We all love a warm welcome at Christmas and one of the best ways to offer that to your December guests is with a traditional Christmas wreath. Thousands of beautiful natural wreaths are sold across Europe and the USA during the Holiday Season, incorporating winter foliage, colourful berries and decorative adornments. What you may not know is that that beauty can be recreated by your own hand. Today we’re going to explain how you can capture that Xmas warmth by making a DIY Christmas wreath to wow your guests and add a homemade touch to your Christmas decorations.
What you will need:
- Twine, florist string or wire
- Secatears
- Strong wire or willow branches
- Christmas Foiliage (for example pine, ivy, holly, spruce or conifer are the most traditional choices)
- Additional Christmas decorations
Step 1: Choose a theme
As you can see from this guide from over at Good Housekeeping there are almost hundreds of varieties of wreath using natural plants and traditional holiday decorations that you can make. Maybe you want to stick to a classic wreath design or try something new and original. As usual it’s completely up to you how you approach the theme.
Step 2: Select your base
The first thing any wreath needs is a good supporting base for your foliage. We recommend using a sturdy base made of wire or good quality flexible wood branches like willow measuring about 1 metre in length. If you’re feeling a bit more makeshift you could however, use a metal coat hanger and create a wreath ring from that. All you need to to is fashion a ring shape by bending the branches or wire.
Step 3: Start adding the foliage
If you’re making a natural wreath then now is the time to start adding your greenery. There are a couple of ways to approach this. You could start with a layer of moss or just get stuck in with the branches. You the branches stems tightly to your ring with string or florists wire. Go round once to add a first layer and then if it’s still looking a bit sparse you can add a small second layer of your primary foliage to give yourself a bushier coverage initially (although don’t worry about it just yet, as you’ll be adding more greenery in the next step too). Don’t worry if it seems a bit uneven at this point. You can always trim the loose ends when the greenery has been properly filled in.
Step 4: Thicken up the greenery
Once you’ve added your base layer of your chosen foliage, you can start to add in any accompanying secondary greenery to make your wreath nice and thick and Christmassy. It doesn’t have to be just greenery, you can also add other Christmas favourites like mistletoe, red and yellow winter berries, pine cones or even a few flowers. Be sure to trim the edges for any sticking out parts so that the wreath carries a constant symmetry and shape all the way around. For the best results it’s a good idea to place your berry and colour contrasting accompaniments at even points around the base, at 12 o clock, 3 o clock, 6 o clock and 9 o clock on the face of the wreath.
Step 5: Add any final touches to your design
Once you’re happy with the greenery you can start to add your other decorations. These could be baubles, ribbons, pinecones, or even small toys. If you want to try something a little more aromatic you could also try adding on some cinnamon sticks. All you need to do is fix them around the wreath with florist wire or string to keep them from falling off. Also, if you’re feeling a little more technical you could also add some string lights for a little extra Christmassy warmth to greet your visitors with.
Step 6: Hang your wreath
This step will depend on where and how you want to hang your wreath. As a hanging implement you could of course use any left over string or ribbon to hang it. Or alternatively you could also fashion your own hanging hook from your base materials.
Once your hard work is complete, you can finally stand back and enjoy the fruits of your labour.
A wreath can have many different uses in your Christmas decorations. Of course you can hang it on your door as many people do. You can also add a couple of extra steps to add candles and it can easily function as a pleasant Christmas centrepiece. Will you try and make your own Christmas wreath this year? Tell us in the comments.
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