Your garden can help provide you with a very merry and inexpensive Christmas, if you know what you're looking for and how to use it. With the pressure on to use less plastic, you can replace things like tinsel with foraged materials you throw on the compost heap afterwards. Your home will take on a more natural look whilst remaining festive and stylish.
From easy ivy garlands to brilliant baubles made with crab apples, there are lots of creative ideas to choose from to decorate both the home and garden. Here’s our selection of fun home-made projects to be inspired by – and because you can gather almost everything you need outdoors, they will cost you nothing, or next to nothing!
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How to make natural Christmas decorations
Beautiful branch with Christmas baubles
In damp places you can find branches of trees covered with the most magnificent lichen. Choose a particularly good-looking specimen to bring into the house to decorate with other natural Christmas decorations such as these bright orange crab apples, Malus ‘Evereste’. Two types of ribbon have been used here to add a little more interest and colour.
To make this, secure the branch in a nice metal bucket with some rocks, and pour on enough gravel or chippings to stabilise it. Trim the branch to the best shape.
Use wire cutters to cut a pile of 6-7cm lengths of florist’s stub wire. Make a small ring on one end. Push the other end through the base of the crab apple. Form another bigger ring and thread the ribbon, tying a loop. Hang the ribbon from the branch. Repeat.
Moss and berry hanging chandelier
Perfect for hanging indoors or out, this easy-to-make hanging chandelier uses moss, berries and fresh flower heads to create a bright, fresh-looking Christmas decoration.
The red berries of black bryony (Tamus communis) grow in hedgerows and look wonderful against the lime-green moss but be sure to hang this one out of reach from children as the berries are poisonous.
You’ll need:
- 2 wire frames: 1 x 25.5cm and 1 x 33cm in diameter
- Soft wire
- Brown garden string or twine
- 4 lengths of ribbon, each 1m long
- Moss, berries and fresh flower heads – these are Erysimum ‘Bowles’s Mauve’ but use any small fresh flowers you can find.
To make, wrap the wire frames in thin, soft wire. Tie 4 x 1m lengths of brown string on to the outer edge of the bottom ring.
Leaving a gap of 16cm, tie the strings on to the top ring. Knot and loop the remaining string 16cm above the top ring.
Press damp moss over both rings and wrap the thin, soft wire around the moss. Add ribbon and berries to the string and thread the flowers into the moss rings.
Garden baubles and seed-head garlands
These Christmas baubles may look quite detailed in appearance but are actually really simple to make. They look very effective hanging from a mantelpiece or shelf. The bauble on the left is made using moss and old man's beard on chicken wire. The bauble in the centre uses Nigella seedheads on wire and the bauble on the right uses crab apple and rosemary, again on wire.
Cut chicken wire to 12cm x 20cm and form a cylinder. Crush the top and bottom inwards to form a ball of about 8cm diameter. Using pliers pull out and twist a loop for a ribbon.
Cover with damp moss. Secure with florist’s stub wire bent like hair pins. Secure the stems of the seed heads into the moss with wire.
Take two 36cm pieces of stub wire and wrap them around a jar to form two rings. Thread the Nigella seedheads on to one, then thread the second ring through the bottom seedhead at 90 degrees.
Add seed heads either side of the fixed bottom one and twist the ends of the wire together to make a loop for the ribbon.
Make just like the middle bauble, but thread with alternating crab apples and rosemary, having first pierced them with an awl or compass point
Hazel ball with ivy berries
Old tree stumps and gateposts are the perfect place to find mature ivy with clusters of fantastically architectural berries. To show them off to their best advantage they need a structure. Here that structure is provided in the form of thin ends of hazel branches to make a ball that is light enough to hang from a pin.
A collection of these globes in varying sizes look great as a Christmas decoration hanging from the ceiling.
