How to wrap a tree with Christmas lights
Tie off your cord, roll the lights up from a ball with about a four-finger gap, staple loosely, and never cross wires. The 2-minute video and the steps below show exactly how.
The 7 steps
-
Tie off your extension cord at the base.
Tie it to the bottom of the trunk so you can pull it tight as you go.
-
Keep your lights in a ball and roll them up the tree.
Leave about a four-finger gap between wraps. On bigger trees, make the gap larger. Less is more; the lights look fuller at night.
-
Wrap loose, and keep the lights plugged in.
Leave about a finger’s worth of slack in each wrap. Keeping them on as you go lets you spot a dead strand right away.
-
Staple so the wraps don’t slide down.
Go easy. Leave a little gap so you don’t crush the wire and the tree has room to grow.
-
Take each fork as it comes.
Start with the lowest branch and work out along it.
-
Double your spacing on the way out.
You’ll come back down the same branch, so leave room for the return wrap.
-
Never cross the wires.
Come back in along the same pattern you made going out, then keep going up the trunk with the same four-finger gap all the way to the top.
Bonus tip: joining two strands
Don’t plug strand ends straight into each other. That leaves a foot-long dark gap. Lay the plugs side by side, tie them in a simple loose knot, then plug in. The dark gap gets much shorter.
Rather not climb the ladder?
Electric Elf wraps trees up to about twenty feet as part of our full-service Christmas lights on the Peninsula, Los Altos to San Bruno. We supply commercial-grade LED lights, install them, fix anything that goes out free all season, and take everything down in January. Most homes $1,200–$2,400.
See what it costs, or the fifteen cities we cover.