Gather up a garland

It’s a great project to keep youngsters busy for hours. Do you remember cutting strips of coloured paper and taping them into connected circles to form a long chain?

Garlands range from something as easy as that, to elegant creations with metallic bows, sparkly faux-fruit and silk flowers.

I remember collecting hundreds of rosehips one year and stringing them on fishing line for the tree. I even wore some of the shorter ones to school as necklaces after they had dried, and recall their scratchiness.s

Another old-fashioned favorite to string as garland is cranberries and popcorn.

The tradition of Christmas garlands came to North America from Europe. Ropes of garland were usually made at the end of the growing season. The Christmas greens brought in enough income to buy small luxuries. Family members would roam the woods searching for pine, spruce and cedar and bring them home to twist into garlands in front of the fire. It wasn’t uncommon for each person to complete 20 to 40 yards in an evening.

Other materials could be used as well, including boxwood, hemlock, mountain laurel, holly, myrtle, and princess pine. Various items like juniper, rowan, bittersweet or cedar berries, corn husks, pinecones and dried fruits were used along the garland to add interest.

You don’t need a lot of equipment to make a garland - just lots of primary material, rope and wrapping wire. Decorative accents are optional.

To make the garland, decide the length you want and cut twice that amount of rope or wire (the garland shortens as you add material). Secure one end in your working space. Starting at the unfastened end, gather a small handful of the primary material, lay it on the rope with stem butts facing the secured end and wire the two together with three or four wraps. Take another handful of material and overlap the first by four to six inches. Continuing in the same directon, wire it securely without cutting the wire. Repeat until you’ve reached the end of the garland, then reverse the last bunch you add to give the garland a finished appearance.

You can spice up your creation along the way by adding an accessory like silk flowers or branches of berries with every third or fourth handful you wire on.

If you want a ‘balanced’ garland for a doorway, stop adding handfuls halfway along the rope, switch the ends around and repeat wiring, adding handfuls in the same direction as before. Add a voluminous fancy bow in the middle where the two ends meet. This way when you hang the garland over the door casing the garland drapes nicely on either side.

How much garland you need for a tree depends on the size of your tree, how deeply the garland is swagged, and how many times around the tree it is placed.

As an approximate guide, plan on a minimum of nine-feet of garland for each foot of tree. A six-foot tree would require 54-feet of garland.