This year, we spent Thanksgiving in beautiful Vermont with friends and family – what could be better! We even had a little snow and nice crisp, cold weather. Perfect!
On the Friday after Thanksgiving, the kids (well they aren’t kids anymore) went for a walk through the woods in search of interesting greens, seed pods, dried flowers, berries, and anything else that they could use to create some wreaths for holiday decorations.
I wish I had been around to go with them. They had a great time and came back with a really neat collection of plant material that they found throughout the fields and woods. When I got home, their gatherings were all spread out on the floor of the screened porch and they were in the midst of creating some beautiful wreaths.
Here are a few of the things they collected:
- Grapevines to make the wreath forms
- Hemlock and spruce cuttings
- Christmas fern fronds
- Dried flowers and seedpods
- Bright red sumac fruit clusters
- Wild barberry branches with their oval red berries
- Crabapple branches with fruit
- Twigs from beech trees with leaves still attached
Mitchell made grapevine wreath forms while Melissa and Mitchell’s friend, Diantha, embellished them with the greens and other colorful things they had clipped on their walk.
They did it all without wire, glue, or any other “man-made” stuff; just shears and lots of imagination. These beautiful wreaths were truly “all natural”. They simply wove and tucked!
Mitchell wound the lengths of grapevine into various sized wreath forms; 2 large ones and 2 little ones. You can make the form any size you like and after you wind it to the thickness that you want, simply cut grapevine and tuck the end in. Once that’s accomplished, it’s just a matter of choosing what to decorate it with.
Take a walk through your gardens, through the fields, and through the woods. You’ll be surprised at all the interesting things you can gather to decorate with. The dried flower heads of coneflowers, Rudbeckia and Monarda make great wreath decorations. Dried hydrangea flowers and wildflowers like goldenrod, milkweed, and teasel will add fullness to your grapevine wreath. For bright color, tuck in some clusters of winterberry twigs with their bright red berries or branches of purple Callicarpa (beautyberry) berries. There is no end to the interesting “ornaments” that Mother Nature provides.
Try making your own natural wreaths this holiday season. It’s a fun family craft project for a beautiful winter weekend!
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