This Genius Christmas Tree Light Hack Makes Decorating Your Tree SO Easy

While decorating a Christmas tree is all fun and jolly, you have to admit — wrapping those twinkle lights around ... and around ... and around ... is tedious. And uncomfortable. That being said, if you've been stringing your Christmas lights horizontally — you've been doing it totally wrong.

Natasha, founder of the YouTube channel My Changed Life, has an easier method that maximizes your string lights and creates a completely full and even lighting effect. The trick is to start at the top of your tree along the back, which is especially useful if you have a tree topper that needs to be plugged in. From there, place the lights vertically on the branches. "Work your way up and down the branches, weaving in an S-formation rather than a straight line," says Natasha.

Hunker

By stringing your tree vertically, the lights are less likely to get buried in the branches. The method is also less time-consuming than stringing the lights horizontally. Similarly, when the festivities are over, it will be easier to remove the lights from the tree.

My Changed Life/YouTube

Another hot tip? You'll need about 100 lights per foot of tree, shares Natasha. "So, if I have a 7-foot tree, I need about 700 lights so that it will look nice and bright," she explains. Good to know!

In her YouTube video, Natasha offers yet another useful trick for decorating the Christmas tree. She adds steady lights deep inside the tree, blinking lights in the middle, and flickering lights toward the outside. This decorating technique will add dimension to the tree.

Also, don't forget to plug in your lights to make sure they're working first. After all, nothing is worse than stringing the tree, only to discover that some of the light bulbs are busted.

If a portion of your string lights are damaged, check out our tutorial on how to splice Christmas tree lights. Happy decorating!