Make a festive fresh cedar mini wreath for each cabinet door or for the backs of your dining chairs using simple materials and some clippings from the trees in your yard!
When it comes to Christmas decor, we all love the look and fragrance of fresh greenery and foliage, but buying pre-made fresh wreaths every year can get really expensive and you might not be able to find one made in the exact size or the particular type of evergreen that you were hoping for in the selection of available holiday decorations at your local garden center. If you’ve ever wished for the fresh wreath of your dreams without being able to find it, you might be surprised to know that you can actually make your own very easily using very basic materials. Each of these mini wreath crafts took me about 15 minutes to make. If you happen to have access to a bit of greenery in your yard that you can clip with your hedge clippers, making these Christmas wreaths will cost you almost nothing and spread so much holiday cheer to everyone who gets to see your lovely Christmas decorations.
Before you get started with your holiday wreaths, you may need to read this: How to Properly Sharpen Your Pruning Shears
Materials Needed for the Fresh Greenery Mini Wreath Decoration
To make your own wreaths this holiday season, you’ll need:
- Floral wire
- Strong scissors or wire cutters
- A pair of secateurs or pruning shears
- Greenery of your choice – Fresh cedar, white pine, spruce, juniper, and boxwood are all beautiful options
- Ribbon for hanging and bows, such as velvet, burlap, or satin ribbon, or basic twine – optional
I think that a fresh holiday wreath made with what you have available to you in your own yard or in ditches near your home is the most fun way to deck your halls, so feel free to be creative with what you have access to nearby. It can be nice to have an excuse to be outside with your plants when gardening season is so far away. If it’s simpler for you, buying bundles of fresh greenery from your local garden store is also a great option, and you’ll be able to make quite a few mini wreaths with just a few bundles. If you cut down a real Christmas tree each year, you’ll probably also have a few extra branches that you’ll need to trim off the bottom before putting it in the tree stand; those can be used to make beautiful wreaths as well!
More front-door decoration holiday decorating ideas: DIY Fresh Cedar Garland Tutorial
How to Make a Wreath: Start With Your Wreath Forms
There’s no need to buy pre-made styrofoam wreath forms or grapevine wreath bases from the craft store for these mini wreaths like you often need to do with over DIY home decor wreath projects. For this, you can make your own wire wreath frame by simply creating a circle out of floral wire and securing the ends together. Wrap the wire once more around the circumference of the circle to make the form a bit more sturdy, but don’t worry about it too much; the actual greenery branches will create most of the structural integrity for this wreath once you start to put it together. I made my wreath forms about 6″ in diameter and ended up with wreaths that were about 15″ in diameter when they were finished. Feel free to make your wreath forms much smaller if you want your finished product to be quite tiny.
More ideas for how to decorate your home with fresh greens: Decorating Your Home With Foraged Greenery for Christmas
Prepare Your Greenery for the Mini Wreath
Whatever type of fresh branches you choose, whether you cut it yourself from outside or pick it up at a local store, you’ll want to prepare it by quickly clipping it into small, manageable pieces that you can easily grab as you’re ready to add another piece to your wreath. You want to cut your greenery into sprigs measuring about 6″ long or so. You’ll be amazed at how many little pieces you can get out of one branch clipped from a tree. If you end up with too many, you can tuck the extra pieces into vases, use them to adorn a mantel or tuck them into an artificial tree to give it more life.
Another Christmas decorating idea for using extra cedar: DIY Foraged Christmas Door Swag with Brass Bells
Begin Adding Cedar Boughs
To add your first piece of greenery, lay it over the wreath form and wrap your floral wire around the stem 3-4 times to secure it to the wreath frame. To add the next piece, simply move down the wreath form about an inch, lay down another piece of greenery and wrap that with the wire as well. There’s no need to cut the wire between wrapping each new branch. Just add a branch and keep wrapping.
Holiday decor essential: Making DIY Bow Tree Toppers for Christmas Trees
Continue Wrapping Your Mini Wreath With Wire
Continue adding pieces of fresh greenery and wrapping them to hold them in place until you’ve made your way around the entire circumference of the wreath form. If you have any thinner pieces that seem too small, you can layer and wrap two pieces together at a time.
Beautiful, natural Christmas decor for your home: How to Dry Orange Slices for Christmas Decor and Recipes
Finishing Up Your Wreaths
When you think your wreath is nearly complete, stand back and take a look at it. You can add in extra pieces of fresh cedar anywhere that you think it’s needed using small lengths of wire about 3″ long. You can also trim away any areas that seem a little too full or any unruly pieces. If you prefer a more natural, wild look like I do, you can leave your wreaths looking very imperfect and handmade.
If you’d like to add any kind of embellishment, such as a rustic pinecone, red berries, shiny jingle-bells, or sparkling ornaments, you can attach them with a glue gun or secure them with another small piece of wire.
Old-fashioned Christmas fun: How to Make Those Amazing Paper Snowflakes
Hanging Mini Wreaths
You can hang mini wreaths on a door, on a wall, a bookshelf, or on a mirror. There are so many great ways to brighten your holiday home with this classic piece of DIY decor. Of course, mini wreaths are absolutely perfect on cupboards and kitchen cabinets as well.
Follow this tutorial to learn my easy, damage-free method for displaying my wreaths on cabinetry: How to Hang Wreaths on Cabinet Doors
Other Decorations Ideas Using Wreaths
If you’re having fun decorating your home for Christmas with homemade wreaths, there’s no reason you need to stop at cabinet doors. These wreaths are also beautiful as a centerpiece with a candle in the middle, leaning up on a console table against a piece of art, or tied on the backs of dining chairs for the most welcoming holiday table settings.
Read next: Woodland-Inspired Christmas Front Porch With Foraged Greenery
How to Make a Ribbon Bow Christmas Tree Topper
In this post, I’ll show you how to make a festive bow Christmas tree topper. A ribbon tree topper is an easy and elegant solution that you can easily customize to coordinate with your tree decorations this year.
Get the how-to: How to Make a Bow Christmas Tree Topper
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I love different Christmas decor styles but can’t do everything every year. I draw inspiration from my previous work and experiment with new ideas. Here are some of my favorite concepts from past years.
Get the ideas: Most Popular Christmas Decorating Ideas
12-Month Christmas Plan to Prepare for Christmas Next Year
Are you tired of feeling unprepared and overwhelmed during the Christmas season? Check out this 12-month plan that really works, even if you do it imperfectly. Say goodbye to the stress and hello to a magical season filled with happy memories. Read on to learn more!
Get the plan: 12 Month Christmas Plan to Prepare for Next Year
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Learn the tricks: Christmas Tree Decoration Tricks for an Immediate Boost to Your Decor
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.