Tree and landscape Christmas lighting in Atlanta

The photo above shows a single tall trunk wrapped in warm-white mini lights at dusk. The spiral starts at the ground and climbs at a steady interval to the first fork, and the result reads as a pillar rather than a string. That steadiness takes a plan: we measure the trunk, work out how much strand the height and spacing require, and start and end cleanly rather than bunching extra at the top.

A single wrapped trunk beside the front walk is one of the best values in holiday lighting. It adds a vertical accent that balances a long horizontal roofline, and on houses whose roofs are hard to reach or hard to see, it can carry the design on its own.

Estate lots in Johns Creek and Alpharetta, and the larger lots in Buckhead, Sandy Springs, and parts of Druid Hills, often put big hardwoods between the house and the street. That changes the design. A roofline set far back behind trees may be only partly visible, while the trunks closest to the road are what people actually see. The hillside home pictured pairs a lit roofline with two fully wrapped trees in the front yard, and the trees carry as much of the display as the house does.

On these lots we walk the yard with the view from the street in mind and choose trees that frame the house rather than block it. Farther north, in Cumming and the wooded edges of Roswell, the front yard may be a stand of tall pines and hardwoods left from the original woods. There, two or three trunks near the drive, wrapped to the same height, usually do more than trying to light the whole stand.

A brick home with a pair of wrapped trunks in front, like the one pictured, shows how trees can work as bookends. Two trunks, wrapped to the same height with the same spacing, frame the facade and give a symmetrical house a symmetrical display. On a colonial or Georgian with a centered door, this can be more elegant than adding more light to the roof.

In smaller intown yards in Decatur or Virginia-Highland, a single street tree or a pair of dogwoods may be all there is room for, and a careful wrap on one tree is often enough.

The low layer is easy to overdo. A few well-placed shrubs wrapped in mini lights, and a clean line of edge lights along the drive, do more than a lawn full of stakes. The stucco home pictured uses exactly that: lit shrubs at the front, driveway edge lights at dusk, and nothing on the roof.

Landscape lighting pairs naturally with wreaths and garland at the door. When the season ends, the strands come down with everything else during January takedown, coiled and labeled by tree.