Using ribbon on your Christmas Tree

The three easiest, cheapest and most effective base components to decorating a Christmas tree are your lights, basic baubles and ribbon. In the past ribbons have been primarily used as bows of any size on the tree, but here are 3 other gorgeous ways to use ribbon.  We have used 63mm ribbon on these examples.

Ribbon as a garland
Many guides to decorating suggest adding garlands as the last set in the decorating process.  I like to use them at the beginning as they help give my tree shape.  Using ribbon as a garland simply involves loosely wrapping the ribbon around your tree in the same way as you would hang a garland.  In the example below I have used ribbon and a beaded garland together, but it would also be effective using the ribbon alone.  In this case we have used one roll of 10m ribbon, and if we didn’t have the beaded garland we would have used a second roll.

I have also including a photo of the completed tree.  As a change to standard gold we have used copper and teale.  This tree took about 15 minutes to decorate as I have used bauble picks (we can create these in any colours for clients) so once the ribbon was in place the picks were gently placed around the tree.

Ribbon draped down the tree
Another fun option is to drape the ribbon down the tree.  If you were using ribbon alone, you would need 5 or 6 lines of ribbon depending on the diameter of your tree.  In this example we have used 3 lines of ribbon and 3 lines of glitter ball garlands we created.

The ribbon on this tree is so much fun and warrants a simple theme of red and white.  We have used many of our glitter balls and some special candy canes we created. 

While this is an example of a fun tree, you could very easily use a gorgeous regal gold ribbon and incorporate this look into your more formal or traditional tree.

To determine how much ribbon you need measure the length on your tree, multiply this by 1.5 (to give you room to wind the ribbon back and forward, and then multiple this by the number of lines you will use.  If you look after your ribbon and gently roll it up after use it should last a number of years.

Wrap gifts with big bows
In this example we have used our hand-made glitter boxes and simply wrapped these with big ribbon bows.  We then place these on the branches of our tree to add a bit of ribbon colour.

In this example we used 38mm pre-wired ribbon.  The pre-wired is useful as you can sit your bows up with a lot more volume.

I hope these examples give you some creative assistance in designing your Christmas tree. All the examples above have quite inexpensive components, so it wouldn’t be difficult or expensive to change the theme of your tree regularly.  Alternatively, use the ideas as a basis for your tree and add then add the rest of your ornament collection.