Making Homemade Holiday Garlands for Your Home

Whatever happened to stringing popcorn and cranberries to hang on the Christmas tree? Like many traditions, this one has gone by the wayside, replaced by commercially made plastic decorations. At one time, Christmas tree ornaments were primarily homemade. People simply couldn't afford or didn't think to buy something from the store.

You can bring back a family tradition and start making homemade holiday garlands for your Christmas tree and home. Not only are they cheap, meaningful and unique, but you will spend time togetheras a family, the most important holiday tradition of all. Making holiday Garlands for your home is a great way bring your family closer during the holiday season.

To start making your own holiday garlands first, gather some materials. Paper, crayons, scissors, aluminum foil, string, yarn, fishing line, and large dull needle or 2 and various treats to string like popcorn, cranberries, gum drops and candies. You may want to use things like glitter, canned snow, sequins, ribbon and other crafty items to give your homemade holiday garland extra sparkle. Craft glue (like Elmer's glue) and a glue stick and scotch tape will be needed to hold it all together.

Paper Chains are fun and easy homemade holiday garlands for even the youngest children to help make. Use colorful construction paper and have an adult cut the paper into strips. Then everyone, young and old can decorate the strips with crayons, glitter and whatever they fancy. For added meaning, have everyone write (help the little ones) something they are thankful for on a strip and include them in the chain.

Stringing popcorn and cranberries as a homemade holiday garland adds color and an element of nature to your Christmas tree or mantle. It is easy to poke your fingers, even with the dull needle, so leave this activity to the older members of the family. Use sturdy fishing line to make sure these homemade holiday garlands hold up.

It's a little more work, but a beautiful homemade holiday garland can be made by tying together pieces of wrapped candy like starlight mints and butterscotch disks. Use short pieces of yarn to tie the candies end to end for a beautiful effect. If you remove the wrapped candies promptly after Christmas, you should be able to eat this homemade holiday garland.

Experiment with things from the kitchen and the garden to see what else you can string into a homemade holiday garland. You may come up with something truly unique and create a family tradition that is yours alone. A homemade holiday garland is a low tech, frugal and meaningful way to decorate your home for Christmas.