Monday, December 3, 2012

My Version of A Holiday Wreath

When we were little, my mother always bought a wreath for Christmas and put little wreath ornaments on it.  I loved the smell of the balsam as we went in and out the door.  The wreath ornaments were specifically for the wreath and she always used the same ones.

When we moved next door, she fried a few wreaths because they were in the direct heat of the sun behind the storm door and they browned up pretty quickly, even in December.  Then she found a cool magnetic thing that allows you to put one side of the magnet on the window inside and one on the window outside and it holds the wreath on the outside of the door. 

I think that a few times recently, she might have bought pre decorated wreaths at a fair or maybe she just changed her wreath ornaments because they don't quite look the same.

But I'm not here to tell you about my mother's wreaths.  Ooops.  Looks like I just did.

I'm here to tell you what I do.  For the first couple of years that I lived in this house, I got wreaths either at the grocery store or once, as some fundraiser that someone was having.  Then I put ribbons and bows and wasn't too thrilled with how they looked.  I didn't want a fake bird in it.  I didn't want fake apples.  I wasn't really sure what I wanted.

I knew what I wanted but wasn't of the mind or patience to make it happen.  Plus, I reasoned, it's a wreath.  No sense spending a fortune on pretty things that only a handful of visitors see.

Then, a friend of mine and I were sure we wanted to go to a make your own wreath workshop, but there was some sort of fiasco and then when it was rescheduled it cost approximately 40 billion dollars, so we said screw that.

And then someone said something so brilliant, I've never even thought of having another round wreath on my door again.  She told me that she doesn't bother buying a wreath.  She just goes outside and gets some branches and just sort of "creates" something, throws a ribbon on it and hangs it on the door.

A Christmas door decoration that doesn't have to be ROUND?  Intriguing....

She also told me she lets the spirits of the branches speak to her and tell her what to create.

I drew the line there.

But, given the many types of evergreens here on the compound, and the holly tree that my father seems strangely partial to (only second to this infatuation would be the dogwood that he replaced numerous times because they died and then almost cut down because the current one was too healthy and big...) and a whole variety of berried bushes, I figured I'd give it a whirl.

So, every year, I grab my clippers and "let the branches speak to me".


The branches and I often disagree about the ribbon or bow I'm inclined to include. 

I usually win.

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