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Mathematician’s online tool cooks up how to decorate the perfect Christmas tree

The tool calculates how many baubles and how many metres of lights you need to have the best dressed tree in town.
The tool calculates how many baubles and how many metres of lights you need to have the best dressed tree in town. The tool calculates how many baubles and how many metres of lights you need to have the best dressed tree in town.

A mathematician has created an online tool to calculate exactly how many baubles are needed for the perfect Christmas tree.

Admiral Home Insurance has teamed up with Cardiff University’s Matthew Leddington to create the tool, which also suggests how many metres of fairy lights are needed.

The handy tool asks users to select the size and shape of their tree and the size of their baubles.

A young child touches a bauble on a Christmas tree
A young child touches a bauble on a Christmas tree Do you want your tree to be minimal, jam-packed or somewhere in between? (Anthony Devlin/PA) (Anthony Devlin/PA Archive/PA Images)

It even gives an option to choose if the tree should be minimal, jam-packed or somewhere in between.

The tool then calculates how many baubles and how many metres of lights you will need to have the best dressed tree in town.

For a 5ft slim tree jam-packed with large baubles, the tool suggests 74 baubles and 12 metres of fairy lights.

Admiral said getting the tree right is important because a TV being damaged when householders are positioning their tree is one of the most common reasons for an insurance claim during the festive period.