walk around the tree. I start at the bottom, inside the tree (close to the trunk) and go around and around, until I get to the top. Then I continue to go around, going back down the tree but closer to the outer tips of the branches (so basically two layers of light). I then check for holes/blank spots and adjust as needed. After we’re finished decorating the tree, I push it back to the wall.
My daughter calls me “The Anal-Retentive Tree Decorator” (referencing the old Phil Hartman SNL skits).
Edit: I use 4 strings of 100 lights on a tree 6-7 feet tall (we buy real trees every year).
We have an artificial tree with 700 steady-lit white lights. To those, we add four lines of 100 randomly blinking white lights each. These spiral from the top. I can’t imagine spiraling from the bottom.
I start at the bottom and work my way up. so I can be sure the plug will reach my extension cord. Depending on the location, I spiral up, or zig zag if I can’t easily get around. LIghts are about half way between the trunk and the outside of the tree.
My real trick is in the removal. I wrap each string around its own piece of cardboard so it doesn’t get tangled.
I start at the top because the star has to be plugged into the lights then I spiral down. I push some of them inside and some are halfway from the inside to the tips of the branches. I probably have 4 strings of multi-colored lights but I’m not sure how many lights are on each string. Our trees is 7’ and is set up in front of our bay window so I have to go around the entire tree. If I had it in a corner, I would more than likely kind of skip the very back.