How to decorate with Christmas tree lights and fairy lights

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Fairy lights are the bread and butter of Christmas decorating: the atmosphere-creating, life-giving backdrop for all your other decorations. But they can just as easily be tacky and headache-inducing. With this in mind, our expert decoration editors have put together their seven simple rules for effective use of Christmas tree lights and fairy lights – and their top tip for packing them away at the end of all the celebrations.

1) Only use warm lights

Fairy lights are intended to create a warm, twinkling glow, which should make you feel like you are sitting inside a chocolate box – perfect for Christmas. Instead, many fairy light displays are positively chilly and depressing. This often comes from too much use of cold, blue-ish light, which also happens to be deeply unflattering to the people in the room. If you opt for LEDs, go for the ‘warm white’ option, or if you opt for coloured, only buy the old-fashioned ones with pink in the mix.

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2) Use connectible lights and blank cable lengths for a neat job

Lights4Fun do a brilliant line in connectible fairy lights. These are a stylist’s best friend, as they mean you can get a tremendous amount of length from one power source, and can connect each new length of lights to the end of the previous one as you go, preventing tangles and making it much easier to create neat arrangements. You can also buy lengths of blank cable, so if you need to cheat – such as doubling back on yourself or running from one arrangement to another – you can use blank lengths of cable to cover your tracks.

3) Keep the lights on a ‘still’ setting

Flashing fairy lights are distracting and sometimes downright distressing. There will always be a ‘still’ or ‘constant’ setting on fairy lights: use it! It is far more understated and pretty that way.

4) Keep the light type consistent

We all have a bag of assorted odds and ends when it comes to Christmas tree lights and Christmas decorations: little runs of battery-pack lights that are a slightly different colour to the others, and the odd red-plastic-flower light from the 1990s, all mixed in with your core fairy lights. I say, invest in a good pack of 10 lengths that are simple and consistent, and eliminate all other variations from your scheme. A mish-mash just never looks good.

Wonderfully warm Christmas tree lights complete the festive display at this Somerset farmhouse.

5) Look to weddings for inspiration

Whether it is from Pinterest, Instagram, or your own summer wedding schedule, you can steal all of those ideas for Christmas, too. Wedding decorators tend to use fairy lights just as much, and often in a more impactful and un-muddled way. Try to channel their eye for detail and simplicity. If you choose to ‘swag’ your lights, keep the swags the same in length and spacing. Alternatively, if you want to create rows or curtains of lights, use tacks or those little plastic loops-on-nails that telephone installers use – they help keep to the lines looking neat and stylish.

6) Catch the light

If you’re combining fairy lights with baubles either on your tree or on your mantel, make sure your shiny decorations are sitting right in their light for ultimate reflection, impact and glow. A misplaced bauble is a misplaced opportunity!

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7) That’s a wrap – packing away your lights

Untangling this year’s tangle of Christmas tree lights and fairy lights next year will nearly always bring out your inner Scrooge – so give a gift to your future self and pack everything away in an orderly fashion. I recommend finding a long packing tube – you might even have one lying around after Christmas – and securing the wire of one end of your fairy lights to the end of your tube with a bit of masking tape. Continually wrap the fairy lights around and up the tube and back again until your lights are fully coiled and secure again with some more masking tape. Wrap in tissue paper or bubblewrap to safely store again for next year. Trust me, you will thank yourself for taking the time to do this when December rolls around again…