Add authenticity and meaning with locally sourced materials as you decorate your home for the holidays this year. These decorations will also make excellent gifts for family and friends.
Evergreens are a natural choice for wreaths, swags and centrepieces and can include pine, spruce, cedar or juniper. Be careful to collect your greens from the base to avoid disfiguring the trees.
Honeysuckle, virginia creeper, clematis, grape vines and dogwood branches also work well to provide a structure for decorating.
My weeping birch offers beautiful pliable branches, laid out on freshly fallen snow just waiting to be formed into wreaths, hearts and swags. You can also use barbed wire, rope or twine for wreaths.
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A kissing ball can have a round potato as its central core. The potato will supply a bit of moisture and, unlike Styrofoam or floral foam, it can be composted along with the greenery after the holidays. Old barn boards are always a popular choice as a backdrop for seasonal decorations.
Cones of all shapes and sizes are a ready resource for decorating your structures. The tiny alder cones are a personal favourite.
Barberry foliage is attractive but like sea buckthorn, must be collected carefully and used with discretion due to its prickly nature. Rose hips can be harvested as well as decorative crabapples and various seed pods. Mountain ash berries are attractive if you can beat the birds to harvest them.
Check your kitchen cabinet for spices such as cinnamon sticks, whole cloves and star anise. Scrounge the barn for feathers, harness bells and horseshoes. Instead of purchased ribbon, try denim, a family tartan, rope or twine.
Grains and grasses have infinite possibilities. All grains such as oats, barley, rye and hollow grasses can be woven but the wheat is the traditional choice.
Wheat weaving can range from simple braids to intricate masterpieces. Wheat should ideally be collected in the dough stage. After drying for a week or two, discard the base to the first joint and re-move leaf sheath. Soak wheat in cold water for about an hour before weaving.
Three, four and six straw plaits or braids form the basis of most projects. This old Scandinavian custom of keeping the goddess of grain alive through the winter should bode well for next year’s harvest.
If you are a quilter, a knitter or one who crochets, quick mini projects can produce unique ornaments and decorations. If you are a baker, experiment with cookie or gingerbread decorations for your tree, mantle or wreaths.
As you create your decorations, you might want to think of their ultimate disposal. If you use twine and other organic materials instead of wire, you can compost your creations.
Celebrate the season in harmony with nature.