Decorating For Christmas

I don't generally do too much for the holidays. I think, like my mother, that it's kind of depressing to dress everything up only to have to take it down after the new year - especially in the Pacific Northwest where January means even more dreary gray weather. Winter can be trying in this part of the world.

The stores all had Christmas stuff out around St. Patrick's Day this year which was just kind of annoying. Once the calender turned over to December, however, and more and more neighbors started decorating and the Christmas tree farms went into overdrive, well, I caught a little of the holiday bug. I've always liked Christmas lights (which JD kindly offered to hang up for me) and, maybe it's a cliche, but I do like a pretty green wreath hung on a farm gate with the red ribbons blowing in the wind.

I surfed around a little and found instructions at Save On Crafts for making wreaths. I like this one because it instructs you to use coat hangers which are shaped into circles instead of buying specially-made frames. You cover the wire in floral tape and then wire about a million evergreen branches around the frame.

I spent about an hour cutting evergreen branches. Henry tried to help but didn't really understand the goal.

 

Then for about three days (not straight mind you just a couple of hours every day) I wired branches to the coat hangers. I made four altogether and, as I suspected, my handiwork improved as I went along. I cut the branches too long for the first one. On the side that the branches were pointing down, everything looked great. On the other, gravity had it's way with them and they flopped over in a very unattractive manner. I ended up using it for a centerpiece.

The second, which I hung by the front door, was slightly better but the branches were still a bit too long.

 

The third, which adorns the driveway gate was okay but the branches were too sparse. I could have used half again as many and it would have been better. I like the photo, though, with all the frost. That was a couple of weeks ago when it was getting down into single digits at night and the pipes froze! Brrr!

 

The final two, hung at the front gate and on my workroom door turned out the best, I think.

 

  

We have an abundance of evergreen trees here and the other raw materials are inexpensive so I may make more next year and see if I can sell them. There are several u-cut Christmas tree farms nearby so I might be able to take advantage of their traffic. I'll need to practice more and get my technique down. But I'll wait until it warms up a little and stops raining - sometime around July....

What decorating have you done for the holidays? Do you stick to just a tree? Or go all out like the Griswolds?