Outdoor Decorating with Garland

Amanda from Kansas asked for some ideas for outdoor decorating with something that the birds won't eat up right away (unlike cranberry-popcorn garland). Below are some links to various projects the whole family can help with, creating garlands to make the exterior of your abode as festive as the the inside.

• Outdoor Christmas Decorating with Garland: Some great ideas for creating a homemade, natural garland that can be used to frame windows, line railings, and more.


• Christmas Ribbon Garland or Chain:  The idea here is to create a "paper chain," but make it out of ribbon (red and green, for example) instead.


• Homemade Recycled Holiday Luminaries for Thanksgiving or Christmas: This version is made from ordinary used food cans. See video below, which illustrates the effect they create.


• This short instructional video outlines how to make luminaries to line  your driveway. These are strictly for outdoors in dry/non-windy weather, as they are made from paper bags and incorporate a votive candle in each bag. I had never seen them before (I live in the northwest U.S., where it is virtually guaranteed to be inclement in the month of December, which explains why luminaries are popular mostly in the south), but apparently they are made quite often, and give a very cheerful effect, as the photo below illustrates.

50 Christmas Decorating Ideas

CHRISTMAS TREE DECORATIONS

1. The More Decorations the Better: There’s no such thing as too many decorations on your tree. If your ornaments are carefully selected and evenly spaced, the more decorated the better looking the tree.

2. Silk Flowers: Silk flowers are a great way to add color and beauty to your tree. You can choose different colors, or make them all white for a beautiful snowy effect.

3. Metallic Spray: Paint pine cones, leaves and seedpods with metallic spray. Then you can evenly space them on your tree for a great new look.

4. Miniature Wreaths: You can find all kinds of miniature wreaths at craft stores. Add greenery, ribbons or berries with a glue gun, and tie a ribbon for hanging, and you have a great home-made tree/wall decorations.

5. Ribbon Streamers: Instead of garland, try using ribbon streamers. All you do is attach Christmas colored ribbon or raffia to the top of the tree, then wind them down and around the tree until you get to the bottom.

A fun project for kids: Make your own Christmas ornaments

Instructions: Paste each picture onto cardboard and cut out along the dotted lines (always use safety scissors so you don't cut yourself). Color with plain or glitter crayons,  with paint or felt-tip markers - whatever you've got. Punch out the black dots and string with bright ribbon, then hang them on the tree, over the mantle of the firepace if you have one, in your room, or wherever your folks say it's okay to hang them. These can also be glued to wood or cloth. Parents & guardians: younger children may require some help with this.

Click on thumbnails for larger images.

Thanks to Graylady.

Easy Home Decorating Ideas for Christmas

Storm, over at 365 Days of Christmas, has put together a phenomenal list of suggestions for easy, inexpensive Christmas Decorating. Check it out!

How to make a cranberry-popcorn garland

Yes, it's true that garland is relatively inexpensive, and can be purchased almost anywhere. It wasn't so in days of yore, and rural families most often simply made their own. Thematically, what the garland was made of depended on what was available, but most commonly popcorn was used, or ribbon with or without baubles and bows stitched onto it.

Want to try to make your own? If so, make it an experience - something the family can do together, that will make for fond memories. Put on Christmas music, or one of your favorite movies. Serve cocoa or hot cider and Christmas cookies.

MATERIALS:

• Popcorn: No salt and no butter, if possible. After popping the popcorn, let it sit out for a day to get stale; fresh popcorn crumbles.

(Make an extra bowl of regular popcorn for the family, since the kids are probably going to eat it as they help make the garland, unbuttered and stale, or not.

• Fresh cranberries

• Heavyweight sowing needle. Use good judgement in how old your child needs to be to handle a sewing needle, and supervise them well. For a very young child, you can set them to the task of alternately handing you cranberries and popcorn.

• Heavyweight sewing thread. Waxed dental floss works great, because it is less-prone to breakage, and the addition of the wax makes it easier to slide the cranberries along.

INSTRUCTIONS:
Lay out long lengths of thread. Tie a knot at one end, and thread the other end through the needle. The individual segments can be tied together when you're finished, but be sure to leave a couple inches of thread at the end of each segment.

Push the needle through the cranberry and slide it down the length of the thread to the knotted end. Then do the same with a piece of popcorn. Alternate popcorn and cranberries until the segment is finished.

Lastly, tie the segments together, and hang the garland.

After Christmas, send the kids out with the garland to decorate any shrubs or trees around your residence. A small child will get a lot of pleasure out of seeing the birds dine on the garland he's hung out.