At the start of our annual Open House promotion (which continues through this Sunday), we revealed our holiday window displays — 15 themed rooms dressed from floor to ceiling with Christmas décor. There’s a lot to see in each display, because we’ve really packed in the accessories. But the heart of each room is a designer-style Christmas tree, the kind that makes you stand back and stare in awe. The finished trees look complicated to create, but our design team assures us that anyone can put one together, and they have shared these step-by-step instructions for how to do it:

1.     Decide on a color or theme for your tree, something on which to base the items that you’ll be gathering to place on the tree.  Think about using items of varying sizes.  Some of our trees include animal figurines, garden implements, roasted marshmallows on a stick and children’s toys.  Don’t limit yourself to Christmas-type items or even something meant for a Christmas tree.  The unexpected element is what will really create a Wow! factor.  

Our trees all include something wrapped around them, like ribbon, a grapevine, a garland made of wine corks or even a garden hose (for a garden-themed tree).  If you’re going to use ribbon, we suggest selecting three colors of varying widths and textures. 

2.     It doesn’t matter if you use a real or artificial tree.  The look can be created with either.  However, our team says artificial trees do offer one advantage — they are easier to decorate because you can bend the branches as needed.

The team also noted that if you like the flocked look, don’t chose a tree with flocked branches, because it’s difficult to place items.  Instead find flocked pieces (botanicals, stems or whatever items you want to use) to place on the tree.  You’ll get the same look with less difficulty.

3.     Add lights, usually the more the better, so wind them around the center and as many branches as you can stand to before you get dizzy working your way around the tree.

4.     Now that you’re ready to decorate the tree, start at the top and work your way down.

Pick a topper; an angel or star is tradition, but we like to use giant bows with ribbon. You can get creative and come up with other ideas related to your theme.  

Next, add whatever you want to wrap around the tree, and follow that up with your botanicals or flower stems.  Next add your larger accessory items, and finally, put on the ornaments.

After each step, we recommend standing back to take in the tree and make sure you like the design and tweaking things as you go. We’ve included a sampling of our trees here for you, but if you’re in need of more inspiration, stop by the store or browse our social media channels.