#1 - How to Take Great Christmas Tree Photos

I've come across several informative blogs over the last few months on how to get those gorgeous photos of your Christmas tree.  You know the ones, where it looks like your tree is glowing with all of the lights.

The first Pinterest link I found took me to this post on UnskinnyBoppy.  Beth gives some great tips on how to get the beautiful Christmas tree photos we all dream of.  Here are the instructions she gives:
- Turn the ISO up as high as it will go (3200 for her camera).
- Find a way to stabalize your camera, using either a tripod or a piece of furniture that you can rest your camera on.  It must stay 100% still in order to get a clear picture.
- Focus your photo on the tree, then crank the shutter speed down to around 1/30.
- Take your photo.

The photo she got was absolutely beautiful (you can view it on her blog).  Here was the photo I ended up with:

I had my ISO set at 3200, my shutter speed at 1/25, and my aperture at F3.5.  I also opted to make sure that all other lighting in the room was turned off.  And one tip I highly recommend to ensure that your camera doesn't move while snapping the photo - utilize your in-camera timer.  Even if it's only a 2-second delay, it can make a difference in the little shake that you make get by pushing the shutter release yourself.

Here is another photo I took later that evening as it got darker.  I also changed the settings up just slightly to see what kind of effect it would have...

On this one, I still left my ISO and aperture the same, but I changed my shutter speed to 1/40.  I think I like the impact of the first shot better.  Do you have any tips for taking great Christmas tree photos?  Share them here!