Things you need to know while decorating a Christmas tree – Part 1

I grew up in a family of creative and talented siblings. All three of us have unique skill sets when it comes to the arts. From painting, fashion designing, cartooning, photography, designing; you name it we got it. My skill set at which I excel, kicks in at the Christmas season. I could be planning the next Christmas season in my head the day Christmas gets over; that’s how much I love the Christmas season.

One such fun activity is decorating the Christmas tree. I grew up at a time when Christmas decorations were limited and standard. Today, you have a choice of trees and decorations to pick and choose from and if you don’t have a few basics in place you can end up with a lot of money spent and an ugly looking tree.

I plan to give you a few tips on how and where to purchase a Christmas tree, how to light it up and how to decorate it. I plan to limit these articles to a page for easy reading so look for the next part of this article which will give you many tips.

Let me tackle the most difficult part of decorating a tree; purchasing one! The Golden rule is to figure out where you want to set your tree up. Most residential homes in Mumbai are apartments. If you live in one, identify a nice corner that works well for you. This way you don’t have to decorate the entire tree but just the side that faces everyone in the room. Consider moving your furniture around at Christmastime. Make the tree the focal point of the room and let your other pieces of furniture take a back seat. Pick a tree that towers to the ceiling of your room. It won’t occupy much space if you don’t open up the leaves that face the corner of the room. Once you have found a nice spot, tuck the tree far back as I can into the corner.

There are several shapes and types of artificial trees that you can buy. A ten-foot tree from a wholesaler at Crawford market can cost you Rs 9,000/-. A ten-foot tree will touch the ceiling of any apartment in Mumbai but a word of caution, the base of the tree can spread out to a little more than a meter and five inches even if you tuck the back leaves upwards to fit in the corner. So, take a tape and measure out the space you have identified before you buy a large tree.