Traditional Christmas Wreath Makeover {The look of real greenery}

This post was most recently updated on September 22nd, 2019

Remember how I said I enjoy the creative process of Christmas decorating? Well, really ‘the creative process’ is just a fancy word for ‘fly by the seat of my pants’. I usually have a broad vision, but rarely a well thought-out plan, before I start my Christmas decorating.

In case you were under any illusions that I have some kind of magic formula when it comes to pulling it all together, I present to you Exhibit A. This is what my step looked on Saturday afternoon. When it comes to seasonal decorating, this is how I roll ;-).

And, do you see that plain Jane, oh-so-artificial, wreath on the step?  Well, it’s been kicking around for about 13 years. (That’s like a lot of my wreaths. I’ve learned to never throw away a good wreath form!) It’s about as artificial as it gets. This wreath comes from an era before fake (or “ever-lasting” 😉 ) greenery began to mimic the look of the real stuff.  But the one thing I like about it, which has kept it around all these years, is that it’s big.  It would cost a lot to replace it with a newer one.

It’s gone through many updates over the years. Whenever I get tired of it, or it begins to feel outdated, I just take off the embellishments and start all over again.  I’ve learned the hard way not to glue gun anything to this wreath – wiring or tying on the embellishments makes it so much easier to disassemble!

This year, I knew I wanted to have a big, full traditional Christmas wreath with the look of real greenery; which is a far cry from this old wreath. But I pulled it out of storage anyway, wondering if I could somehow revive it. After the dust settled (one of those popular time-lapse videos would be cool here but I’m just not that technical!),  here’s where I ended up:

 

Want to know how I did it?  It was super easy.  I used a method very similar to the one used to decorate my Christmas mantel last year.  (In case you are interested, you can find the tutorial on how to decorate a traditional Christmas mantel here.) I simply layered premium artificial greenery and fresh cedar over the top of the old artificial wreath.  When I was finished with it, you could barely even see the original layer.

I started by tying a piece of ribbon with a simple knot in 3 spots on the wreath.  Everything that I added to the wreath from there was held by these 3 ties. In this photo, you can see that I first added a 5-ft strand of premium greenery. I just layered it on top and tied it really tightly in those 3 places.

In the same way, I also layered on a strand with red berries, and then real cedar here and there, which you can buy at a local grocery store this time of year. You can really see in the next photo how a few springs of real cedar make all the difference.

 

For a traditional Christmas look, I finished the wreath off with gold and red ribbon. Yes…gold!  I haven’t used gold in my Christmas decorating since about 1999.  But it just goes to show, never say never!  This year, I am loving metallics – even gold – again. Gold is a regal color, but I think the red polka dots help keep it fun rather than formal.

 

Have you created a new Christmas wreath this year?  Is it traditional or modern? I’d love to hear about it!

Until next time,

As usual, I’m sharing this with Beth at…