Christmas Tree Decorating... "How Much Did You Use?" Exact Trimming Quantities + This Year's Tree!

It’s been 8+ years since I’ve decorated our main living room Christmas tree without a hint of red or green, but this year, I was feeling a departure from recent years and decided on a gold tree with silver accents. Unlike years past when I’ve been asked about how much xyz I used on the tree, this year, we actually kept count when we were setting up and today, I’m sharing our primary silver and gold Christmas tree early, along with decor quantities and sizes that make up the tree decor!

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Silver and Gold Christmas Tree Decor

I’d still like to go really minimal one year for a stark contrast, and while this wasn’t that year, I didn’t use quite as much on my tree as I typically do. I wanted the overall tree to have big gold accents with smaller metallic silver accents and I decided instead of mixing it all up, I would keep specific ornaments and trimmings to their own specified colors to help define silver vs. gold. In general, this resulted in…

Large balls — gold
Small balls — silver
Ribbon — gold
Branches/picks — silver

How Many Decorations to Use for a Gold Christmas Tree

Before starting on the tree, I had actually envisioned a more matte tree, but after adding some of the metallic silver (and especially the branches), it did take on a little more of a shiny effect than I had planned. I still love it but it isn’t as flat as I had originally anticipated. I could have halted and redirected at any point, but the fact of the matter was that I loved everything I added — especially my new silver glitzy branches.

Silver and Gold Christmas Tree Decor Tips

Tree Sources: Gold Ball Ornaments | 4″ Gold Wire Ribbon | 2.5″ Gold Ribbon With Edge | Silver Berry Bush Stems

Room Sources: Area Rug | Black Leather Arm Chair | Leather Stool | Terracotta Vase

How Much Decor and Trimmings Did We Use on the Silver and Gold Tree?

It’s worth a mention that the quantities are based on our 9′, average circumference tree. Depending how full your tree is, whether it’s flocked or green, and how well your branches grip the trimmings will determine whether you need fewer or more decorations for a similar look.

Silver and Gold Christmas Tree -- How Much to Use On a 9' Tree

Here’s what’s on our tree…

(2) 10 yds. 4″ gold wire ribbon
(2) 10 yds. 2.5″ gold ribbon with edge
(2) 10 yds. 2.5″ light brown plaid ribbon
(2) 5 yds. 2.5″ black and gold plaid wired ribbon
(20) 6″ gold balls
(8) silver berry bush stems, separated into individual branches
Christmas tree collar
Mercury Glass Ornaments
Shiny Silver Ornaments

*We did not count the smaller ornaments as we pulled them from the stash, but without a formal guesstimation, there’s definitely over 100.

Decorating a Gold and Silver Christmas Tree

Sources: Gold Ball Ornaments | 4″ Gold Wire Ribbon | 2.5″ Gold Ribbon With Edge | Silver Berry Bush Stems

If you work with a flocked tree, the tree will automatically look fuller and more covered because the snowy white flock works as a trimming on its own. For specific instructions and tips of how to decorate a Christmas tree — specifically the methods I use for applying ribbon, check out THIS popular post on KN. For this tree, I started with the large balls, then the ribbon, then the small ornaments, and then I placed the branches last.