A holiday tradition for many is a visit to a local festival of trees to see the beautiful Christmas trees designed by talented artists from the area. But where do the designers get their ideas? And how can those ideas be used in someone’s home?
    Amy Akers, owner of The Flower Shop in Chesapeake, Ohio, and Mike Brady, owner of Mike Brady Photography in Russell, Kentucky, and manager of creative services at St. Mary’s Medical Center in Huntington, West Virginia, have designed trees for the Lawrence County Festival of Trees and Christmas Market in South Point, Ohio every year. Brady, who is also designed a featured tree for the Paramount Arts Center Festival of Trees and Trains in Ashland, Kentucky, this year, and Akers offered some insight on how they put their trees together and some tips for how to design a great Christmas tree for the home.
 

Don’t just look for decorations at Christmastime.
        Just like many people shop for Christmas gifts year-round, Akers and Brady are on the lookout for items for their Christmas trees all year long. “A lot of it is finding items,” Brady said. “It’s a scavenger hunt. You find one item and build a story around that item. I look for things throughout the year.”

Themes can come from anywhere.
    Brady looks to all kinds of sources for his themes. For this year’s Lawrence County Festival tree, his theme was “Where the Treetops Glisten,” a phrase from the iconic Christmas song, “White Christmas.” For a child’s tree, Brady suggests using the child’s favorite things. “It could be Spongebob Squarepants or Marvel Comics,” he said.
    Brady, who designs at least five trees for his own home each year, has also used the theme of a room for a tree. For example, a kitchen is about eating, so the theme of the tree could be a certain type of food like a pastry or sweet. “You want it to look like it’s part of the kitchen,” Brady said. “You want to have a tree that goes with a room as opposed to having a room with a beautiful Christmas tree in it.”

Use different textures.
    Akers, who also designs trees for her shop customers, is a huge fan of using ribbon in a tree because it fills a lot of holes. “Ribbon goes a long way for the value,” she said. Because primitive is a popular theme for her customers, Akers loves to use wood, dry flowers and berry sprays to give different textures. Brady likes to find fabrics that coordinate with the tree’s color scheme to fill holes, making the tree look fuller.
 

Think outside of the box.
    Brady loves to shop at traditional Christmas decorations stores like Hobby Lobby but he’s also a fan of more unconventional places, like hardware stores, to find decorations. Wood accent pieces can make great ornaments, or small tools like tape measures and screwdrivers can be used to create a handyman theme.
    Lanterns, sculptures and sleds are also items that Brady uses as the foundation for his trees. “You put the big ornaments first on the bottom and work your way up to the smaller ones,” he said. Brady explained the smaller items should go on the outside of the tree, while the larger items are wired inside the tree to give the illusion of depth. He also recommends being methodical with ornament placement as opposed to doing it randomly. In other words, if you have several green balls, hang all of those before moving on to the next item. “A tree looks really balanced with a good number of large, medium and small decorations,” Brady said.
    Akers said a trend she’s seeing this year is unconventional colors like teal, hot pink and purple. She’s also a fan of mixing design elements. “I love to use polka dots and stripes on the same tree,” Akers said.

Do what you like.
    Both Akers and Brady agree the most important thing is for each person to do with their tree what appeals to them. “If you like country things, tailor the tree with what you like,” Brady said.
“Work with your color scheme you have.”
    “It’s your Christmas and your tree,” Akers said. “So in the end, it’s really about what you want.”