Christmas Season is upon us once again. As I am sitting at my kitchen table staring at my incredibly blank shopping list, it hit me… Christmas is only two weeks away! As some of you may or may not know, I come from a VERY large family. I’m the oldest of four children; I have 16 first cousins on one side, and 9 first cousins on the other side; not to mention the additional boyfriends, girlfriends, fiancé’s and spouses that have made their way in! It’s always a great time when we gather together over dinner, drinks and gift opening on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. That being said, the first thing I do to prevent my, “I’m in the holiday spirit, lets impulsively buy everything” mood, is to set a “gift budget”; this helps keep me from breaking out into hives when I get my monthly statement in January. As for our holiday decor budget, that typically gets pushed aside, forcing me to put my creative Santa hat on.

This year I decided to challenge myself and make our Christmas wreath out of materials I had lying around the house so I wouldn’t have to spend a penny. Needless to say, I think it turned out pretty great! Here’s how I did it:

PICK UP FALLEN TREE BRANCHES WHEN BUYING YOUR TREE

When we picked out our tree, we saw an endless amount of fallen branches lying around. We also came across multiple piles of cut branches that Santa’s helpers had dumped aside after trimming their customers’ purchased tree bases before loading them into their cars. After seeing all of these untouched, freshly green branches sprinkled throughout the yard, my crafty mind kicked into gear. Before I knew it, my hubby and I had our hands full of Frasier Fir branches and loaded them into our car alongside our very first Christmas tree who we decided to name, ‘Frasier’.

Tools : clippers + string + scissors

Here are a list of the tools and materials I used:

• Clippers — to trim the fresh branches for my wreath.

• String — to wrap the branches together (in this case I used jute since I already had a roll at home, but you can use ribbon, rope or anything you have lying around your house).

• Scissors — to cut the string.

Form the wreath

Using my clippers, I cut the branches and set aside the ones I wanted to form my wreath with. Then I began to layer them in a circular form until I was satisfied with the thickness.

WRAP STRING AROUND WREATH

Once I was happy with the circular formation my wreath took, I chose what would be the bottom of my wreath and tied a knot to hold the branches in place. From there, I wrapped the jute around the branches twice, binding them together tight enough to keep the branches in place but loose enough to give it a full and luscious look. Once the jute made its way around the whole wreath two times (or however many times you feel comfortable), I wrapped the bottom area enough times to create a thick band using it to anchor the base and, lastly, reinforced a knot in the back so the jute wouldn’t undo itself.

VOILA! HERE SHE IS IN ALL HER GLORY!

Here’s the finished product! And the beauty of it all was that it didn’t cost a thing!

Hope you enjoyed it! Please feel free to leave a comment below...