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Here are a few lighting tips from the landscape architects responsible for the design of the NCC’s spectacular Christmas lights display. More than 300,000 lights illuminate over 70 sites along Confederation Boulevard, to brighten the holiday season in the Capital region!
Choosing Your Colour Combinations
- Let your imagination run wild! The most effective and vivid colours are green, red and copper.
- Most effective combinations: blue-green (pleasant and subdued) and red-green (symbolizes Christmas).
- Other interesting combinations: blue-red, mauve-blue, copper-mauve, copper-red.
- Deciduous trees: use no more than three colours.
- Coniferous trees: use no more than five colours.
- When using different colours of lights on one tree, install the colours in consistent combinations; for example, when using green-mauve-blue, every third socket should be the same colour.
- Whenever possible, avoid using white in a colour combination. The eye tends to see only the white, and accompanying colours are diluted and may lose their richness. If you are going to use white, it is best to use it on its own.
- Try to match colours with architectural surroundings and other sources of light.
Installing Your Lights
- When you decorate a tree or shrub, try to highlight its natural grace and beauty. Work with the natural shape of growth and avoid straight lines and regular patterns when decorating.
- Use a ladder, stepladder or extension pole appropriate to the size of the trees you intend to decorate. DO NOT CLIMB THE BRANCHES, AND BE SURE TO HAVE SOMEONE HOLD THE LADDER FOR YOU.
- Divide the tree or shrub into manageable parts. Begin at the top and work randomly downward, moving from the inside to the outside of the tree and back again, following the natural sweep of the branches.
- Connect the strings to extension cords (ensure they are CSA-approved and marked for the appropriate wattage), tape together and plug into the selected outdoor circuit.
- A timer can help you avoid competing for energy at the peak hours of demand, and can also prevent dangerous overheating.
- Finally, respect the tree you are decorating as a living thing and remember that frozen branches break easily when handled roughly.
For general information on the use and installation of Christmas light bulbs, please contact your local hardware store.
