I used to think that too many lights would make them the focus of the tree, not the ornaments. The Christmas Tree of my youth was decorated with the traditional glass balls and bells, garland, and had, at most, 200 multi-colored flashing lights. For me the lights were the best part of the tree, the ornaments and garland being mostly fillers. Then I met my wife.

The first time we went shopping for a Christmas tree, we knew it would be artificial but still needed to decide on whether or not it would be pre-lit or not, and what color the lights would be. We ended up selecting an unlit tree and purchasing about 1000 white lights. I thought this would be plenty, but not for what my wife had in mind.

As I started to string the lights on out tree for the first time, I went about it as I always had at my parent’s house. First I assembled the tree, then began to string the lights around the outside, working from the top down. About an hour later I called my wife so we could start decorating, but was informed that there weren’t nearly enough lights as she had hoped. She wanted to have lights on all of the branch tips, from the ‘trunk’ out to the edges. Being newlyweds, I didn’t put up much of a fuss, and removed all the lights to start again, this time with a much clearer picture of what she wanted.

I never knew that there were so many of the smaller branches and tips on each section of an artificial tree. I very rapidly used the 1000 lights we had. Unfortunately it was too late to continue that night, so in the morning I purchased another 750 (15 strings of 50 ea) to finish. By lunchtime two things were obvious, I wasn’t going to finish and I was also going to need more lights. This time I sent my wife out to get more strands. Two trips later, she’d cleaned out the store of white lights, and another day ended with the tree still not fully lit. On day #3, we both went out to get what we hoped would be the last 500 lights. Just after lunch, the tree was fully lit, with about 3000 lights.

It’s always sad when you take the ornaments and lights off and box everything up again, and I needed a 70 qt plastic bin to hold all of the tree lights. Knowing that it took 3 days to string up all the lights I needed to figure out a faster way to do it the following year. 10 months later I had the answer.

Although it still took me 2 days to put all the lights on the tree, it would never take me that long again because I pre-strung every branch. Since the lights were in strings of 50 and 100, I used the 100’s to pre-wrap the larger lower branches, and the 50’s on the middle and top branches.  Since each branch had its own string of lights, once unplugged it could be removed from the tree without being tangled with any of the other branches (in a few of the smallest upper branches I did end up using 1 set of lights for 2 branches). I also took the opportunity to find out exactly how many lights were on the tree by counting the number and length of each strand I put on. Grand total: 2,850 lights!

Another problem I had to contend with was how to plug of the lights in. Most important here is to have not only extension cords be also a power strip with a fuse (I actually need 2). To minimize the tangle of cords and plugs, I used electrical tape to secure all of the extra wire to the base of the branch close to where it connects to the center pole. To get every strand of lights plugged in, I found it’s best to keep the cord on one of lights longer so it can be snaked down the center of the tree to the power strip. All of the other lights on that row of branches are plugged into each other, minimizing the number of plugs that need to be hidden at the base of the tree.

Even with the branches pre-strung, it is essential to first check to make sure that all lights on every branch are working. A few years ago, one of the branches started flickering which led to an entire section of the tree going dark. It is much easier to find and replace burned out bulbs when it is undecorated and not yet wired into the rest of the trees lights.

The past few years it has taken me about 3 hrs to test all the lights and have the tree fully assembled, ready to decorate. Also, since the lights are white, they provide a background illumination that enhances the decorations and makes the tree glow, especially at night. Now when I walk through stores selling pre-lit trees with anywhere from 650 to 1800 lights, I wonder how many other couples think that ‘these trees need more lights – we might as well just string our own’. But first ask yourself, how much is enough? For us 2,850 was just right.

First, I have to carry all the boxes down from the attic and once again figure out where everything is. Even though all the boxes started out labeled with their contents, my wife’s desire to ‘just put everything away’ in mid January means the ornaments and decorations usually land in the first available empty box. So just getting things organized to the point where we can start decorating is a task in itself.

As much as I love my children (7 yr old twins right now), if I hear another ‘can we start decorating now’ or ‘when are you going to put up the lights outside?’, I think my head will explode. So the first order of business is to get their tree set up so they can start decorating with their favorite sports and Disney ornaments. This also allows me the time to assemble our larger ‘family’ tree (yes it’s artificial), checking to make sure all of the almost 3000 lights are working (and yes that’s ~3000 lights on a 7′ tree – it glows!). So while the kids are merrily trimming their tree, my wife and I go about sorting through the rest of the decorations, finding old favorites, and those more recently purchased. While the inside decorations are easy to set up, there are a lot of them, and then there’s the Village.

Our Christmas Village has evolved from being strictly the New England village series, to New England with a North Pole building (or two) to now being almost exclusively the North Pole series (all from Department 56). This transformation was the result of our children’s love of the various Holiday specials (Rudolph, Frosty, The Grinch, etc) which makes it easier for them to associate with a Gum Drop Factory, than a Village Hall. Also, once they realize that the Buffalo snow you’re using for the Village can double as a beard, you might as well just stop trying to decorate and enjoy the absurdity of it.

Once the inside of the house is completed, or almost, decorating the outside of the house still remains, but this requires the cooperation of the weather. As much as I enjoy Christmas, I don’t really look forward to climbing a 25ft extension ladder (sometimes in a rather chilly wind) to hand icicle lights on our house. But once completed, the lights on the house and bushes, the mini xmas trees, Candy Canes, and the large wreath hung over our front door always brings a smile to my face.

Now that all the decorations are up and the boxes are empty, it’s time to bring them back into the attic until it’s time to take it all down again. It’s a lot of work, packed into only a few days, that gets to be enjoyed for basically the month of December, and maybe a week or two in January.

So this year, to take some of the stress out of decorating, an dmake the Season a little longer, my wife asked me to start bringing down some of the Christmas items while I was in the attic putting away the Halloween decorations.

This naturally got me to thinking - is it ever too early to start putting up the Christmas decorations?

 Or, are you an ‘extremist’ who simply leaves their house decorated all year long? and if you do WHY?

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In order to keep up the Halloween atmosphere, what started as a few spooky faces taped onto the doors, has evolved into light up pumpkins, black wire trees, window decals and whatever my wife saw last year that we need to add to this year’s decorations. The one thing that doesn’t change is the fact that we need to have centerpiece for the table (the pizza or Chinese food just wouldn’t taste the same without it). Ours, as you can see below, is fairly simple.

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