Inexpensive Christmas Decorating - Homemade Christmas Wreaths

Each year, I dress my front door and windows with homemade Christmas wreaths using free materials. This is inexpensive Christmas decorating, because I either gather these materials from the woods around my home, or I take a trip to the local home improvement store for free trimmings after they have trimmed their customer's trees. Every home improvement store will gladly give away these free trimmings because it saves them a trip to the garbage dumpster after they trim customer's trees. Don’t have a local home improvement store near your rural community? No problem. Loblolly pine tree branches work just as well for your homemade Christmas wreaths, once you have snipped them up to the size needed.

So, here is a list of what you will need for your homemade Christmas wreaths: wire wreath (Michael’s or other home crafts store), cedar branch leaves, loblolly pine tree leaves, green floral wire (Wal-Mart), wire snippers, and small pruning shears for basic list. Here is a list of optional choices to add festivity to your homemade Christmas wreaths: fragrance oils (visit my blogger for an online, inexpensive fragrance oil store), Christmas ribbons (Wal-Mart), raffia, Christmas ball decorations, acorns, dried orange slices and apple slices (see end of article for how to do this) and door hanger hook (Wal-Mart). See? That is all that is needed for inexpensive Christmas decorating!

First, to start your homemade Christmas wreath, snip each cedar or loblolly leaf about 3 inches in width and gather about 3-4 leaftlest together for 1 looping. Place this grouping on the wire wreath, and then wrap the floral wire around this about 3-4 times tightly. Clip off the end of the wire about 4 inches long in order to tie a knot around the back of the wreath for security, and tie about 3-4 knots, keeping the wire taut as you tie. Now, repeat this process, laying your next section of leaves in at the base of the previously placed leaves on the wreath form in order to hide the wire from view. Continue doing this until the base of the wreath is completely covered.

After the base is done, begin the “fun” part of your homemade Christmas wreaths, the decorations! I use small holly tree branches with the red berries still on. I also use pine cones still on the branches. These 2 items can be easily “tucked” inside the base of the wreath branches without adding anymore wire, if you have bulked up your base sufficiently enough and make sure the holly berry and pine cone branches are long enough to tuck. You can attach Christmas ball decorations (use Christmas tree hooks stretched out to attach to the wire wreath), acorns (using a hot glue gun), grapes, dried apple slices, dried orange slices, the list goes on and on. Visit my other bloggers on this site to learn how to make dried apple and orange slices, as well as other unique, inexpensive Christmas decorating ideas.

After you have finished your homemade Christmas wreaths, you are ready to hang them on your door for a welcoming entrance. Simply place the door hanger hook over the top part of your door and then place the homemade Christmas wreath on the hook, and voila! An inexpensive homemade Christmas decorating project to rival that of any of the more expensive wreaths decorating other homes in your neighborhood.

How to dry orange slices: Preheat oven to 200 degrees. While heating, cut your orange slices in very thin sections. Place on greased cookie sheet flat. Bake for 2 hours. Remove from oven and let cool. When cool, store in dry area (window seal is fine) for about 2 days until ready to "string" with other ingredients.

How to dry apple slices: Preheat oven to 150 degrees. While heating, cut your apple slices in very thin sections. Place on greased cookie sheet flat. Bake for 30 minutes. At the tail end of the process, I like to sprinkle mine with cinnamon (say about the last 5 minutes of cooking). When you add your refresher oil later in the season, the base of the cinnamon "cooked" into the apple slices is really potently revigorated. Remove from oven and let cool. When cool, store in dry area (window seal is fine) for about 2 days until ready to "string" with other ingredients.

You can add a drop or 2 of fragrance oils to your wreaths for holiday ambience. I have found an online store that sells each 1 ounce bottle of fragrance oil for under $5. Simply click on the banner below and enter fragrance oils in the search for box for a list from A-Z, or enter in the individual names such as: pumpkin spice, holiday pine, 7up pound cake, apple cider, vanilla cinnamon, baked bread, amish friendship cake, apple pie, pumpkin pie, and almond biscotti.

Inexpensive Christmas Decorating for your front porch

Every year, my neighbors tell me I have the prettiest front porch in all the neighborhood. My log cabin in the mountains has a covered front and back porch, with wood railings all around. If they only knew the inexpensive Christmas decorating tips I employ, they would not believe it. But it's true. Every year, I only spend the amount of gas it takes to get to my favorite home improvement store once or twice, and a roll of clear, heavy duty fishing line. Home improvement stores like Home Depot and Lowe's will give you the tree trimmings for free, after they have snipped the bottom branches for their customers. Below, discover a great way to decorate your covered porch with these free trimmings.

The first thing you do, after you have gathered your free tree trimmings, is go and find a pine tree with branches that are low enough to cut. Then, take some pruning shears and cut enough branches to lay on top of your wood railings. Make sure the branches are as straight as possible. It will also help if you can get some with the pine cones still on them. Now line them down the wood railing, one by one, end to end. Then take heavy duty fishing line (clear) and wrap around and around the branches, going underneath each railing and coming back over the top of the branches in a criss-cross pattern, until you come to the end of the 1st section of your railing. Then simply tie off the fishing line 3 or 4 times, making sure the line is taut enough to hold down the pine tree limbs.

Next, snip off sections of your tree trimmings and place them underneath the fishing line, tucking around the pine tree limbs. The fishing line acts as a way to hold down the tree trimmings once you have started tucking them under, and the pine tree limbs act as a good base to work the tree trimmigs underneath. But be careful. If you put too much trimming underneath the already taut fishing line, it might snap it, so judge carefully. Also make sure that all the fishing line is covered from view. Use your creativity to see how much tree trimming to use.

After you have finished the base of the tree trimming on the wood railing, it is time to add the finishing touches. I go out into the woods and find holly trees and snip off the green leaves with the red berries still attached, to tuck inside the tree trimmings. Also, additional pine cones are great to tuck in as well, especially spray painted gold. You can add Christmas tree ornaments and leaves from your yard, especially multicolored ones. Acorns are great to tuck inside as well. Another great idea would be purple grapes which would look great against the green colored cedar leaves. Also the birds would enjoy this too.

Don't have a covered porch or wood railing? That's fine. Just decorate your window seals with the tree trimmings. You can simply add all the items inside these as well, the holly berries, acorns, pine cones, grapes, etc. Also, you can add candles in the center of your tree trimmings that you place inside the windows. The candles will be a nice backdrop for your home when you are outside looking in.

This inexpensive Christmas decorating is a great looking rustic way to decorate for the holidays. If you are like me, you enjoy having a Christmas party and inviting the neighborhood children over to help you decorate. They love to go out into the woods and gather all the supplies. How much more inexpensive Christmas decorating can you do for free? It does not get any easier than that. For that touch of Christmas ambience, add a drop or 2 of your favorite Christmas fragrance oil into the branches of the decorations. See below banner for an inexpensive, online fragrance store where each 1 ounce bottle of fragrance oil is under $5!

For more inexpensive Christmas decorating ideas, visit my other blogs posted on this site.