You’ll need:
- 9 thin pliable hazel (or willow) branches approx 100cm long, with the twiggy ends left on 20 or so ivy berry heads
- Florist’s stub wire cut into 7-10cm lengths
- Ribbon for hanging
To make, form nine rings about 26cm in diameter from the lengths of hazel, overlapping the ends and leaving the twiggy ends sticking out. Put eight rings together to form a segmented ball, and fix at the top and bottom with florist’s wire.
Put the ninth ring horizontally around the ball and fix to the vertical rings with florist’s wire. Weave the twiggy ends of the hazel into the ball shape – cut off any extra bits that you don’t want.
Wind a cut piece of florist’s wire around the stem of each ivy berry head, leaving a 3cm end to fix to the hazel ball, then randomly attach them and pinch the wire tight with pliers. (Please note: ivy berries are moderately toxic.)
A Christmas wreath of berried ivy
A simple Christmas wreath packed with just one plant material is often more striking than a mixture of colours and texture. The shiny leaves and dark purple and green berries of mature common ivy are so fulsome that they need absolutely nothing else.
You’ll need:
- Wire Christmas wreath frame (this one is 33cm in diameter) or galvanised wire to make your own.
- Reel of soft wire
- Lengths (20-30cm) of ivy leaves and berries
- Ribbon for hanging
To make, wrap the soft wire around the Christmas wreath frame and thread the stems of the ivy pieces into the wire, layering the pieces on top of one another and moving around the circle.
Put plenty on – it should feel abundant – and secure with extra wire if needed. The berries should naturally disperse around the wreath, and you can always add more by wiring the stem of individual berry bunches and threading them in between the leaves.
Flowering (and therefore berried) branches of ivy are not lobed and trailing, but self-supporting and robust, usually found growing in the sun. So it’s strong, and of course ivy brings good luck and in traditional folklore is meant to keep the devil out. This makes it just right to hang on the front door. Here's how you can create the look.
Twig stars
These atmospheric stars celebrate the season and a bright strip of ribbon adds a little colour, right at its heart. Create the look.
You’ll need:
- 3 x 20cm lichen-covered twigs
- 6 butcher's broom sprigs (Ruscus aculeatus) or other evergreen sprigs
- 30cm length of 3mm ribbon
- Glue stick
- Glue gun
To make the stars, place three lichen-covered twigs across each other to form a star.
Tie together at the centre with wire, leaving a long end for a loop to hang the stars up.
Add a spot of hot glue to the centre, and stick six sprays of butcher's broom leaves to radiate out between the twigs. Bind the centre with thin ribbon.
Trailing ivy and crab apple garland
This simple Christmas garland made with trailing ivy and crab apples can decorate a painting or a mirror, or form a ring on the Christmas table, hung festoon-like over the top edge of a cupboard, or twisted around the banisters of a staircase.
You’ll need:
- Lengths of marbled trailing ivy
- Crab apples
- Ribbon
- Black cotton thread
To make, first thread the crab apples on to the ribbon using a needle with a large eye. Pierce the crab apples first if they are very hard. They should stay in position on the ribbon.
Fix the end of the ribbon and two strands of trailing ivy together by binding them tightly with black cotton and tying off. Hook the end on something stable while you loosely plait the ivy and ribbon together.
Add more trailing ivy as it thins out and keep it loose enough to curl around a picture frame. Leave some tendrils to escape at the side. Here's how to create the look.
Christmas wine glass decoration
Create simple, thoughtful table decorations by adding scented foliage to glasses or napkins. To transform your wine or champagne glasses, use soft, small-leaved stems of eucalyptus or choose sprigs of scented, winter-flowering shrubs such as Christmas box (Sarcococca).
You’ll need:
- 3 eucalyptus stems
- Florist’s stem tape
- Satin ribbon
- Scissors, secateurs
To make, arrange all three eucalyptus stems in a small bunch with one facing downwards. Wrap stem tape around the middle of the bunch.
Cut a piece of thin satin ribbon and tie it around the stems to cover the tape. Position the bunch on the wine glass vertically and attach it with ribbon. Create the look.
