Five Tips for a Perfect Tree from Equinox

No clue what you’re doing when it comes to trimming your Christmas tree? Luckily Angus Kirchner, Lake View’s resident decorating expert, has some tips to help.

Kirchner decorates all the trees at Equinox at 3402 N.Broadway. Equinox has the largest collection of ornaments in the city, and is all decked out with a variety of themed Christmas trees. Kirchner begins ordering the ornaments and planning the trees in January, and the process continues throughout the rest of the year.

1) The first step to a perfect tree is pruning. Kirchner recommends you prune the tree whether it’s real or artificial. This will ensure that the branches aren’t getting in the way of the ornaments.

“In some cases, I’ve eliminated every other layer, every second branch,” Kirchner explained. “It depends on the look you’re going for. If you want an old-fashioned look, you can eliminate branches sporadically.”

2) The next step is lighting. Kirchner advised that a good rule of thumb is to shoot for a minimum of 100 lights per foot. You should also wind the lights around the inside of the tree, starting from the interior and then winding the lights around the branch to the outside.

“If you just put them on the perimeter, it doesn’t do the job of lighting up the ornaments, which is what [the lights] are there for,” Kirchner said. “You want to put them all the way in, all the way out — each branch.” 

3) The ornaments come third. Kirchner says that ornaments should always hang from the branches and never lay on them. He also recommends keeping your smaller ornaments toward the top, the medium ones in the middle and the largest ornaments on the bottom.

Kirchner also emphasizes that you should hang “filler” bulbs (think generic balls, etc.) in the interior of the tree, with your more important and decorative ones on the outside. This means that some branches will have multiple ornaments hanging from them.

“In my opinion, you can’t have too many ornaments on a tree,” Kirchner said.  

4) Next up, you should add garnishes like long ornaments, garland, drops or clip-on birds. 

“You can’t have too much of that kind of thing,” Kirchner said. “Long or teardrop-shaped [ornaments] give a tree drama…they’re like an earring. It’s a finishing touch.

Kirchner also advised that if you’re using garland, make sure that you have enough and that it hangs from the tree, as opposed to dropping from the branches. 

5) Lastly, Kirchner advises that you finish off your tree with a bow or another type of tree topper.

“If you have a large tree, you want a sizable bow to balance out the rest of the tree,” Kirchner said. 

After the season ends, Kirchner advises that you keep your ornaments in a climate-controlled environment that isn’t too damp or too hot. The ornaments should be stored in acid-free tissue paper. 

“Climate is very important,” he said. “I don’t mean a fur vault, but you shouldn’t store [your ornaments] in an attic that gets really hot and you shouldn’t store them in a basement that gets damp.”

Kirchner invites everyone to come to Equinox for examples of what a tree should look like. 

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