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Christmas tree decorating tips

BY MARDI SUHS

CADILLAC NEWS

CADILLAC - Most people would never volunteer to decorate 10 to 12 Christmas trees in one season.

But maybe it’s the artist in Sally Goggin that makes the task so challenging and fun.

Every year, she creates multiple works of Christmas tree artistry, either for retail display, for charity auctions, or for friends and family. It’s an expression of the way she truly feels about Christmas.

"Some people say it’s a stressful season and they hate it," she said. "But I think it’s truly a time when people are just kinder to each other. And with all the lights everywhere, the things you see during the day that are very ordinary, at night they are brilliant and beautiful. It truly becomes magical in the way everything looks."

Decorating the Christmas tree was never a chore in Goggin’s childhood home; it was time of togetherness and celebration.

"And where I grew up, the stores were always decorated beautifully for Christmas," she recalled. "The trees always had a theme, and I remember looking down from the escalator at the beautiful trees. That had such an impact."

This year, Goggin is tackling 11 trees, and five of them were for the Festival of Trees auction, a charity event that funds Habitat for Humanity.

"It has been wonderful having Sally as a designer for the Festival," said event co-chair Barb Tatarchuk. "We know we can count on Sally to create something truly unique for our sponsors."

Goggin has been creating trees for the event since its inception, and her trees always yield generous donations for the charity.

This year her tree, designed for sponsor VanDrie Home Furnishings, sold for $2,250. She described it as red and silver with "an explosion that looked like fireworks in red at the top."

One of Goggin’s popular trees from prior festivals was filled with little ski sweaters and ski hat ornaments. And then she stuck two skis that crossed up the middle of the tree. She has designed trees to celebrate the birth of a baby and trees that look like sparkling jewels.

Decorating the Christmas tree, she insists, should be about togetherness and creating family traditions - and fun.

Below are Sally Goggin’s five tips for creating a beautiful Christmas tree.

1. Lights: When you put on the lights, don’t wrap them round and round the outside of the tree. You have to push the lights into the tree so they are inside. I don’t want to see any cords.

2. Strings of Things: Next, after the lights, put on strings of things, like ribbon, beads, berries or popcorn. I like it to be draped, to look like someone held it and it spilled down the tree. Not too perfect and woven in and out of the branches.

3. Tree Topper: I always think of the tree as having a front and a back. Put on your topper, the angel, star or Santa so that it’s at the front of the tree. Lots of times I make the treetopper the beginning of where the beading flows down through the tree.

4. Ornaments: If you like to fill your tree with special family ornaments, your tree doesn’t have to have a theme. Family memories can be your theme. But plan your tree before you begin. Put those favorite ornaments in the front and then fill in the tree with glass bulbs. Give those special ornaments special prominence. If using glass bulbs, tie three together with wire or tier them. I like so many ornaments on the tree you can hardly see the tree anymore.

5. Filler: For the last element I use some kind of filler, like baby’s breath or silk things like silk poinsettias. These are often called ‘picks’ at hobby stores. It’s something on a branch, like a branch of pine sprayed gold that’s easy to just stick into the tree branches.

mardijo@chartermi.net | 775-NEWS (6397)

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