How to Make a Live Evergreen Christmas Wreath

Traditional evergreen Christmas wreaths are always elegant and they put the smell of Christmas throughout the house. If you have a real tree, you can use branches trimmed from the bottom of it to make one. If not, you can usually buy discarded branches cheaply wherever live trees are sold.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• Coat hanger
• Heavy gage wire
• Flexible craft wire (hobby stores have this in small spools)
• Christmas tree branches
• Canned snow, ribbons and decorations (optional)

1. Soak the tree branches standing up in water for 24-48 hours to make them flexible enough to work with.
2. Work a coat hanger or wire into about a 12-inch circle. Cut three or four 10- to 12-inch sprigs from the branches. Tie these together with the spool wire, wrapping them three or four times tightly around the cut end.
3. Wrap the spool wire around the circle, securing it tightly in place by wrapping it several times. Keeping the wire uncut, wrap it around the branch bundle you made, fixing it in place on the circle.
4. Repeat the process with the same sized bundles of sprigs putting each one very close to the last. You want the evergreen sprigs to be very compact for a full wreath, so push each one tightly together as you work. If you want to add pine cones, wind the wire around the cone so it's hidden a couple of times and attach it to the circle as you did the greens. Look at your work often to make sure it is balanced and even looking.
5. Decorate the wreath with bows or small toys and ornaments if you wish. A pretty spray of canned snow and a red ribbon is lovely, too. When you're done, hang and enjoy.

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