Christmas: a day associated with snow, family, and just colorful decorations brightening up the streets and houses. It’s the combination of the sparkly lights, the Christmas carols that brighten up the mood. But this time around with the given Covid-19 conditions, preparations and celebrations might have to take a creative route that involves fewer people and more pre-caution.
This year’s Christmas is also a reminder to us all to rethink how we’ve been celebrating in the past and maybe do something new? Send a delicious home-cooked meal to your next-door neighbor or help one of your family members suffering from low vision in actively decorating this year’s Christmas tree with you.
Visually impaired and legally blind endure not just physical pain but mental as well, struggling with day-to-day activities. But this year’s Christmas is getting a lot more creative as we embark on finding new ways to celebrate and make this year’s Christmas memories.
5 Easy but Creative Steps to Decorate Your Christmas tree
So let’s begin the five basic stages of decorating your tree that can be used for any tree and decor style, so follow the instructions and decorate your very own Christmas tree!
Step 1: Adding Texture & Lights
If you’re opting for an artificial tree, that’s fairly easily to setup and maintain as come with color coded or numbered branches so you can easily identify where to place them. But in case you’re going for a real Christmas tree, investing in a quality tree can go a long way once it’s fully decorated.
For a real tree, trimming the branches to perfection is key; as it helps you arrange the ornaments and other decorations perfectly once the decoration phase begins. Trim the branches by starting with the bottom layer of branches and work your way up.
Now whether it’s an artificial or a real tree, using an extension wire will enable you to start adding the lights starting from top all the way down. Lights when placed closer to the trunk will create a soothing warm glow emerging through the branches.
Portable low vision devices such as hand held magnifiers or features such as bioptic mode in IrisVision are some of the handy tools that low vision members in your family and friends can benefit from when trimming the branches or placing the lights with precision.
Step 2: Adding Fillers
The filler is what brings life into a tree, after the lighting of course. When positioned nicely, they give off the same vibes as a colorful floral arrangement.
Using a range of colorful ribbons when positioned perfectly can really make the tree standout, color detector devices can be a useful tool for the vision impaired/visually impaired when detecting the different types of colors.
Step 3: Adding Ribbons
The way to wrap the ribbon around the tree depends on personal taste. One of the more common practices is to wrap the ribbon around the tree, starting from the top and as you go lower you can cut the ribbon sections.
But mind you the choice of color is detrimental to the overall look and feel of the tree. Colors that depict an opulent jeweled tone such as purple ribbons complement the gold core baubles ornaments like no other.
At the end of the process ensure that each of the colors is evenly distributed along the branches to avoid too many of the same shade in one area.
Step 4: Time To Bring Out the Ornaments
Ornaments are meant for filling in empty spots, usually to be placed at the top and center of the tree. Adding ornaments at the bottom can be dangerous if you have pets or babies.
The baubles comprising of dark and bold color come right at the top with the plain baubles with a mirror or matt texture will give your Christmas tree with the perfect color scheme when added later.
Spreading each of the ornaments across the branches will help you achieve the full effect. Flower embroidered decorations are also available online that can complement the set of colorful baubles present in the tree.
You can also decorate the tree using fun tactile Christmas stickers, so your friends and family suffering from low vision can be included in the celebrations. One way of really letting creativity to its magic is by purchasing stockings and embroidering the names of your family and friends in Braille. This can also be an ideal gift for low vision patients.
Step 5: Placing a tree skirt
As commonly referred to as cherry on top, but here the case is a bit different. The last stage requires you to place a tree skirt at the bottom. Make sure to match your tree skirt with the overall theme of the tree. There are a number of ways you to bring your own uniqueness by making your own tree skirt or simply purchase a plain colored tree skirt with a bold color tone and then use your imagination to further beautify it.
Following all these stages will help you plan better and decorate the tree in a shorter time span. Decorating the Christmas tree can be a good way to bond with all those family and friends you haven’t gotten a chance to interact with in the past and in extreme cases can also be turned into a competitive sport if you divide yourself amongst two teams to see who does a better job at the quickest time.
“I can see the reds, I can see the blues, I can see the green of the tree,”
A retinitis pigmentosa electronic glasses case: Maritza’s response after seeing Christmas tree after 13 years.
Before we conclude the stages of decorating a Christmas tree, here a few wearable low vision solutions that visually impaired family and friends can benefit from due to their portable nature and participate fully in the preparations or maybe can serve as the perfect gift for legally blind: i.e. IrisVision, Jordy etc.
Let’s remember those who rely on our help and support by making them a part of the festivities this year!!!
