Make a wreath for CHRISTMAS Display it on your front door to herald our faith that life goes on!
Bringing evergreens into the dwelling or attaching them to its exterior is an ancient practice, though the tradition of the Christmas tree is only a few hundred years old. Druidic lore celebrates the winter, the longest night, the shortest daylight hours, and this coincides with the Christian festival of Christmas. Often the customs and traditions, and the meaning of so many different ideologies and religions, overlap with one another.
The significance of using evergreens, both conifers and holly and mistletoe, to celebrate this time of year is easy to understand. While deciduous trees are naked, in a dormant state, evergreens are as green as green could be, a symbol that life continues throughout the darkest days.
Making a wreath with evergreens and displaying it on the front door welcomes visitors and heralds our faith that life goes on. When I’m making a wreath, something we’ve done here for 40 years or so, I’m aware of its meaning just as much as the craft of making it.
Not all the wreaths made here have been as beautiful as they should have been. In the early days they often disintegrated, or at least went a little awry. When I had a stall in Barnstaple market, though, and the wreath-making ladies saw my amateurish efforts, they took me in hand and set to give me their masterclass in wreath making.
First things first – they all used a copper wreath ring. They’re cheap and form a foundation for everything that goes on top. Moss is essential; if you can’t rake it out of your lawn you can buy it online – just make sure it’s from a sustainable source. Tie string or baler twine to the ring and gradually feed in moss, keeping it in place by wrapping the string tightly over the top of the moss. It needs to feel firm.
Next job is to prepare the holly or other evergreens (we often mix it with box). Several short stems (about 8cm/3in long with the bottom leaves removed) are bunched together to form sprigs, each one wrapped tightly around the bare stem with florist’s stub wire, leaving at least 10cm (4in) at the end to push through the moss and wrap back around the ring to make it secure. Gradually work around the whole wreath. Finish the edges with conifer trimmings.
You can adorn your wreath with any natural elements. Crab apples and even small apples can be carefully wired in, seedheads from eryngiums, teasels or echinops, either au naturel or sprayed silver or gold. Holly berries seem to be in short supply this year but other berries from cotoneaster, or even rose hips, can be commandeered, bunched together and used instead. Ivy in flower or in berry can be bunched together to make an interesting textural contrast.
The holly and the ivy are the iconic Christmas plants and even if you haven’t the time to spend making a wreath, a bunch or garland of these with a conifer branch or two will keep the tradition going. Our ancestors honoured evergreens as a sign that spring would follow winter, that brighter days lay ahead and that even in the depths of winter, life will triumph.