The first Christmas in this house, I spent a whole Saturday afternoon on one banister. Not arranging it. Untangling. I had a plain garland, the kind you fluff out of a bag, and a string of lights I had wound through it the year before and stuffed back into the same bag. Somewhere in that bag the two had married each other. I pulled and the lights held. I picked and a branch tip came off in my hand. By the time I had the mess laid out on the floor, the afternoon was gone and I had not hung anything yet.
Two Christmases ago I stopped doing that. I bought one pre-lit garland, the National Tree Company Crestwood Spruce, nine feet long, and I have not wound a light string through a garland since. It lives on the banister in our front hall. That is the only place it goes, and that is part of why it works. Here are ten reasons the pre-lit version is easier than the do-it-yourself version, in the order I actually noticed them.
The garland that ends the untangling afternoon
Nine feet, fifty lights already set in the branches, and it runs on batteries, so the staircase does not need an outlet. That is the whole reason this one is on my stairs.
Amazon Check Today's Price on Amazon →The lights are already in it, so the job starts with hanging
This is the whole thing, really. With my old setup, the first hour went to untangling and the second hour went to winding lights through branches that fought back. With this garland, I open the box, fluff the branches, and carry it to the stairs. Fifty lights are already set into it at the factory. Nobody had to wind anything. I have hung this garland on the banister in under fifteen minutes, start to finish, ties and all.
It runs on three AA batteries, so the staircase does not need an outlet
Our staircase has no outlet anywhere near it. Not one. The nearest is across the hall by the front door, and I was not going to run an extension cord across the hall floor for six weeks so somebody could trip on it. This garland takes three AA batteries, so it goes where I want it and the cord question never comes up. The battery box tucks behind the bottom post, out of sight.
Fifty lights over nine feet reads as lit from the front door
I have seen garlands so loaded with bulbs that they look like a landing strip, and I have seen the other kind, where the lights get lost in the branches and you cannot tell it is lit from three feet away. Fifty lights over nine feet sits in the middle. Coming in out of the cold, the banister reads as lit. It is a soft light, not a spotlight, which is what I want in a hallway.
The silver glitter tips catch the light at dusk
The branch tips are finished with shimmering silver glitter, and it does catch whatever light is in the room. Turn this garland on at dusk and the whole thing picks up a shimmer without a single ornament on it. That said, the first time it comes out of storage each year it drops a light dusting of glitter on the floor. I keep a dustpan nearby and I do not wear a dark sweater while I hang it.
Over a hundred branch tips makes it look full instead of stringy
My old plain garland was thin in spots. You could see the wire through it, and no amount of fluffing fixed that. This one has over a hundred individually crafted branch tips, and when I open it up by hand it reads full from the top step as well as from the floor. Full matters more than long. A garland that is long and skimpy looks cheap from every angle, and you cannot hang your way out of skimpy.
At 2.8 pounds, I can hang it myself
I do all the decorating in this house. Gary carries the boxes up from the basement and that is the end of his involvement. This garland weighs 2.8 pounds, so it is a one-person job. I drape one end over the newel post, work my way up the banister, and tie as I go. Nothing sags, nothing pulls loose, and I do not need a second set of hands holding the far end while I get a tie around the rail.
Soft fabric ties hold it with no nails, no tape, no staples
I cut short lengths of soft fabric tie, the kind you would use on a curtain, and wrap them around the banister and through the garland's own branches. They come off in January without a mark on the wood. No adhesive hooks peeling paint in July. No staples. The National Tree Company garland is light enough that it does not need anything stronger, which is another quiet advantage over a plain garland with a light string wrapped through it, since the string is usually the part that makes a garland want to slide.
Nine feet covers the run of a standard banister
Our banister is a normal two-story run, and nine feet fills it with a couple of feet left over to swag at the bottom post. That leftover is where I tie the bow. If your rail is longer than mine, you buy two, and that is really the only measurement that matters before you order. Run a cloth tape along the top of the rail, add two feet, and you will have enough without guessing.
It packs down into one small space and lives on a shelf
One garland means one thing to store. I coil it back the way it came, tuck the ends in, and set it on the basement shelf next to the tree box. It is not a plastic bin operation. Compare that to a plain garland plus a separate light string, which is two things to find in November and two things that will have knotted themselves together by the time you do. I made that mistake for a decade and I am not going back to it.
Two seasons in, nothing has broken
This is the second Christmas for mine. Every light that worked the first year worked the second. The branch tips are all still attached. The silver glitter is thinner than it was, which I expected. What I did not expect is that the thing would still look the way it did that first December, because most of what I buy for the holidays does not. One honest note from the National Tree Company listing: there is no manufacturer warranty, so treat it like something you want to last rather than something you can get replaced.
Two seasons, fifty lights, three AA batteries a year, and I have not wound a single light string through a garland since.
What I'd Skip
Here is what I would not do again. I would not buy a plain garland and a separate string of lights and call it the cheaper route, because it stops being cheaper the first time you count the afternoon it costs you, twice a year, for as long as you own it.
Two other things I would skip. I would not buy two garlands for one banister without measuring the rail first, because nine feet went further than I expected and a second one would have sat in a box. And I would not expect the glitter to stay put forever. Mine is thinner in its second season, so if a heavy glitter finish is the reason you are buying it, buy it knowing it leaves a little behind each year.
One more, and this is the boring one. If your staircase already has an outlet within reach of the rail and you like a longer light run than fifty bulbs, this is not the garland for you, and that is fine. Battery power and the lower light count are the trade I made for not running a cord, and I would make it again.
Fifteen minutes on the stairs instead of an afternoon on the floor
Nine feet, over a hundred branch tips, fifty lights already in place. It goes on the banister in the front hall and it comes back off in January without a mark. That is the trade I made, and I would make it again.
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