Make a Simple Holiday Wreath in Four Easy Steps

I am not crafty, though I have pretended to be over the years. I've even managed to pick up a few tips to use and throw around at parties to make myself seem crafty. I have the world's longest scarf that was supposed to be a crocheted baby blanket for my daughter, who is now seven. When my friend's mother, an avid crocheter, took a look at the blanket, she laughed and said I would never get anywhere with it. Maybe she's right, but I know that somewhere out there, an 8-foot tall woman in the coldest region of the world is looking for my cream-colored scarf, I mean, baby blanket.

That being said, I have managed to make a holiday wreath for my front door that even the uncraftiest person can make and seriously, it only took me five minutes and, even better, $7. I suppose I should thank my mom for having the faith in me to actually attempt and complete this project but I don't want her to get her hopes up that I will be remodeling my living room any time soon with handmade lampshades and doilies. (That is so her department.) The best part of my wreath-making experiment is that I was able to buy everything I needed at my local Dollar General Store. You laugh but the truth of the matter is that I actually went there to get diapers. When it came to looking at the festive decorations, I only planned to pick up some window clings for the kids to decorate with, and maybe a festive kitchen towel set. I wasn't actually setting out to find the makings of a wreath, but when I get in the Dollar Store, more comes home than I had planned.

I have outlined the steps for making a simple holiday wreath. It's suitable for hanging on any door or wall. I just want to help those, who like myself, are looking for a 12-step program for unfinished craft projects. I did all of this in one evening, after dinner, with three children and one baby underfoot so I know you can, too.

1. Buy your supplies. I was able to pick up a simple, green wreath for $5 and decorative, red, fabric poinsettia flowers and holly as well, each for only $1 (sold in bunches of about 6-8 flowers). If you aren't sure what I mean by the fabric flowers, you can get them anywhere and they come on a wire stem, but you don't always need the wire stem, depending of course on what you are going to use the flowers for. I also found a decent assortment of ribbons, bows, bells, and potpourri, again all for that almighty $1. As I mentioned before, this came to little over $7 with tax. You can pick up as much or as little as you like. I tend to decorate on the simple side so I didn't want to overbuy.

2. Gather your tools. I only needed wire cutters for this project but you can also use a glue gun if you have one handy. Again, it really depends on what you want on your wreath. Some people want festive, smelly ones and for that you would want to purchase some potpourri but I was afraid of being attacked by the scent of pine and cinnamon and so I opted for a simple flowered wreath. Once you have your tools assembled, get an idea of where you want to place your flowers, potpourri, bells, ribbons, or whatever you bought to adorn the wreath with. Place the items on your wreath (before gluing or anything) to get an idea of how it will look and where it will sit on the wreath.

3. Start assembling. This is the fun part. Once you have snipped flowers off of the main bunch and have an idea of where everything will go, you can begin to put the wreath together. I had decided in the beginning not to hot glue anything, for two reasons: 1) if I screw it up, it's glue, and I can't fix that; 2) I thought that somewhere down the road, I might get inclined to change the wreath and decorate it a different way next year so I didn't want anything too permanent. Instead what I decided to do was poke the wire stems through the wreath and then wrap them around so that if I needed to remove them later, I could. I suppose that if you wanted to wrap the stems around the wreath and still glue (to insure that the wreath wouldn't come apart), you could definitely do that. As I went along, I alternated flowers with holly until I had my wreath just right.

4. Ready to Display. Once you've glued, cut and wrapped, you are finally ready to hang your finished holiday wreath. By far the best part is getting to display wreath on your front door so that all who see it can comment on your beautiful (and unique) creation. When they do, you can smile and thank them. I would have to add for anyone that asks that I made the wreath myself but that's just me.

What I liked best about doing this was that it really didn't take me long, (did I mention there were four children underfoot) and I am pretty short on cash so I can't go out and buy a lavishly decorated wreath, which is what I would've normally done. Don't get me wrong, I did shop for one, but I didn't see anything I liked. Now that I have this one on my door, I see it and think; that's exactly the kind I was looking for. As I think about the wreath, I am coming up with new and different options for decorating next year. Who knows, maybe next year, I will get brave with the glue gun and make another holiday wreath.