Homecoze Christmas Tree Fluffing Guide
Artificial Christmas Trees are becoming more realistic than ever these days. With extendable branches and lifelike foliage, artificial PVC trees are cost-effective and eco-friendly whilst providing both high durability and convenience to use and maintain. For these great reasons more and more households are turning toward using artificial Christmas Trees. But before your new Artificial Christmas Tree will begin to resemble a real Christmas Tree, it will need to be properly fluffed!
You will notice that no matter where you buy your Christmas Tree, each section of branches on the tree are compressed in order to take up as little room as possible for storage and shipping purposes - they are certainly not ready to go straight out of the box. Nearly every artificial tree that you can buy will need a suitable amount of shaping, or 'fluffing' in order to make it look as full and as lifelike as possible.
You can expect to spend about 1.5 - 2 hrs to properly fluff a 7ft Christmas Tree for the first time. However, the results are well worth the added time and effort. The first fluff of a new tree always takes the longest, so it shouldn't take quite as long next year.
Following this guide will have you fluffing your Christmas Tree like an expert and help you achieve your best looking Christmas Tree yet.
Step 1: Fan out the branches
It is generally easiest to start at the bottom of the tree and work your way up to the top. At the back of each branch, move each tip up or to the side so that the inner most tree tips look like the fanned tail of a peacock. Make sure that each of the tips is offset from the one before it so that they together fill in and hide the tree trunk as much as possible.
Step 2: Pull out the side branches & spread the tips
As you now move toward the front of the branch, separate the tree tips and start to spread the tips out to fill in the gaps between the other nearby branches so that the layers of foliage start to fill in uniformly and look like those of a real tree.
Step 3: Shape in layers
Work your way around and up in layers and sections to ensure that every tree branch has been shaped so that the tips achieve the best coverage and close up as much empty space as possible.
Note: for tree's that are 7' and above, it can be easier to shape the top section before placing it on top of the tree to avoid having to stand on a stool or ladder to shape it later.
Step 4: Check your work
Step back and check your work from time to time as you are shaping the branches in order to ensure that you are achieving maximum coverage with the branch tips. Fanning out the tips in all different directions helps to give a more natural appearance to the tree.
Tips & Tricks
- Wear a long sleeve shirt and gloves to help prevent the branches from scratching you whilst you are working on your masterpiece.
- It is inevitable that there is going to be some fall-out from the branches, especially during the first set up, so it pays to keep a dust pan and brush or a vacuum cleaner nearby to sweep up as you go.
- Snow covered Christmas trees can be especially messy to setup as the snowy coating can 'dust' while fluffing the tree. This is due to the nature of the manufacturing and is unavoidable, however, the good news is that after the initial dusting has taken place, it will dust less and less each time it is set up in future.
- Positioning your tree front of a light filled window can highlight gaps from the light shining through the tree. By placing your tree against solid background such as in the corner of a room can help make your tree look fuller.
There we have it, your masterpiece awaits! Now you can move on to decorating. Don't forget to share your Christmas Tree creation by tagging us on Instagram! @homecoze_australia
