[blparent] [blaring] Christmas tree
Veronica Smith
madison_tewe at spinn.net
Wed Dec 5 23:31:33 UTC 2012
When I was a kid, my grandmother had a silver tree, I guess you could say
one of the first aluminum trees and instead of having lights on it, she had
this big round fan looking thing that had plastic colors on the fan thing
and a big light bulb behind them and it woud rotate. So the tree would turn
colors. First red, then green, then blue. It was cool and she would put
ornaments on it.
-----Original Message-----
From: blparent [mailto:blparent-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of mary jo
hartle
Sent: Monday, December 03, 2012 10:33 AM
To: 'Blind Parents Mailing List'
Subject: Re: [blparent] [blaring] Christmas tree
Hi,
We just put up our tree last night. WE actually have a pre-lit
tree, just because they are so convenient whether you are blind or not.
But, I used to have a regular tree and would put the lights on myself. My
husband, who is also blind, always helped me. It's really not that
difficult to decorate the tree as it's all hands-on. Usually, we can just
feel the branches and decorations to make sure they are placed correctly.
But, there are a few things I've found that can help.
Hanging Lights:
With strands of lights, we would take turns passing the strand of lights all
coiled up in a strand so you can pass it and hold it. One of us would stand
on one one side like the front, and one around the back. Then we could wrap
the lights and pass the coil of lights to each other and move the strands
around the tree together. You want to make sure the strands are evenly
spaced out, which you can do by feeling where the strand is running. You
can put the strands back deeper in the branches close to the trunk of the
tree (or pole if it's artificial) so that the strands aren't showing that
much. Before you put the lights on though, run your hands down the strands
to make sure there are no bare wires exposed, no freying, and no broken
bulbs. It is probably a good idea to have a sighted person check the strand
before too if you can't see the lights just to make sure the light bulbs are
all working and that none have burned out. Sometimes you can run your hand
across each bulb and feel if they are hot, but this takes a lot of time or
if they are small lights, sometimes the heat from the lights on either side
can make a burnt out bulb still feel warm. It can also be a pain to keep
strands untangled, so having someone look at the whole strand briefly to
make sure it is working can be helpful. When putting the strands of lights
on the tree, you just make sure you space each strand out and move it up the
tree a few inches at a time. You can do the same thing for garland. Just
go back around after you've wrapped the tree either with lights or garland
and make sure you weave the strands in and over and under the branches some
with your hands so that it doesn't look like you just tied the tree up. You
want the lights and garland to look more draped or looped over the branches.
Hanging Ornaments:
These are a lot easier to put on the tree than the lights and garland in my
opinion. With these, I usually divide the tree into sections and decorate a
section at a time. This way you can make sure not to over decorate a part
of the tree and make sure your ornaments are evenly spaced out. It doesn't
have to be perfect, but this seems to help keep our tree from looking really
crowded in one place and bear in another. I tend to divide my tree into
four sections like a front, back, right, and left side. I then work from
the top to the bottom in each of the four sections. I've even divided up my
ornaments so that I have the same (roughly) amount of ornaments in each
section. WE tend to have bulbs and then some specialty ornaments, so by
dividing the ornaments into piles or groups first, I then have better
chances of distributing them evenly around the tree. I then decorate one
section, like the front for example, with one of the groups of ornaments. I
tend to put our favorite or most special ornaments that I want to be seen
better into the pile that is going on the front of the tree--the part of the
tree that is facing out to your living room the most, or wherever most
people will see. If you are displaying your tree in a window where your
neighbors will see it, you might want this to be your "front" section.
Anyway, this strategy has seemed to work well for me. Then, as I'm
decorating each section, I can feel where I hang ornaments and then place
them a few inches apart. It's not a perfect measurement, but I spread my
hand out like as if I was making a hand print, and then touch one of my
outside fingers to an ornament and then where the other outside finger is is
where I place the next ornament. This way, I can kind of guide my placing
of ornaments down the tree. I start at the top and work down to the bottom
rather than just randomly hanging the ornaments so that I don't miss a spot
or put too many ornaments in one place. If it's helpful, you can even place
a chair or something around the tree to use as a border to mark off your
sections while you are decorating so that you don't go over a section while
you are working on that section. AS you are also hanging the ornaments, you
want to make sure that the ornament isn't resting against a wire from the
lights, or a light bulb so that you can minimize your risk of the ornament
melting or causing a fire--worst case scenario. Same thing with garland.
You can feel what is around your ornaments as you are hanging them so that
you can make sure they aren't touching a lightbulb pretty easy. , I hope
that makes sense. I actually don't put garland on our tree anymore, but
instead, I use this idea I got from a craft store display tree where they
draped long ribbon down the tree instead. This design has also proven to
be helpful in decorating our tree as it provides a marker or divider on the
tree itself which I now use when decorating to divide the tree while I'm
hanging ornaments. I have four curled strands of thick Christmas ribbon
coming down from the top of the tree and cascading down the tree.
Basically, it is two long strands of thick ribbon (the kind with the fine
wire on the edges so you can shape it) which I divide in half. Where the
fold in the middle is, I make a loop and place it around the tip of the top
of the tree (where your tree topper/star/angel/etc. will later go. Then, I
drape one side down the front, and one side down the back. I do the same
thing with my second strand of ribbon and put it on the left and right
sides. When I hang ornaments, I used these ribbons as my dividers. Then,
when we put our tree topper on, the ribbon kind of looks like a bow on a
package, except the bow is the tree topper. It looks pretty good apparently
as I've had lots of complements on using the Christmas ribbon instead of
garland. Since our tree is pre-lit, there are so many lights that I think
the garland could look cluttery anyway if not done the right way. Using the
ribbon is really easy too. It's kind of hard to explain but I hope this
makes sense. I just mentioned this as one way you could divide your tree.
Again, I did this because visually it looks pretty, not to help me decorate
though, or to get out of using garland which can be hard to space around a
tree nonvisually. . Since Christmas trees are supposed to be visually
appealing, it may be helpful to have a trusted friend or family member check
out your tree when you're finished decorating it just to make sure things
look visually pleasing --ornaments are spaced out well and wires are hidden,
etc. I've even Skype called my mom before and showed her the tree to get
her opinion and have her point out any things I need to fix to make it look
better. AS far as safety issues, I think if you are proactive and checking
where you place things as you go, you shouldn't have any problems. Just
make sure your strands of lights aren't frayed (you can run your hands down
a strand to check for any bare wires being exposed) or burnt out or broken
before you put them on the tree too. IN any case, I hope this has been
helpful.
Merry Christmas!
Mary Jo Hartle
-----Original Message-----
From: blparent [mailto:blparent-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf of Dianna
Alley
Sent: Monday, December 03, 2012 10:45 AM
To: NFBnet Blind Parents Mailing List
Subject: [blparent] Christmas tree
Hi I was wondering how do people decorate trees when they are blind parents
and do not generally have sighted help? I also would like to know how are
lights handled? I do not like risk of fires.
Windows live dianna24 at mchsi.com skype dianna41
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