Something about “today there’s a chinook and you better get out and take advantage of the warm weather by decorating a big tree” How do you get those balls on the tree when you only have a small ladder? My solution is to use copper wire to make the hook, and a long stick. The copper wire is just flexible enough to hold and grab the branch while not deforming. Number 16 gauge perfect but the most common is household wire being solid 14 gauge copper wire
Don’t have any copper wire laying about? Join the recycle economy: Just ask your local electrician for some “wire trimmings”, or a street scrapper. You’ll find street-level scrappers dumpster diving in any town or city. These people make a living by taking what others throw away and turning it into Cash. As of today bare bright copper stands at $2.70 a pound at the scrap yard but very few yards sell what they collect from street level scrappers. Don’t ask me why I don’t know.
Hopefully that wind doesn’t blow all the decorations off before Christmas.