Tree lighting in The Woodlands, Texas.

The Woodlands was planned around the forest it sits in, and it shows. In the older villages, such as Grogan's Mill, which opened in 1974, the pines have had decades to reach their full height. They shade the streets, hide the houses from some angles and set the character of the neighborhood.

That makes trees the first design decision for many Woodlands homes. A roofline that is hard to see through a canopy can be supported by two or three wrapped trunks that do the work of defining the house from the street.

The best candidates are the trees nearest the street and the front door: the ones a visitor passes. A pair of wrapped pines flanking the walk gives a house symmetry. A single tall pine at the corner of the lot anchors the whole composition.

Trees at the side or rear of the property can wait for a later season. Because we store and reinstall your set, the display grows without being rebuilt.

Warm white lights show strongly against the dark of a forest at night. A wrapped trunk with trees behind it reads as a column of light on a black ground, which is why even a modest number of wraps looks rich here. The same density of canopy that hides a roof makes the trunks glow.

In heavily shaded yards, we favor larger bulbs on the main roofline so it holds up through the branches, and smaller lights on the trunks.

The Woodlands Township notes that each village has its own village association and its own Residential Design Review Committee, and that the associations are independent of the Township. Whether temporary seasonal decorations need review depends on the village's covenants.

Check yours before you book, and tell us what you find. We can describe the proposed wraps and colors in plain terms for an approval request. Our HOA guide lists the questions to ask.

Picture a two-story brick house under tall pines. A sensible first-year plan lights the front roofline at both levels in warm white, wraps the two pines nearest the street, frames the door with a wreath and garland and edges the walkway. Nothing else. The pines supply the drama, and the lights show it.

If you want to grow the display, add the next pair of trunks or a lit front bed in a later season. The new pieces are cut to match the set we already hold for you, so the second year builds on the first.

Because shade hides some lines, we also look at the house from the road at dusk during the site visit, so the plan reflects what a passer-by will really see rather than what a plan on paper suggests.

Tree wraps are $37 to $42 per strand, ground lighting is $5 per foot and rooflines are $6, $8 or $10 per foot by height. The minimum package is $799. Everything includes installation, free in-season maintenance, removal and storage.