Hard to tell without knowing what look you are goin g for.
My MO when doing a tree is always clear lights.....the color comes from the ornaments....once I tossed all the multicolored lights my trees got lots more like I wanted.
The themed trees, like the one with antique scrap and old tiny German glass ornaments is easy, I just spread stuff evenly being careful not to put similar stuff next to each other. And the kitchen tree with the straw and Navajo and Pueblo ornaments is a little harder....but I just hang stuff on the ends of the branches, smaller stuff near the top and larger near the bottom.
BUT the big tree in the family room has other "rules".
Again white lights...lots and lots of them....about 1000 on a 7 foot tree. Then I hang the large balls, the ones grapefruit sized and larger near the center of the tree so it glows from within. Then the other stuff larger on the bottom and smaller near the top.....and finally smaller stuff on the ends of the branches, with a "focal" ornament on every side....like a large Radko Santa.
The pickle is well hidden and then I drape it with glass bead garlands.....and pour another glass of wine and sit and admire it.

Can you show us photos of the trees from last year?

So much depends on the look you want. I tend to like an overloaded tree, so we use lots of white lights, lots of ornaments, ribbon garland and bead garland. We size the ornaments up the tree as LindaC described. We also put reflective ornaments deep into the tree as well as on the edges.

Actually, I think you answered your own question. Twice you admit to being OCD so I think whatever you do, you will be fussing and fixing and seeing all the spots and errors and always think it could be tweaked just a bit more.

You admire trees at other houses because it's not your tree or your house so your OCDness doesn't come into play. You need to learn that response to your own trees. Take in the big picture of a pretty tree and don't get hung up on exactly where each ornament lands.

I say try the willy-nilly way. What do you have to lose but a few hours of time if it turns out you can't live with it and you have to re-do?

Go ahead, relax, give it a go, and know that everyone else is just seeing a beautifully decorated tree.

Loved your post, hhireno.

I am OCD about my tree- I'm never done with it, keep changing it around and fussing over it.

My solution has been to,if I can, get someone else in the family to decorate it! One year my teenage son and his girlfriend decorated it- they took about 1/10 of the time I take- it wasn't "perfect", but I was able to let it go because I didn't do it.

Just another alternative to think about.

One year I was re-adjusting the lights at about 1 am, standing up on a chair. I actually pulled the tree down on myself and was lying on the floor pinned by the Christmas tree! (Do I sound completely crazy by now?) The really pathetic part is that the water spilled on me, and if I hadn't unplugged it, I probably would have been electrocuted!

Thank you!!!

I just stopped real quick to read the replies, I will be back to write a real response.

Hhireno, I think you nailed it!! I would never even think of adjusting someone else's tree nor did I even ever want to.

And Nancybee------sooooooo happy you lived to tell the story, you sound as bad as me. :o) Your post literally made me laugh out loud.

Be back in a bit. :o)

I started liking my tree better when I began to put more stuff on that was not discrete ornaments or individual lights, such as picks, bows, wired ribbon, fronds, wire-feathers, twists of fine netting, etc. To me this stuff seems to bridge the gap between the tree and the ornaments and make it more cohesive. Also, I use a real tree and sometimes I want longer boughs here or there where nature didn't put them. So I extend the bows with the picks.

My tree trimming technique came from years of training by an OCD mother - her basic rules:

You can never have too many lights or ornaments.

1)Lots and lots and lots of white lights, wrapped around the branches rather then pushed in between them. It's a major PITA - I take a day just doing lights - but it's gorgeous.

2) Hang ornaments all along the branches, not just the ends. That fills any gaps between the branches from different angles. Especially hang big shiny glass balls close in to the trunk to reflect the lights.

But now that I have two very naughty young cats, I won't be doing a Christmas tree until they are either too old and/or fat to be interested in the big shiny new toy in the living room!

>^..^^..^