DIY Jolly Holly Wreath

Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas... and nothing says 'It's the Holidays' like a wreath on your door.

This year, instead of buying a fake wreath I decided to make my own, with nothing but collected foliage and string.

Making an all-natural wreath at home has many benefits: it's much more environmentally friendly, as these materials (save the string and ribbon) can be composted at the season's end; because we foraged from the local greenery we spent no money on the bulk of the wreath's materials; and best of all, wreath-making is entirely customisable, wholesome and creative fun.

After some very necessary foraging in the crisp cold I played all of the materials out on the table. Jeordy and I had collected holly, berries, a few thistles, evergreen needles, but most importantly some flexible, bendable evergreen branches. Whatever you may find to put in your wreath make sure the majority is evergreen or else your wreath will wilt before Christmas day.

Firstly, I took the largest evergreen branch (we do not know what kind of bush it came from thus it will be referred to as simply 'evergreen'), made a circle with it, and tied the ends together.

Using the first branch as a frame, I weaved the other evergreen branches around it and tied them at the top again. I repeated this with three branches to create a strong even frame. I arranged these so some leaves were upside down, giving my base a two-toned effect from the contrasting lighter green.

Using my freshly made frame I added some berries and pine needles. I attached them by simply wedging them inside the weaving of the frame.

I spread the berries evenly around the wreath to add colour, and also added thistles for a local pine-cone substitute.

I then added the holly (use gloves!) and finally used scissors to trim up the edges and create a better circle. To finish it off I popped in a few fluffy white dead flowers, which added a little more brightness to the dark greens, brown, and red. After Jeordy added a thick red ribbon to hide the string, my wreath was complete.

Foraging got me out to my local park and into the crisp cool air, and the construction process took me about half an hour.

And thats all folks! The result was a very simple homemade wreath constructed from nothing but local winter greenery and string.