How to Make a Christmas Wreath on a Budget

The economy has impacted so much of our daily lives, and Christmas is no different. During this Christmas more people are going to be looking for more homemade gift and decoration ideas than previous years. If you are on a Christmas budget this year, think about making some of your Christmas decorations from scratch, like the Christmas wreath. A Christmas wreath can be made at your own house using everyday materials and can be a fun addition to your house. If you are looking for an idea for a homemade Christmas wreath, the wire coat hanger idea is a great one.

The first thing you are going to need for your homemade coat hanger wreath is a wire coat hanger. You can use the wire coat hangers you might have in your house or you can go out an buy colored-wire coat hangers, or even metal frames in the shape of a wreath. If you use a coat hanger, you will have to undo the area where it connects so that you can bend the coat hanger into a circle shape. You can get the metal-frame that is already in a circle if you do not want to try to bend a coat hanger yourself, and it will only cost you about 3 or 4 dollars at your local craft store. Also, for the homemade wreath be sure to have scissors, fabric scissors, glue or a hot-glue gun, and some yarn or other cheap materials such as fabric.

Once you have the metal-framed wire or the coat hanger in the circular shape, you can then glue or hot-glue the two ends together so the circular shape will stay intact. Now, look around your home or at the materials you have collected to see what you can use to make a covering for the wire or metal. If you have yarn or knitting fabric around the house, you could use red and green or gold and silver to make a very Christmas-colored wreath. If you have some old clothes lying around such as a red and green scarf or a pair of festive socks, you can use these materials to make the covering for the wire wreath. Once you have found the materials you want to use to make the covering for the wreath, you can either tie the materials onto the metal or wire hanger or use a hot-glue gun to get the materials to stay. A quick tip to make your Christmas wreath very desirable is to use many colors or alternate the colors used on the covering for the wreath. If you have red, green, and gold materials you can alternate one of each making a pattern so that your Christmas wreath will shine and sparkle with the alternating color choices. If you do not have fabric around your house, this would be the time to hit the sales at the local fabric and craft stores. You would only need about a yard of fabric so check out the local clearance racks to see what materials are on sale. Generally, materials that are smaller or that the store does not have a lot of yardage in will be the cheaper fabrics. If you see materials you like but do not think you have enough of that fabric, pick up some other colors as well that are on sale so you can alternate the color patterns on the wreath.

After your wreath has been successfully covered with the material and fabric you like and you have glued the fabric to the coat hanger, you can add some decorations. Adding decorations to your Christmas wreath can be very easy and fun and a great experience for everyone in the family to get involved in. You can go around your house looking for broken items such as a Christmas coffee cup or some pretty glass and incorporate this into your decorating. You can also go around the house collecting various colors of beads and buttons that you can glue onto your wreath. I would suggest that you hot-glue buttons, beads, and other small decoration items onto the wreath to ensure no pets or children will stumble upon them if they fall off the wreath. It would be a great idea to also incorporate a pine cone from outside onto your wreath by gluing it on also and then adding some cotton balls around the wreath to make it look like snow. The decorating of your wreath can be done just by using household everyday items or clothing accessories and can add a lot of charm to the wreath and also speak a lot about your house. If you have some earrings that are Christmas related you can simply push the earring into the fabric so that when you take down the wreath you will still have your earrings you can wear. You can add the decorations onto the wreath close together or further apart depending on your decoration preferences and you can also use glue or a hot-glue gun as well as bread ties to keep your decorations in place on the wreath. Once you have added all your decorations you want onto your wreath, you can then hang your wreath with just a simple nail or hook into your wall because the wire coat hanger should be steady on the nail. If you prefer you can add a hook onto the back of the Christmas wreath using a hot-glue gun and then hang it up on a nail that way. Either way you go, the wire coat hanger or metal frame is a great way to keep the Christmas spirit while still being on a budget. The most important thing about the wire coat hanger Christmas wreath is to look around your home and do not limit the possible decoration ideas that you have, because the hanger should represent you and your home and is only limited to your creativity.