Christmas Tree Decorating Ideas for a Small Tree: 7 Layers, in Order

Plan on 50 to 100 lights per foot of tree. A five-foot tree wants somewhere between 250 and 500, which surprises people. Most of the thin look on a small tree is really a dark tree.

1. Start at the bottom, at the plug end, so the cord ends up near the outlet
2. Push each strand deep toward the trunk first, then weave it back out along the branch
3. Work in vertical sections, about a quarter of the tree at a time. Spiraling around the outside leaves the middle dark
4. Step back and squint. Dark patches are easy to spot with your eyes half closed

Pick the green-wire strand if your tree isn't pre-lit, or if its lights have started dying. Green wire disappears into the branches, where clear or copper wire catches the light and shows. It's 66 feet with 200 warm white LEDs, so two strands cover a five-foot tree.

Why does the timer matter? It switches on at dusk for six hours. You'll come home to a lit tree without ever crawling behind it for the plug.

Cut it into short pieces and tuck them in, don't wrap it. One long ribbon spiraled around the outside makes a small tree look bandaged. Short loops pushed into the branches look like they're coming out of the tree.

1. Cut lengths of about two to three feet
2. Tuck one end deep into the branches. Pull a loose loop out, then push the other end back in
3. Place the loops in a diagonal line from top to bottom, about a hand's width apart
4. Start a second diagonal on the other side so the back isn't bare from the sofa

Pick the buffalo plaid if your tree has gaps you can see through. It's wired, so each loop holds whatever shape you bend it into. There are three rolls, which is far more than a small tree needs, so the leftover goes on gifts.

Is plaid too busy for a small room? Only if the rest of the tree is busy too. Keep everything else on the tree plain, and the ribbon is the one pattern.

Stick to one color, and hang some of it deep. A small tree with twelve kinds of ornament looks like a craft store shelf. A single color reads as a choice, and that's most of what "expensive" means.

• Hang a third of the ornaments close to the trunk. They catch the lights from inside and fill the hollow middle
• Put the biggest ones low and the smallest near the top, the way a real tree tapers
• Group them in threes. Even spacing looks like a grid

Pick the burgundy velvet set if you want the tree to look deep and soft. Velvet soaks up light, so the bulbs stay the brightest thing on the tree.

The set mixes round balls and drop shapes in the one color. They're shatterproof, too, which matters if a cat lives with you.

What if my other decorations are red? Burgundy sits next to red without clashing. It just reads as the deeper shade of the same idea.

Fill the gaps with picks. A pick is a short stem on a wire that you push straight into the tree. It adds a cluster of texture right where a branch is missing, which hanging ornaments can't do.

1. Look for bare patches from the sofa. Up close, they hide
2. Push each pick in at an angle so it points up and out, like a branch growing
3. Bend the wire stem around a nearby branch so it stays put
4. Spread them in a loose spiral. A ring of picks looks planted

Pick the frosted pine cones if your tree still looks thin after the ornaments go on. There are 20 in the pack, enough to fill most of a five-foot tree. The frosted tips add a bit of white, so the tree reads snowy without the mess of a flocked one.

Real tree or fake? Picks work in both. On a real tree, tuck them in after it's had a day to settle and drop its branches.

Pearl garland, draped loose. Pearls keep showing up on the trees people save this year, usually next to velvet and a soft neutral like ivory. It's tinsel's quieter replacement.

The trick is the drape. Pulled tight around the tree, a garland looks like a belt. Hung in loose swags, it looks like it fell there on its own.

• Clip one end near the top, then let it dip a few inches between branches as you go down
• Run it diagonally across the front so it follows the ribbon
• One spool gives three or four swags on a four to five foot tree. Get two for six feet

Pick the pearl garland if your tree has everything and still looks a bit flat. It's 16.4 feet of ivory pearls on one spool, and the pale line pulls the tree together. Skip it if your ornaments are already white or silver, because it'll vanish.

A lit star on top and a collar at the base. Those two ends are what make a tree look finished. Leave either one bare and the tree looks like it's still being decorated.

Go big with the topper. It's the one spot where a small tree can be dramatic, because nothing else is up there. Put it on right after the lights, before anything breakable is in reach of your elbow.

• The Lewondr star is 13 inches across and glows from inside, with a remote and a six-hour timer
• It plugs in, so run its cord down the trunk and plug it in next to the tree lights
• On a tree under five feet, 13 inches reads big, and big is what you want up there

Pick the rattan collar if your stand is ugly and you don't have floor space for a skirt. A skirt spreads out to about four feet. The collar is 26 inches at the bottom, so it hides the stand inside the tree's own footprint.

Check that your stand's legs fit inside it before you order. It folds flat in January.

If you haven't picked a spot for the tree yet, our small apartment Christmas decor guide covers where it fits when there's no floor space.