20+ Beautiful Christmas Tree Decorating Ideas

If you’ve been reading IBC for a while, you’ll know that I’m crazy about Christmas. Inspired by some of my previous holiday decorating adventures, today I thought I’d highlight some Beautiful Christmas Tree Decorating Ideas!

I hope you find this post helpful if you’re looking to update your tree decor or planning a completely new look. After blogging for almost 9 years, I have plenty of Christmas tree decorations to share. Would you believe I’ve decorated almost 20 different trees during that time? (I said I was Christmas crazy!) Although I can’t show you every tree, the following ideas are among my favorites.

Looking for more Christmas inspiration? Be sure to check out the list below.

The Ultimate Christmas Idea and Recipe Resource List:

• How I plan My Christmas Decor
• 115+ Creative Christmas Ideas – my favorite resource!
• The Best Christmas Cocktail Recipes
• My Favorite Christmas Cookies
• Christmas Q&A – answering YOUR Christmas questions
• Christmas Appetizer Recipes
• The Ultimate Christmas Music Playlist
• 2018 Christmas at Bayberry House – latest Holiday Home Tour
• 2018 Evening at Bayberry House
• How to add Ribbon to your Christmas Tree – highly popular post! 

(Also, you can click on any image or link in green for more information about all of these trees.)

Beautiful Christmas Tree Decorating Ideas:

1. Cozy Lodge Inspired Tree
This was the 2019 tree in my family room. I was after a cozy lodge-inspired look and I feel I was able to achieve it. A few things that inspired this tree were the red knit sweater themed ribbon, the mini ski ornaments, and some really fun hot cocoa mug ornaments.

Lately I’ve really been into red for Christmas, which I suppose may sound a little predictable or boring. However, it really gives me the best holiday feeling, so I’ve been running with it in my family room.

2. Get Inspired by Adele.
When I’m thinking about a new Christmas tree decorating ideas, inspiration can come from anywhere. Back in 2015, the return of Adele prompted the colors I chose for the Christmas tree in my dining room. I fell in love with a green and gold dress she wore in one of her performances, and that dress inspired the tree.

Of course, those colors took on a direction of their own as I decorated the flocked white tree, but I must give credit to Adele and her beautiful dress.

3. Vintage-Inspired Tree

Shopping local thrift stores has always been one of my favorite ways to find unique Christmas tree decorations. Not only are the values great, but you get to capture a piece of holidays gone by. In addition to local spots, I also check out eBay and Etsy for festive finds.

In fact, one year I was able to snag a collection of vintage pin and sequin ornaments from eBay that inspired an entire tree. Last year, I used those same ornaments on a more traditional green tree I set up at my grandma’s house. She hadn’t decorated a tree in years, so I was able to do something special for her.

4. Gingerbread-Inspired Tree 

Inspired by my newfound love for baking and decorating gingerbread, I’ve styled a gingerbread-inspired Christmas tree in my dining room. I love the look. I even includes real gingerbread cookies! See more of this tree HERE.

This was such a fun tree to design and decorate. You can learn how to make gingerbread ornaments HERE.

5. Go for Flocked.
If you’ve never tried a flocked Christmas tree, I can’t recommend it enough. While I love a traditional green tree, there’s something that feels a bit more magical and winter-like about a flocked one. Take a look at the two flocked trees I decorated last year.

This one was in my living room.

6. Another Fabulous Flocked Tree

This flocked tree was in the office of my old home. I was inspired by the colors in a beautiful plaid ribbon I found at HomeGoods.

I even decorated this one twice. The second version made the cover of Better Homes & Gardens Christmas Ideas Magazine! (You can read more about that here.)

How’s that for proof of the beauty of flocked trees?

7. A Nostalgia-Inspired Christmas Tree

For this Christmas tree I took inspiration from Christmas past. Glass vintage Santa ornaments sparked this tree wrapped in red. You can read more about how I put it together and see more pictures here.

9. Rustic Modern Christmas Tree Decorations:
I lived in an apartment for a year as I made the transition from my previous home to my current home. This was one of the two trees that I set up in that space. There is still so much about this tree that I love. It feels classic and fresh all at the same time. I love the combination of blue, red, and gold.

This was also my first time using a Balsam Hill tree and I haven’t purchased any other brand of tree since then. I also used this tree to share my tutorial for adding ribbon to a Christmas tree. If you want my Christmas tree ribbon tips, check out the post HERE.

BONUS IDEA: Add Ribbon!

I love adding ribbon to my Christmas trees. I recently shared a video on how I add ribbon to my Christmas trees. You can read the tutorial and watch that video here.

10. Apartment Christmas Tree Decorating Idea:
As I was putting this post together, I realized I never wrote a dedicated post for my main apartment Christmas tree. (I need to do that.) However, it was included as part of my Apartment Holiday Home Tour.

