Decorate Your Home with Nature to Add Festive Cheer

Bringing nature indoors for the holidays is actually a rather old tradition. It’s the motivation behind garlands, live Christmas trees, evergreen wreaths, and other nature-based traditional holiday decorations. In fact, nature celebrations are the basis for some of our major holidays. You can decorate your home with natural materials this year and be both modern and traditional. Here are some ideas.

1. Natural Wreaths

You can buy wreaths made from cut greens, but you can also make your own. In fact, you can make a live wreath by planting a trailing plant, such as English ivy, in a pot. Then wrap the trailing plant around a frame that you have inserted into the pot. Add lights if you like, or berries, nuts, and other natural decorations.

You can also weave your own wreath from cut greens. Wearing sturdy gloves, gather the greens into bunches and wire the bunches at their base. Wire the bunches onto a wire frame, tucking the wired ends in amongst the green branches. If you don’t have a frame, use wire to attach the bunches into a circle.

Weave twigs into small wreaths. Hang these on your Christmas tree or attach them to gifts in lieu of a bow.

Use dried or fresh bay leaves stuck into a craft foam circle to make a scented wreath. Add a few holly leaf bunches, berries, and pine cones to fill in any white areas left showing.

Pine cones can be hot-glued to a circular craft foam frame as well.

2. Garlands

Cut greens make lovely natural garlands. Wire greens directly to your stair handrail or lay them on your mantle. You can hang cut greens over doorways in a swag type of design.

Bay leaves make lovely, scented garlands. If you have a bay laurel shrub, cut some of it to make a garland or wreath. You can also purchase bay leaves in bulk at some markets, but fresh-cut works better for a garland. Using wire, secure bunches of bay leaves to a piece of twine until you have reached the length you like. You can intersperse the bay leaf bunches with dried fruit, pine cones, or other natural objects.

3. Clove Oranges or Apples

This time-honored decoration was sometimes given as a gift. In fact, clove-studded oranges nearly a century old still survive in some museums! Fruits stuck with cloves are called pomanders – oranges, apples, and lemons are typically used. Pomanders are easy to make, and they smell wonderful.

* Using a small knitting needle, skewer, or fork, pierce the fruit all over. Make each hole about 1/4 inch apart. Insert whole, dried cloves into the holes.

* In a paper bag, mix 2 teaspoons each of ground cloves, cinnamon, and nutmeg. If you can find it, add about 1/2 teaspoon of ground orris root to aid drying and preserve the fruit.

* Place the clove-studded fruit into the spice-filled paper bag, shake to coat, and leave in a cool, dry place for a couple of weeks. Shake the pomander daily. If you make more than one, they can be displayed in a bowl or along a mantle.

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