DECORATIONS YOU CAN MAKE WITH EVERGREENS

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Christmas decorating with fresh evergreens is one of the most classic and elegant ways to get in the holiday spirit. There are so many ways you can use evergreen boughs, each more lovely than the last. We’ve pulled together three ideas that we think are gorgeous—two for decorating with evergreens outdoors and one for indoor evergreen decor. Dress up your Indianapolis home with these fun evergreen crafts! 

1. EVERGREEN CHRISTMAS DOOR SWAG

Door swags are a popular alternative to wreaths, and they’re quite simple to make. You can fully customize them by varying the size, choosing different types of evergreen boughs, and selecting the accessories you use. You can use a variety of different evergreens or stick with one type for your swag. 

What you’ll need:

• A bundle of evergreen boughs 2-4’ long

• 24 gauge floral wire

• Wire cutters

• Pruners/trimmers

• Ribbon & decor accessories

Lay your branches out, creating a teardrop shape. Lay the longest ones on the bottom, then medium length, then shortest on top. The stems should all line up at the top center. 

Wrap the biggest two stems securely together with floral wire. Don’t cut your wire. Choose your next branch, wrap the wire tightly around it a couple of times, and then wrap it tightly with the first bundle. Keep adding more stems, wrapping the wire tightly around each stem a couple of times, and then around the larger wired bunch. 

Keep adding stems and wrapping with wire until you have the whole set of branches secured together. Check how heavy it’s getting; you don’t want it to fall off your door! Give the wire a few more tight wraps around the whole bunch for good measure. 

Cut the wire (do not use your pruners/trimmers, use a proper wire cutter), giving yourself 3-4 inches to work with. Secure it by tucking it in and wrapping it around a few other strands of wire several times. Add a bow, or another large seasonal piece, at the top to hide the wire, and then add any other accessories you like. Create a hanging loop from several strands of wire and hang up your swag on a wreath hanger. 

Finally, stand back and have a look at your swag. Use your trimmers to even out any pieces for a balanced look.

2. EVERGREEN & CRANBERRY JARS WITH FLOATING CANDLES

These decorative jars are super fast to throw together, and they're a beautiful way to feature evergreens indoors with minimal needle cleanup. 

Using evergreens indoors can be a challenge since they don’t last very long in the warm, dry air in our homes. Here’s a unique way to include them in your indoor Christmas decor.

What you’ll need:

• 3-5 glass jars or vases

• 1-3 evergreen boughs (1 should do 3-4 jars depending on the size of the jar)

• water

• Fresh cranberries

• Floating tea lights

• Trimmers/pruners

Fill your glass container about 3/4 full with cold water, then select your pieces of evergreen. Trim your chunks of evergreen to a size that suits your jar. You'll want the needles to be entirely under the water, so trimming them a to 3-4 inches shorter than the vase should be perfect.

Arrange a few pieces of evergreen in your vase. Mixing and matching some different kinds of evergreen looks pretty together. 3-4 pieces per jar is a good amount, but it depends on the size of your container, so play around until you think you have just the right amount.

Add a layer of cranberries on top. You can experiment with how many cranberries you include to see what you like best. A dense layer of cranberries is a nice contrast to the evergreen boughs, but just a few floating cranberries among the greenery can also make for a pretty pop of color. Ideally, the cranberries should hold most of the greenery underwater so they won’t be touching the candle. 

Set your floating candle in the top, and add more water until there’s about 1/2 an inch from the top edge. Float your candle on the surface, and light when you want to enjoy a subtle holiday glow.

These decorative jars are super fast to throw together, and they're a beautiful way to feature evergreens indoors with minimal needle cleanup. 

3. CREATE BEAUTIFUL WINTER HANGING BASKETS

If you haven’t stowed away your hanging baskets just yet, or if they’re easy to get out of storage, you might want to give this beautiful idea a try. 

What you'll need:

• Hanging baskets (if they still have leftover potting soil in them, even better)

• Potting soil (leftovers from summer are perfect)

• A variety of evergreen boughs (boxwood, cedar, fir, white pine, yew, magnolia)

• Decorative twigs and berries (western red cedar cones, crabapples, juniper berries, rosehips, holly, incense cedar, pinecones)

• Solar twinkle lights

If your pots already have soil in them, bring them in somewhere like a garage, and rehydrate the soil with water. If they don’t have soil, fill them with dampened soil, and firm it in well. The moistened soil will freeze around the stems and hold things secure through the winter. 

Poke the ends of the boughs into the soil in the pot and create a beautiful seasonal arrangement, similar to how you would in a porch pot. You can follow the same thriller, filler, spiller concepts that many people use in planter design in the spring. 

Start with spillers. Long pieces of cedar and pine have fairly soft stems that drape gracefully. 

For the fillers, use stiffer evergreens like boxwood, yew, spruce, fir, and magnolia.

Then add your thrillers, like berries, rosehips, colorful twigs from dogwood, holly, and pinecones. 

If you've got solar twinkle lights on-hand, you can intertwine them with your greens and berries, and you can set the solar panel in the pot in a way that it won't be easy to see from the ground. Alternately, you could run an extension cord behind the arrangement and use traditional plug-in lights. 

A NOTE ON ADDING HOLIDAY DECOR

You can definitely add holiday decor to your hanging baskets, but keep in mind that anything frozen into the soil will be difficult to remove after the holidays are over. The bonus about these hanging baskets is that they last for a long time, so they'll still look nice in February and March. So if you want to add holiday decor, make sure you attach them in a way that allows you to transition the festive pieces out when you’re ready to put away the rest of your Christmas paraphernalia. 

HOW LONG DOES GREENERY LAST?

The evergreen boughs that are most commonly used in holiday decor will last the longest outdoors in the winter. On average, greenery used for indoor holiday decor will last about 2 weeks. Outdoors, your greenery may last for most of the winter, as long as temperatures stay near or below freezing. You can extend their life by giving the ends fresh cuts and then completely immersing them in cold water for 24 hours before you start to create with them. You can also apply anti-desiccant sprays to help seal moisture in.

Are you ready to get decorating with evergreens for the holidays? Stop by our garden center to pick up a few bundles of evergreens and customize your evergreen decor to perfectly match your style this year.