How To Make Your Christmas Tree Look Full
Simple and cheap ways to make your Christmas tree look fuller, whether it’s real or faux!
Pro tip: If you wait until 2 weeks before Christmas, you can get lots o’ decorations for like 60% off.
UNpro tip: If you wait until 2 weeks before Christmas, you won’t find anything in stores you actually probably want.
So, that’s cool.
2020 was …. 2020. We always get a real tree every year and even dress up all cute and matchy and I use my tripod and camera remote to take pictures of our fam at the local tree farm where we go.
See? Look how cute we are.
Well, this year, that didn’t happen.
Jordan’s job was NUTS, we have a new secret project that is in the works (more on that later, I promise), we lost our son at 13.5 weeks pregnant, I was shocked to find out we were expecting again, et freaking cetera.
So, I decided that I would just pull our favorite flocked Christmas tree down from the attic and just go with it.
We hadn’t pulled it out since 2018 so I was nervous lights would be burnt and whatnot, but honestly. I plugged it in and it was ready to go.
Decorating A Flocked Christmas Tree
You’ve seen them all over Insta and Pinterest. The chonky awesomely decorated Christmas trees that just look like they got the glow up of the year.
I’ve never been one to know how to decorate a Christmas tree to look like that, but I did have a very specific look I wanted to go for with our tree this year.
And much like everything else, it was very on brand for 2020/my life that I couldn’t find anything I wanted to make it happen.
So, I had to work with what I had. Which ain’t much.
I really wanted a “cozy” feel to our tree this year, mainly to play off these white fur ornaments I picked up last year after Christmas for half off.
Well, wouldn’t you know I couldn’t find the velvet ribbon in the color or size I wanted, I couldn’t find any picks I wanted that were in the colors I had in my mind, but this post is also about pivoting so here we are.
Making Your Tree Look Fuller (even if it’s not in the color or style you imagined)
Start by adding some ornaments (but not all!)
I guess technically I would say start with ribbon if you have that, but since I didn’t ornaments were my first step.
Start with hanging a few ornaments on your tree and then just step back to see it. I promise it looks way different closer up than it does far away.
You can more visibly see bald spots further away. Even if you have a real, freshly cut Christmas tree, you’re still going to have spots that look and feel more empty.
Pick your picks
Before adding any more ornaments, I laid out all my picks that I had picked up for 60% off at Michael’s over the weekend. I literally just grabbed handfuls of what they had left in white or gold.
Start by adding the picks of which you have the most.
I happened to have the most of these little squiggley gold guys so I started adding them first.
(Also shout out to my reflection in the shiny gold ornaments. Should give you a clue as to why I’m rarely in front of the camera unless forced)
I really wish they would have had more of these white fellas. They had wire in them so you could organize them to fan them out and make even the pick look more or less full.
I also liked the gold flowers and would have had more of these but there was only one so boo. I just stuck her up in the top of the tree.
Add more ornaments
Once all the picks were in, I started adding more ornaments.
Another quick tip: Stick ornaments deep into the tree. That helps cover up spaces in your tree branches and helps add dimension. I also personally like using multiple sized ornaments too.
Turn on the lights
This particular fake tree tree is a pre-lit tree, but even if yours isn’t, lights should be step one.
Turning on the lights helps you see where you have space to add more or where you may need to adjust things. Everything looks different with the lights on.
AMIRITE, LADIES?
Voila!
We didn’t add a tree topper (which of course you could if you wanted to) and instead of a tree skirt, we used our black tree collar we got from Target a couple years back to cover the tree stand.
This flocked Christmas tree really is a great tree, but my only complaint is that I wish it had a few more branches to fill it out right near the bottom. If it weren’t for this tall tree skirt, it would look even more bare than it does at the moment.
I am excited that all I have to clean up this year is the flock that sheds instead of BILLIONS of pine needles so maybe an artificial tree ain’t so bad after all.
Happy Christmas decorating!
