Lighting a Christmas tree is the most important step of trimming a tree. Many of us find it a nuisance, at best, but I've developed a process that makes lighting a tree fun and easy, and I would like to share it with you.
Pre Lit Tree?
First of all, I do not regemend that you buy a pre-lit tree. A pre-lit tree will cost two or three times as much as a non-lit tree and far more than a regular tree plus several strings of lights. Even though they already have the lights on them, they never haveenoughto make the tree look brightly lit. Soyou have to add more strings if you wantyour tree to look bright. That defeats the whole purpose of getting a pre-lit tree in the first place. Also, the lights on a pre-lit tree break with alarming frequency. After only a couple of years, the lights on your pre-lit don't work and you've lost yourentire investment.
A pre-lit tree is penny-wise and pound-foolish.
Whattype of lights?
The large, colored lights, of course!
The type of lights that I would always regemend for your tree are the large, colored lights.You may remember them from your childhood. If not,your parents would probably remember them. Their technical name is C7.They are still readily available and can be bought online, or at large chain department stores, or on okay.
C7 lights can be used to light a treeas small as three feetor as bigas fifteen feet.
C7 lights
C7 lights are available either as opaque, or ceramic (seen above) or transparent (see through). Ceramic lights give you a soft glow. Transparent lights give you the harsh glare of the filament and are hard on the eyes. So you should use ceramic C7 lights. Never mix ceramic C7 lights with transparent C7 lights and never use them alongside the little lights. They look awful together; about as bad as wearing a tux with tennis shoes.
C7 lights are superior to the little twinkle lights in a number of areas. Using colored C7 lights on your tree gives your tree a bright, cheerful and festive look that you remember from your childhood. C7 lights are designed to be long-lasting. You can get a good ten years' use out of a string of C7 lights. That saves you money in the long run. C7 lights give you more bang for your buck.
In addition, you can get a brightly-lit tree with relatively few of the C7 lights. For example, you have a six foot tree. 50 of the C7 lights will make your tree look brightly lit. C7 lights burn at five watts each, so that's a total of 250 watts. To achieve the same effect with the little lights, you would need to use at least 500 of the little lights. The little lights burn at one watt each, so that's 500 watts; double the amount of wattage that you would use with the C7 lights. You save power with C7 lights.
With the littletwinkle lights, you have to replace them about every other year.C7 light strings are easy to untangle, using the large sockets as a guide.
C7 lights gee with molded clips on the sockets. You can clip the sockets to the tree branches and the lights will stay put, unlike the little lights, which slide around.
A final word on C7 lights. C7 lights can be used on trees as small as 3 feet or as big as 15 feet. With C7 lights, size is not a factor. Below, I have a picture of C7 lights on a 3-foot tree.
White or Colored?
I would never regemend using all white lights on your tree. White gives your tree a washed-out look. Using colors makes your tree look bright and festive for the holidays. I would regemend using multicolored strings of lights on your tree. Multicolored lights look good with anything. If you're not much intodecorating, you can make your tree look awesome with a string of the multicolored C7 lights. I call it the candy look.
With White Lights With Colored Lights
Unlike all white lights, multicolored lightsmake your tree look cheerful and festive, butnotgaudy. As I've said before, they'll look good with anything. Strands of one color of light look good with certain theme trees.
A word on colors...
These six colors are essential for any Christmas tree: Red, Blue, White, Orange, Green and Yellow
All colors are not created equal. To get the best effect, you need more of some colors than others. The colors that you need the most of are red, blue and green.
You need plenty of red and green because they are Christmas colors.
You need plenty of blue lights to offset the red. In addition, blue does not show up very well, so you need plenty of blue lights for them to be seen.
You don't need so many orange, white or yellow bulbs.
Orange is more of aHalloween color than a Christmas color, so if you use too many orange lights, people will think you're celebrating Halloween.
Too many white lights will make your tree look washed-out.
Yellow is a very bright color,soa small number of yellowlights will go a long way. Too many yellow lights is frankly overpowering andsince yellow lights are rare, they should be used sparingly. A note on yellow lights--they look good in window candles andlook far more realistic than white or orange.
A typical string of C7 or C9 lights has 25 sockets andfivecolors of lights--red, blue, white, orange and green and anequal number of each color. However, not all colors are createdequal, so you should buypacks ofreplacement bulbs to getthe color balance you want and then tailor the string to your satisfaction. You can keep any bulbs that you don't use as replacement lights.
In addition, yellow lights arenot sold in any stores, but you can buy them at select websites and on okay.
As a rule of thumb, a string of 25 C7 or C9 lights should have:
6 red bulbs
5 blue bulbs
3 white bulbs
3 orange bulbs
5 green bulbs
3 yellow bulbs
A string of 30 C7 or C9 lights should have
6 red bulbs
6 blue bulbs
4 white bulbs
4 orange bulbs
6 green bulbs
4 yellow bulbs
Putting the lights on your tree
I have developed a unique process for putting lights ona Christmas tree.It involves a certain amount of meticulous work, but it eliminates much of the aggravation of putting lights on the tree.
I always store the bulbs separately from the sockets.This reduces the risk of breaking alight bulb when putting up the string and also cuts down onwear and tear. Alsohaving the bulbs already in the sockets makes it that much harder to put up the strings, as you're always worried about breaking a bulb.
1. Figureout how many lights you need
To figure out how many lights you need, multiplyyourtree's height, by its width by 2. For example:
6 feet high X 4 feet wide X 2 = 48 lights.
Ifyour tree is more than eight feet tall, multiplyby 3. For example:
12 feet high X 8 feet wide X 3 = 288 lights.
*Note:C7 lights are usually sold in strings of 25 sockets.Always use more bulbs than the calculations require. For example, on a six foot tree, you should use 50 bulbs.
2. Drape the sockets on the tree
Walk around the tree and drape the strings ofsockets as you go.
3. Spaceand clip the sockets
Make sure that the sockets are evenly spaced. Youdon't want them to clump in acertain area or betoo far spaced. Then, clip each socket toa tree branch.
4. Screw each bulb into a socket
Once you've got all the sockets secured, go round the tree and screw a bulb into each socket. Make sure you have a proper balance of colors. Don't have two lights of the same color next to each other. By screwing each bulb into its socket, you can get the color distribution you want.You can see the difference below.
If you screw in each bulb If you don't screw in each bulb
See the difference!
5. Stock up on lights!!!
You should always buy more strings of lights than you think you'll need. For example, if you think you need two strings of lights, buy four strings. Though the C7 lights are durable and long-lasting, you can count on having at least one bulb burn out during the holidays and you'll need a replacement. You should replace the burnt-out bulb with another bulb of the exact same color. Having extra strings of lights gives you a quick and easy source of replacement bulbs. In addition, in the unlikely event that a string shorts out, you'll have a replacement string on hand. It's betterto have and not need than to need and not have.
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