How to Make a Christmas Wreath

Making a wreath is one of those nice Christmassy jobs I enjoy every December.  I love the excuse to go for a nice cold walk and collect bits of wilderness, then coming home and taming the wilderness into something beautiful.  It is very easy to do and looks so jolly on the front door, and will cost you very little, if anything, and will be a delicious cold-afternoon sort of project.

You will need:

Bits and pieces of wilderness (see below for details)

Thin wire

Optional gold spray paint

Large ribbon or bow

Go for a walk and collect some holly (imagine if you were going to hold it in your arms (don't), you need about an arm-bundle's-worth).  Look for long slim stems with leaves all the way up them, as well as a few smaller stems with just a few leaves at the end.  You might also collect long strands of ivy, fronds of pine, fern or bracken, rosehips or other berries and pinecones.

A wreath is easiest to make if you have a base to build upon.  You could make your own from thin branches of willow like mine, or use an old coat-hanger bent into a circle.

Start by tying two of the long holly stems to your base with the wire.  Wind the wire round the holly and the base in a spiral, coaxing the stems to the shape of the base.  Add another two stems when the first two are finished and continue until you reach the beginning again.

Go round with a couple more of the long stems, winding them through the wire and the other stems, until the wreath starts to look fairly fat.  Use the smaller stems to fill in any gaps, then add the berries and pinecone-y bits.

I have some teeny tiny pinecones on bits of wire, which I have sprayed gold and re-use every year.  They are very cute.

Make a bow in the ribbon and attach it to the wreath with a piece of wire.

Hang on the door and admire!