How to correctly dress Christmas tree lights, according to interior designer

But not everyone is convinced by the advice

Christmas trees can be controversial. How long before the big day should they be put up? Is a fake one acceptable? Should decorations be classy or kitsch?

At least one thing we thought we could all agree on was how to light the tree, right?

Wrong.

According to an interior designer, we’ve all been hanging our Christmas tree lights incorrectly our whole lives.

Most people start at the lower branches and and drape the lights around the tree, making their way up to the top.

But apparently this is wrong.

Interior designer Francesco Bilotto claims Christmas lights should be strung on a tree vertically.

“This way every tip of your tree, from branch to branch, will twinkle with delight,” Bilotto told HouseBeautiful.com.

He also claims it will prevent lights being hidden behind branches.

Bilotto advises we start at the top of the tree with the end of the string of lights, drape them down to the bottom before moving the string three or four inches to the side and going back up the tree. Repeat until you’ve covered the whole tree.

However not everyone is convinced by Bilotto’s recommendation, with many suspecting the lights would end up unevenly distributed between the top and bottom branches.

Some others fear they’d be left with a stripey or zig-zag lighting pattern, which isn’t the look most people go for.

Draping round the tree horizontally may be the wrong way according to Bilotto, but perhaps most people don’t want to be right.