There’s nothing like fresh greenery and it’s even better if it comes from your own backyard. Grab your clippers and make this foraged Christmas door swag for your front door!
I made one of these last year, but I treated it as kind of an experiment, so I never actually got around to sharing how I did it. It turned out beautifully and was even featured in print in Country Sampler Farmhouse Style magazine this year for their Holiday issue! I’ve always thought these swags look so classy and thought that there must be some kind of trick to making them work out so well, but actually they’re super simple to put together and this foraged Christmas door swag only took me about 10 minutes to make, once I was finished my walk around the property to gather up different types of clippings. I do have a little trick I used to make this one a little extra easy, so I’ll share that with you in a minute as well. Here’s how this year’s front door swag came together!
Materials Needed for the Foraged Christmas Door Swag
Of course, this piece is all about the natural greenery and other foraged elements. There are so many beautiful types of greenery to be found this year at garden centres and you can even find bundles outside of a lot of grocery stores. What I used though is just the most basic types of greenery and various other clippings from around our property and in our gardens: Cedar from our tree line, white pine from the tree that grows next to our front porch, fir from a few extra branches we cut off the bottom of our Christmas tree, and things like that. This is a great time to get experimental, clip whatever appeals to you in your winter garden and see how it works. I find that the more interesting textures I add, the better it looks.
The only other things you really need to make this come together are some clippers, some floral wire, and a bit of ribbon to finish it off with. My secret ingredient is that I like to use a set of brass bells that come pre-hung on a rope hangers. The bells act as a bit of a focal point and I just secure everything directly to the rope hanger so that I have a built-in loop for hanging. It makes the whole process extra quick and easy and it gives the finished product a nice, finished look. This is the same set of bells that I used last year. I just removed all the greenery at the end of the season and stored the bells away to use them again. They’re still in great shape, despite being exposed to all the elements for a few weeks.
The exact brass bells that I have look like their currently out of stock, but these aged brass jingle bells would work just fine as well.
Assembling the Christmas Door Swag
Start out by grabbing two or three larger pieces of the type of greenery that you have the most of or the largest pieces of. For me this was cedar and fir. This will be your base to work off of and will mostly dictate the overall size of your finished swag. Wrap your floral wire around the branches a few times, just at the top, securing them together. No need to trim your floral wire at this point. You can just keep adding and wrapping.
Next, layer on a bit more. You can add some more of the same greenery for more fullness, or you can start to add in some different textures. I added another bit of cedar, then started to bring in my white pine.
At this point it will be time to start adding in smaller pieces and maybe some of your more interesting clippings. Last year I used a fluffy bit of phragmites from our creek bank, but this year I decided on a few branches of red dogwood. There’s no limit to what you can add in here. Just keep going if you’re feeling inspired, or feel free to keep it simple.
When you’re satisfied with your natural elements, it’s time to add in the bells on the rope hanger. I layer them on top and then wrap the wire around my branches and the base of the rope knot to hold the whole thing together.
Finish up with a bit of ribbon to hide your wire and to add a bit more interest, then hang your swag from the rope!
I love that this project is even faster and easier than driving to the store to be a pre-made swag, and you can’t beat the price. 🙂 This is definitely a tradition that’s easy to keep up and I think I’ll definitely continue making these swags year after year.
Do you use fresh greenery from your yard for Christmas decor?
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- The Creek Line House Christmas Archives
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Courtenay Hartford is the author of creeklinehouse.com, a blog based on her adventures renovating a 120-year-old farmhouse in rural Ontario, Canada. On her blog, Courtenay shares interior design tips based on her own farmhouse and her work as founder and stylist of the interior photography firm Art & Spaces. She also writes about her farmhouse garden, plant-based recipes, family travel, and homekeeping best practices. Courtenay is the author of the book The Cleaning Ninja and has been featured in numerous magazines including Country Sampler Farmhouse Style, Better Homes and Gardens, Parents Magazine, Real Simple, and Our Homes.