How to String Cranberries for Christmas Tree Decorations

String cranberries and drape the strings on your Christmas tree.

Putting a string of cranberries on your Christmas tree is a festive addition to the atmosphere around the holiday season and a string of cranberries adds a traditional element to your decorating. The cranberries also send out a wonderful fragrance and, since their water content is high, will last for several weeks.

Difficulty:

Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need

• Fresh cranberries
• Sieve
• Long sewing needle
• String

1. Pour the cranberries into a sieve, rinse quickly, and drain.

2. Pick through the berries to remove the rotten ones. Throw them away.

3. Measure about 4 feet of heavy thread and insert one end into the needle.

4. Make a big knot at the end of the string, so as the cranberries go down the thread, they will not fall off.

5. Insert the needle into the berry by putting the needle through the stem end of it and pushing it through to the other end of the cranberry. Push the berry down the string a few inches.

6. Continue threading the berries onto the needle until you reach nearly the end. Leave enough room to either tie that string of berries onto the next garland or make a knot in it to finish the garland.

7. When you have finished all the garlands from the cranberries, tie them together to make one continuous garland.

Tips & Warnings

• Do this in 4-foot intervals to avoid big tangles in the string.

• Under no circumstances should you use the berries as food for either you or your pets. After hanging on the tree for more than a few hours, they are no longer suitable as food.

• Be careful using sharp needles.