What's netting?

I do lights then ornaments. Aren't icicles considered ornaments? Used to string cranberries and popcorn for garland, but no more. On the artificial dining room tree I use a cranberry-simulated garland and that goes on last.

Our tree is pre-lit. Which is like the best thing ever since sliced bread and baby carrots. :)

Then I do my red velvet garland which looks kinda like a hair scrunchy but is wired so I can "place" it where I want it.

Ornaments next, topper, skirt and lastly a few presents!

Now I just wish it was as easy to actually do as it was to type. We're home, not hosting anyone for Thanksgiving so we'll probably start on Christmas decorations on Thanksgiving day. Ho Ho Ho!

I don't consider the flimsy aluminum icicles that I toss on to be ornaments. The formed glass or plastic ones, I do.

The netting is about 14" wide and comes in a packaged length of about 8'. You can buy it in red, gold or green. It has thin wires within the netting so you can bend or scrunch it as you like. The effect is somewhat like a wide, scrunched airey ribbon, very soft and floaty. I got mine at JoAnn's fabrics.

So, Natal places her garland on last and funcolors adds hers before the ornaments. Anyone else? Any reason for the sequence?

Our tree is also pre-lit, but I add an extra couple of strands that look like real, flickering candles. And, yep, having a pre-lit tree takes away the most of the work.

The dining room tree is pre-lit, but we still buy a fresh tree for the keeping room. I hope I never have to give that up, but I'm sure the day is coming. :(

My icicles are glass. I didn't know you could still buy the aluminum version. I do remember the "icicle wars" when I was a kid. Each strand had to be placed individually. With kitties there's no way I'd chance it.

Btw, if you're talking packaged "baby" carrots ... they aren't really. I love carrots, but baby-cut is one version I'll never buy!

Here is a link that might be useful: baby carrots

I think it would depend on whether you want the netting/ribbon to be be more prominent, or the ornaments. Some folks let the ribbon loosely trail around the tree on "top" of everything else. But I used to use a florist's burlap for the same purpose and I put it on right after the lights. I think of it as a garland.

Your order is correct Mona, for a fresh or unlit tree. The placing of the netting could easy knock off ornaments and should be nestled into the branches after the lights are on.

I would do the netting before the ornamants. The last two years I added pearl garland to the outside of my tree after the bazillion ornaments went on and it was somewhat challenging.

Sorry, I'm thread hijacking for a min. Natal, aren't they still carrots that just didn't form right? Just curious.

Only RECENTLY did I find out about baby carrots, (a MSNBC article perhaps?) I never knew...that explains why they get so slimy and often are already in the store.
Still, they are cute and a nice convenient size for buffets...

Nooooooo! Say it ain't so about them carrots!

lalalala about baby carrots.

I do lights. Then my largest ornaments, which are boxes wrapped in craft paper topped with red gingham ribbon, are shoved deep into the tree. Then I do cranberry garland, regular ornaments, candy canes and at the end I take rafia and put it on like icicles. The style is a little too country for my current taste but my family loves it and won't let me change.

I use light strands (probably 12 or more strands) and wind them in and out of the branches. It's very time consuming and I wish I didn't feel like I had to do it this way, but I do. Then we put the garlands on. Then the kids put all of the ornaments on. They've been the decorators for at least the past five years! We had a prelit tree for several years and recently went back to the real trees because inevitably there would be lights that didn't work on the prelit. One year, after the tree was all decorated, we had 1/4 of the lights that went out! Argh!

I did not know about the baby carrots. I always thought they were rather alien looking! I just peel and cut down normal sized carrots and store them in the fridge in water for snacks.

I'm on my first cup of coffee and I swear I've read all the replies, but how did carrots come into this topic? lol.

Mona, I've seen the netting but I haven't seen a close-up picture of a tree with the netting on it. Would the netting show in the daytime when lights are off?

Anyway, Ornaments are the last thing I'd add to the tree. Lights, garlands, ribbons, then ornaments. Actually, floral picks is the last thing I add in between the ornaments.

I can't wait to see your tree! You should see the back of my LR, I have it full of decorations that I need to start tackling soon so it will be ready for Christmas. lol

Traditionlly garland goes on last- at least back in the dark ages.

