Christmas Tree Ribbon Tips and Tricks

I’m so excited to bring you today’s post: How to Put Ribbon on a Christmas Tree! Its my step-by-step easy guide to adding ribbon to your Christmas tree.

In response to many requests, last weekend I shared an impromptu Instagram story showing me as I was putting on my Christmas tree ribbon. Over 5000 people watched it, and dozens of you commented on its helpfulness. Thankfully, I was able to download that video and with a little reformatting, I’m sharing it with you today.

Christmas Tree Ribbon Tips and Tricks:

In addition, when I was putting ribbon on another tree, I snapped some photos so I could write a more detailed Christmas tree ribbon tutorial to accompany the video one.

I hope both of these tutorials are useful if you decide to add ribbon to your tree this year or in the future.

Also, If you’re interested in seeing this tree fully decorating, then click HERE.

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
• How to add Ribbon to your Christmas Tree – highly popular post! 

What’s the best ribbon for a Christmas tree?

First, let’s talk ribbon. This particular ribbon is from Lowe’s back in 2017. As far as I can tell, it has been discontinued. 

You’ll need more than you think. The narrow 7.5-foot tree pictured above took 12 yards of 2 1/2-inch ribbon. The tree in the video (which is a full 7.5-foot tree) took 30 yards of 1 1/2-inch ribbon.

I prefer to have ribbon left over for wrapping coordinating presents to place under the tree.

Wired ribbon works best. You can use other types, but you’ll probably find them more difficult to manage. As for the ribbon width, 2 1/2-inches is ideal, but you can use wider or narrower if that’s what you have. On a standard-sized tree, I wouldn’t go with less than 1 1/2-inches wide or more than 4-inches wide.

Once you have your ribbon, the next step is to make sure your tree is ready for ornaments. Whether your tree is artificial or real, all of the branches should be fluffy, full, and looking as good as possible. You’ll also want to put on your tree lights before adding the ribbon.

How to Put Ribbon on a Christmas Tree:

Now, you’re ready to start. I like to begin at the top and work down and around the tree in a spiral.

Start by tucking the end piece of the ribbon into the back of the tree and then slowly start to work around. For some reason, I tend to work clockwise around the tree, but I’m not sure if that matters.

As you move around the tree, try to let the ribbon do its thing. The goal is for the ribbon to drape naturally and not appear forced. The ribbon should never look pulled or stretched. As you work around, you’ll want to tuck the ribbon into the tree, let it billow out, and then tuck it in again.

To keep this looking natural, you’ll want to vary the intervals at which you tuck the ribbon in and how much ribbon you let billow out.

You can also create curls in the ribbon by twisting it in your hands. This look is a bit harder to achieve but does add an interesting effect. I usually do this only 3 or 4 times per tree. Simply twist the ribbon as pictured below and then tuck it into the tree to secure.

Continue this process as you work around and around the tree.

Avoid working in a perfectly straight line. As you can see, my lines vary. Some are quite wavy; some are less so. You want to avoid sharp bands of ribbon that cut across the tree.

There’s nothing you need to do to secure your ribbon into the tree. It should stay in place as you work it in and around. If it’s not staying in place, it’s likely that you’re pulling on the ribbon, something you should avoid doing. The ribbon should have no tension. With that being said, certain ribbons are tricky to work with. So if the ribbon is not staying and you haven’t been pulling on it, you can gently curve a piece of the pine over the ribbon to hold it in place.

If you’re using multiple rolls of ribbon, just begin the new roll where the old one ended by tucking the two ends into the same spot in the tree.

This is what the tree looks like when I’m finished putting the ribbon on. The placement looks varied and loose, doesn’t it?

You can see this tree fully fully trimmed here. I also invite you to scroll through this post here.  It walks your through a lot of my trees so you can get a sense of how the ribbon looks once the ornaments are in place.

The goal is to have it all of the decor elements work together to form a cohesive whole. While the ribbon should certainly add to the decor of the tree, it shouldn’t stand out or be distracting.

You’re ready to decorate!

And that’s it! If you’re curious to see this tree full decorated (lights, ribbons, ornaments, topper, etc.), you can check out it’s final look by clicking here.

For more inspiration on Christmas tree Decorations, check out this post here where I share 20+ of my favorite Christmas tree decoration ideas!

I realize that all of this advice on its own may not be very helpful. It’s a hard to explain this process with just text and pictures, which is why I haven’t done so before. However, now I also have a video to help!

As I mentioned I recorded this on a whim last weekend and shared it in clips via Instagram Stories. So although it’s not a professional recording, it seems to help many folks. I hope it does the same for you. You can watch that video below.

Christmas Tree Ribbon Tips and Tricks Video:

Happy tree trimming!

Finally, this is my go-to method for adding ribbon to trees. There are many other ways to do this, but this technique has never let me down. If you have questions or if something is confusing, please let me know in the comments, and I’ll do my best to explain or update this post to clarify.

I hope I helped you learn how to put ribbon on a Christmas Tree!

Want to see more of my Christmas trees? Start here:

• 20+ Christmas Tree Ideas
• Emerald Christmas Tree
• Navy and Copper Christmas Tree
• Colorful Flocked Christmas Tree
• Flocked Christmas Tree
• Rainbow-Inspired Christmas Tree
• White Flocked Christmas Tree in Gold and Green
• Rustic Modern Christmas Tree

Want more festive inspiration? You got it!

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