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How-to Wrap a Merry Christmas Wreath

x3xsolxdierx3x | Oct 8, 2009 | Views: 235 |

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Amongst all the many symbols of the holiday season, the Christmas wreath has a long and valued history that many people have fully embraced. Whether they are aware of this history, or not, people's willingness to display Christmas wreathes has clearly dominated a season that is jam-packed with fun, festive, traditions. An evergreen's strength and power to endure even the most harsh winters make it a perfect symbol of the holidays, and compel people to include wreath making in their wintertime festivities.

Piled high in several monstrous, yet overfilled boxes of Christmas decorations, a few weeks before Christmas, my household is guaranteed to remove all the merry Christmas wreathes that we have used repetitively for years and years. This year, however, in accordance with my instructions put forth in this Info Barrel article, I am determined to make and wrap my very merry Christmas wreath for a variety of reasons.

While it is surely tempting to purchase an evergreen Merry Christmas wreath, there is a certain degree of fun and enjoyment that can be derived from engaging in this festive activity project. Whether alone, or with family and friends, you can also involve your children in this project, as well as, possibly consider making one for a Sunday school class at your nearby church. Merry Christmas wreaths are ultimately a very easy and inexpensive thing to make, and, by making your own, you will ensure that it is fresh and will last for the entire winter season.

Things You Will Need

a Metal or Plastic Wreath Frame (a metal clothes' hanger can be used, however, it will not provide quite the support that a purchased metal or plastic wreath frame will afford you.)
Wire Cutters
Pruning Sheers
Green Christmas Floral Wire
Gloves for Gardening

Step 1 Just like many of my "How-to" Info Barrel articles, I typically begin my first step with emphasizing the importance of assembling, and inventorying, all your equipment. Without each item, you will be unable to make a great Merry Christmas wreath that embodies newness, strength and life. Unfortunately, while many people will have these items laying around their home already, you may have to consider making a trip out to your local Home Depot or Lowe's in order to retrieve some of the items that you are missing.
Step 2 Once you have assembled all your equipment and chosen an open space to begin crafting your Merry Christmas wreath masterpiece, it is important to pick your favorite greenery. While evergreens are typically synonymous with the winter season, and this wreath making process, you do have several legitimate types of greenery that you can use. The science of this process can emerge because each type of greenery can present you with a slightly different look, and feel. Even though some people have their favorites already, the best and most practical thing to do, especially for someone who is new to Merry Christmas wreath making, is to simply use whatever evergreen greenery is available to them.

If you are very passionate about this process, you can use any greenery ranging from Junipers to Mountain Laurels and Rhododendrons. This list of potential greenery, by no means, stops there. For indoor wreath hanging, firs are actually very tolerant of conditions inside your house, or wherever you wish to ultimately hang your Merry Christmas wreath. With flat, small, needles, hemlocks are a type of greenery that, as opposed to firs, one may want to consider hanging outside their house because of how quickly they shed their needles. This can easily become quite a mess if you were to hang hemlock wreath greenery inside your house.
Step 3 While you may already know which greenery you would like, prior to beginning your project, this step actually goes in hand with step 2. Unfortunately, many people immediately make a mistake when handling their greenery that can ultimately place their Merry Christmas wreath making endeavors in jeopardy. It is important for one to know that greenery must be handled with care. Whether you are purchasing your greenery, or extracting it from your beautiful acres of landscape outside your own home, you should always take great care to not damage the plant.

Whatever greenery that you choose to harvest for your Merry Christmas wreath project, it is important that you prune the branches evenly, and only take a little greenery sampling from each plant. Doing this will make it easier for the plant to revive itself. Unfortunately, many people will harvest greenery without really knowing what they are harvesting. I highly recommend either obtain a book about evergreen species, or doing a simple google search. By doing this, you can obtain pictures that you can use to help you identify what particular evergreen species are outside in your own backyard.
Step 4 Throughout the harvesting step, throughout your assembly of your Merry Christmas wreath, it is important that you always wear gloves in the handling of your greenery. Even though you may initially begin by not wearing gloves, the uncomfortable, prickly, feel that can immediately originate from the handling of evergreens will probably make it somewhat of an inconvenience to proceed without gloves on, anyway.

Once you have compiled all your greenery, and other needed project materials, into one centralized workplace, you can begin this Merry Christmas wreath making project by preparing your greenery. Each piece of your greenery should be between 6 to 8 inches in length. This length is ideal because both a short length, and a long length, can manifest in a way that is really quite unappealling in a final product. If your greenery is to long it can have an immediate 'shaggy' look to it that you will absolutely want to avoid.
Step 5 With one end of your metal, or plastic, Merry Christmas wreath frame in hand, you should take your metal spool of floral wire and begin to attach it to the crossbar of your frame. You can use tape to attach your floral wire, to your frame, if you would like to.
Step 6 In this step, it is important to know that a well-constructed Merry Christmas wreath typically has several layers of greenery, of varying lengths, that will be added to your wire frame in somewhat of a systematic manner. Your first layer of greenery should actually be longer that layers that immediately follow simply because you will want your first layer to evenly protrude from your wreath frame.

When adding your first series of greenery, you should take a handful of several pieces of greenery and immediately lay them on your already begun Merry Christmas wreath form. In every layer of greenery that you add, you should always ensure that your needles face up, because your final product wreath won't look quite right if you don't do it this way. When your greenery is successfully laid on your form, you should begin wrapping your wire, around the stems, several times. When you do this, do not cut the wire because it will be important for your wire to stay intact for the secure addition of your next layer of greenery.
Step 7 With the stems facing the same exact way, in this step you will do essentially everything you did in Step 6. Because this is your second layer, you will want to make sure that your greenery is somewhat staggered in it's placement amongst your first layer of greenery. Once you have completed adding all your greenery to your Merry Christmas wreath frame, you can proceed to make sure that all your wire is tight and secure around your greenery.
Step 8 When completing your Merry Christmas wreath, it is important that you utilize your greenery really quite liberally when applying it to your frame. You ultimately want your frame to be completely covered with greenery, because any frame left exposed will really make your wreath look quite cheesy and unappealling. When you have reaching your starting point, you should attach the last bundle of greenery underneath the first springs, and tie off the wire and cut it. Fortunately, there are many YouTube videos currently available that will show you these written steps, however combined with a visual representation of how to proceed. You may find these videos beneficial as your proceed to conquer your Merry Christmas wreath making endeavors!

Regardless of your religious affiliation or culture, learning how to make and wrap a merry Christmas wreath can be a fun-filled activity for you to engage in with both your family and friends. Synonymous with the holidays, Christmas wreaths are so appealing because of the way they inherently convey a subtle strength when faced with the harshness of winter. While those who live in Northern regions may be able to understand brutal snow, and frigid temperatures, making Christmas wreaths is, in no way, an activity that is just limited to them. In fact, Christmas wreathes have become such a staple of the winter holiday season, that people's desire to make them transcend their own location and residence.