This is our order more or less:
1. get fav beverage and Christmas cookies ready
2. Christmas music on( entails discussion)
3. refill beverage while tree comes in the house.( get snacks if necessary)
4. Which is good side/the straightening of the tree;entails discussion.5. Tieing the tree to the wall( dogs)
6. refresh beverage
7. put on lights
8. put on wooden cranberry bead garland
9. ornaments( entails discussion of family trips and memories)

10. retrieve ornaments from Cooper
11. put higher on tree
12. turn out room lights sip on refreshed beverage and look at tree.
    Strands of icicles go on if it isnt already midnight!

I'll admit I was still thinking,"it's a carrot cut down..." until I read that. :( No more baby carrots.

Oakley, here you go.

* Posted by funcolors (My Page) on
Sat, Nov 20, 10 at 19:28

Our tree is pre-lit. Which is like the best thing ever since sliced bread and baby carrots. :)

Mona, It sounds like you've got some good ideas for trimming your tree - I for one am not that adventurous with the tree trimming, but would love to see a finished picture!

As far as baby carrots, I read that link and actually thought, what an ingenious idea for consumption of carrots that for the most part are ok, but for a few bad spots. Would it be better to throw them all away and waste food?

I've eaten bagged baby carrots for years, and do rinse them before eating but I doubt every baby carrot comes from a bad one - maybe in the beginning of their marketing process, but now it's such a huge business, they probably take perfectly good carrots and cut and shape them so people like me who are too lazy to cut up a carrot will buy them.

I'm with those who put lights on first, then garland, then ornaments. I like the lights to be completely throughout the tree, with some in near the trunk so the whole tree glows. I don't use bows or netting, so I don't know in what order they should be added. I never, ever, decorate with baby carrots.

The last couple of years I've used tulle (on a roll like ribbon) as garland on one of our trees. I put it on after the lights and like to push it in and out of the branches. Your net may be somewhat similar.

tina

I hang the baby carrots first.

I hear it's best if you rinse them before hanging.

:)

I think I may make a carrot garland. Should I hang them vertically? or end to end?

Well, DUH, Mona! You hang them end-to-end with radishes in between. I can't believe you didn't know that!

No, no, no...you hang them vertically...like little orange icicles...

I couldn't help it :)
{{gwi:1526353}}

I definitely think radishes or even mini tomatoes would make the garland more christmassy looking.....lol........

Wow that's weird, we posted the same photo at the exact same time, great minds think alike!

Well, I start with the gold and end with the carats....

Here is a link that might be useful: tree with carats

LOL! OMG Hilarious! Only you guys could find carrot garland. The GW is a verwee, verwee special place.

well, judiegal, same time but your's is first so you win, lol........

Back to the decorating order.....I looked at the package label of the stuff I was talking about and it's not net, it's actually a ribbon that's 19" wide with wire running throughout it for bending, scrunching.

It doesn't make a difference as to the order of placement of "things", but it would have helped if I'd described it properly.

Does anyone string popcorn as a garland? Wouldn't it attract bugs?

We've strung popcorn but I find that I eat too much as I'm stringing. And it tends to break apart even if you wax the needle and thread to make it easier. If you leave the butter off the popcorn you should be bug free.

However I prefer to wear my carets on my ring finger.

I used to string popcorn and cranberries. The trick with popcorn is to pop it a couple days in advance and let it get stale before stringing.

Only time I had a problem with bugs (tiny spiders) was when I didn't sift through the Spanish moss well enough before putting it on the tree.

I have a tree that is prelit with white lights. This year I added a string of colored lights with them and put those on my tree first. Then I chose the one color of balls I wanted to use this year. I put those on the INSIDE of the branches. Then I get out the collected special ornaments. I put those closer to the OUTSIDE of my tree. Then I put on the candy canes all over the tree. Then I put on the garland. I usually go with white or silver because it gives the tree a colder Winter feeling. Then I put on the icicles! Then I put on my tree skirt (you can put it on first but then you'll get foot prints on it and it's hard to keep that clean through the holidays as it is LOL) and PRESTO I have a Christmas Tree. I decorate my home working from the Christmas Tree out into the rest of the home.

Personally, I hand string Peas! LOL