I’m not sure I had a specific theme in mind for this tree. With blues, aquas, grays, and greens in my apartment living room, I designed the tree to fit within that theme. The result was a cozy and icy look. I started with a flocked tree and added ornaments that fit my theme and color scheme.

Colorful Christmas Tree Decorating Ideas:

11. A Trip to Emerald City:
This was inspired by a pair of green velvet chairs I purchased for my living room. For this Christmas tree decorating idea, I decided to go all green with touches of silver and gold. The ribbon, which I found on Amazon, really brought it all together. In recent years, this has been one of my favorite trees.

It also sparked the attention of Better Homes & Gardens and consequently appeared in their 2019 December Issue as well as their 2019 Christmas Ideas Magazine.

12. Navy and Green Christmas Tree:
This tree is a great example of how you don’t need to start from scratch every year. With a few subtle changes, I was able to take my Emerald City inspired tree and turn it into this navy and green beauty.

As you can see, I swapped out the ribbon and added in a bunch of navy and blue ornaments.

It’s amazing how just a few little changes can really change the look of a tree without much effort or expense.

13. A Navy Blue Christmas Tree:

In recent years, I’ve been able to find ornament garlands. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, you can see a couple here and here. (I’ve also seen them at HomeGoods and T.J. Maxx.) As you can probably tell, it’s a garland made of ornaments. I have a couple different ones and have made great use of them in my trees.

Here, I used a copper ball garland on my navy blue Christmas tree.

14. Flock and Colorful:
And here, I added a rainbow garland to one of my flocked trees. This was an inexpensive flocked tree I purchase from Walmart. I dressed it up with my colorful Christmas ornament garland, then filled it with mushroom ornaments and red Christmas balls.

What’s great about these ball garlands is that you can use them almost anywhere for instant impact. Last year, I decided to weave the rainbow garland into a pine garland on my staircase banister.

The results speak for themselves.

15. Candy Confection:
This pink and silver tree is one I style for a brand. It’s so fun. (Interesting fact, I set this up and styled in during the middle of summer!)  My favorite part might be the garland!

The theme for this tree came from a collection of ornaments that featured sweet treats like cakes and ice cream.

16. Woodland Glam Christmas Tree:
I had a unique opportunity in 2019 to add a tree to my entryway. As part of a kitchen remodel that was completed earlier in the year, I removed a closet in this area and wasn’t planning on replacing it until 2020. Since there was a big open space, I added a tree.

This tree is anything but traditional, including it’s inspiration: a pheasant! I opted for what I call a “woodland glam” tree. I pulled colors from the pheasant ornament and added more animals to the tree including deer, owls, and squirrels. For the glam element I incorporated lots of gold, silver, and sparkle.

17. Bring in Chic Metallics.
While I’m normally a fan of color for Christmas, last year I went with blacks and metallics for my Christmas tree, and I couldn’t have been happier with how it turned out.

The look was super chic. However, I kept it interesting with quirky, unique touches such as an owl tree topper and gold sequin unicorn ornaments.

18. Another Woodland-Inspired Tree:
Sometimes a theme can be your best friend when decorating a new tree. Take, for example, this woodland-inspired tree I decorated a few years back.

The woodland cabin theme made finding ornaments and other decorations for this tree much easier. I even added things like lanterns, faux squirrels, and snowy pinecones. You don’t need to use just “ornaments” designed for a tree. Get creative with the things you include.

19. Red, White, and Mushroom Tree

Classic with a bit of quirkiness, this red, white, and mushroom tree quickly become a favorite tree of mine. I used white and red ornaments along with some of my favorite mushroom ornaments to create a fun and festive look!

If you want to see more of this cheerful tree, you can check out this post HERE.

Unique Christmas Tree Decorating Ideas:

20. Keep it Quirky:
When it comes to trimming my tree, I often shy away from anything formal or fancy. One year I set up a mini real tree in my entryway and covered it with ornaments of cats in Santa hats.

If you look close at my trees, you’ll find things like unicorns, more cats, mushrooms, and lots of other quirky things. I think it’s all about having fun and using ornaments that make you smile.

21. Go Rainbow Gradient.
No list of Christmas tree decorations would be complete without a mention of my Gradient Rainbow Christmas Tree.

This may go down in history as one of my most memorable trees. It is certainly one of the most pinned images on Pinterest. It’s easy to see why.

To be honest, this tree was among the easiest to put together. Over 600 round glass ornaments in a rainbow pattern cover this tree. Some are new, and some are vintage. Together they look spectacular.

That’s Wrap on my Christmas Tree Decorating Ideas!

And there you have my list of beautiful Christmas tree decorating ideas. I hope a few of these ideas inspire you as you set out to decorate your own tree. I will be certain to update this list as I create and decorate new trees.

Happy Trimming!