How To Level Up A Plain Evergreen Wreath

One of my favorite annual traditions during the fall/winter season is decorating a plain evergreen wreath. It’s my way of kicking off the holidays (I do this the week of Thanksgiving, by the way), and I try to design something that I can leave up all winter long. To start, I pick out a handmade wreath from our favorite family-owned Christmas tree farm and then I add all sorts of pretty elements to give the plain wreath a bit more color and dimension. We no longer get a live Christmas tree, but I still want to be able to support the local tree farm that we always go to. Purchasing one of the live evergreen wreathes that they sell in their barn at the tree farm is my way of doing that. Plus, I really love the challenge of making the wreathes look festive in creative new ways each year.

You can see what the wreath looked like before in the photos above. They’re always so beautifully lush and fluffy, which makes the next phase so much easier—it’s super helpful to have a good base to work with. This year, I decided to buy a couple of live cut branches from Trader Joe’s to use for my wreath accents. They aren’t expensive (I spent less that $10 for the two bunches you see pictured), and it means that I don’t have to go out foraging in the cold. If you remember last year’s wreath design, I used cuttings from our yard instead of purchasing anything new from the store, and it worked really well, but it did require more work. That’s why I opted to buy my accent branches from the grocery store this year—it was a little less hassle and allowed me to avoid foraging in the cold.

Another new thing I did this year was I incorporated wire to attach the accents to my wreath form. In the past, I skipped this step because it seemed a little tedious, but because I didn’t use wire, some of the branches I tucked freestyle into the wreath fell out over the course of the season while it hung on our front door. This year I thought I’d give wire a try for a more permanent application, and it worked like a charm. It is more tedious—no doubt about that—but the wire means that our wreath will stay together long into the winter, which is always the goal.

The process might not really need any explanation, but in case you want all the details, I cut a bunch of wire to individual 8-inch lengths, pre-cut the branch accents into smaller bits that I could scatter across the face of the wreath, and then I used the cut wire pieces to attach each cut branch accent to the wreath form one by one. I wrapped my wire all the way around the wreath to attach the accent to the face of the wreath exactly where I wanted it, and then twisted the ends of the wire together at the back to tighten things up. Since I used green-colored floral wire, the pieces are pretty much invisible. I finished off the wreath with a droopy silk bow, which was also attached to the wreath using wire.

I think it turned out so lovely, and I’m super impressed by the dimension those two inexpensive bundles of Trader Joe’s branches added. The bow also really adds so much style and sophistication to the wreath, I think. I gifted this one to my mom, and she hung it on her garage door after I finished decorating it. The white berries did eventually die in the open air since they weren’t in water, but they turned an earthy red/brown color that looks almost intentional, so we’ve left them in place. If you want to avoid that, though, just use leafy accents that will naturally dry out over the course of the season. The eucalyptus I used looks exactly the same today as the day I bought it!

Comment and let me know what you think. Would you have decorated the plain wreath, or would you have left it simple and minimal with just its evergreen branches on display? If you would add to it and have other ideas for accents, please tell us all about them! I’d love to hear your creative take on this simple seasonal craft, and may just have to try one of your suggestions on our own wreath next winter season.