The natural world offers so many ways to decorate our homes this time of year, from fresh greenery and vibrant fruits to warm spices and rustic pine cones. You don't have to spend a lot of money or time either. Sometimes the best ideas are also the simplest ideas.
This past week I was looking for something festive to make with a bundle of pine cones. I learned there are a lot of crafty ideas out there involving glitter, spray paint, hot glue guns...lots of hot glue. But as I looked at my bundle of pine cones, I realized they are quite beautiful just as they are, so I gathered them into a pretty bowl and voila, a lovely decoration.
Check out this roundup of decoration ideas that do not blink, contain no glitter, and are not inflatable.
Top Row:
1. Miniature live trees in a mix of white containers from Better Homes and Gardens.
2. Clementine and clove pomanders gathered in a bowl from Good Housekeeping.
3. Virbrant winter berries gathered in a glass vase from Inspire Bohemia.
4. Evergreen swag and pine cones are used to create an elegant garland from Martha Stewart.
5. Lovely ornaments made from a bundle of fragrant cinnamon sticks tied together with a soft red ribbon, via Real Simple.
Bottom Row:
6. Natural pomegranate ornaments from Design Sponge.
7. Create elegant and inexpensive napkin rings for a holiday party using raffia and boxwood sprigs or winter berries, via Apartment Therapy.
8. Stunning and vibrant winter citrus wreath tutorial from Real Simple.
9. Boom. Pine cones in a bowl with a splash of winter berries from The Field of Flowers.
10. Dried orange slice garland from Flowerpatch Farm Girl via The Kitchn.
(Images: As linked above)
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All super pretty. This year we're trying to use no sprays or chemicals so we can put the pine branches /cones back in the forest after the holiday's over. Love the cloves and clementine idea, thanks.
I've done dried fruits: grapefruit and orange. Not only does it make your home smell INCREDIBLE, it's really rustic and beautiful! Great ideas AT!
i decorated my tree last year with dried oranges, cinnamon sticks, pine cones, red robins, and cranberry garland. this pictures are exactly how i like my home to feel during christmas. i hate "trendy" trees almost as much as i hate sentimental, mismatched ones. this year, i'm replacing the food ornaments with book page rosettes. i love how, like the dried orange slices, the yellowed paper catch the light.
Love the idea of the fragrance from the dried fruits. One year I put a big green vase of some red winter berries on my fireplace mantel, and my young girl-cat immediately noticed them, with no prompting from me. She sat up on her haunches like a meerkat or a prairie dog and STARED at those branches for a significant spell. Fortunately, the mantel is too narrow for her to jump up on, so there was no worry about her getting into the berries (until some days or weeks later, when they started dropping off and I had to throw them out before she and her brother-cat got into them).
This reminds me that I need to plant some deciduous holly (source of those lovely red berries) in the spring. I like seeing decorations that are obviously fake (silver, white, and blue ornament wreaths) or truly real (pine garland). I think for garland, though, I'm going to have to go with fake real ones because the pine sap is such a bear to get off of everything.
Watch pinecones -- the sap is nasty sticky! I think you can dry it up in a low-heat oven, but I haven't tried this, so Google instructions before attempting, and wear gloves, ideally disposible plastic ones, while collecting. (Or be prepared to scrub your hands, probably with a little turpentine or maybe Goo-gone, after...)
I have a couple of winter berry shrubs (as shown above) and it takes years for a small starter shrub to have enough branches that I's want to prune them for a bouquet. (I grow them for winter color in my garden and for the birds.) They do grow wild in New England, and if you can find a legal place to collect them (not a park or private land) you'd be golden.
I accidentally contributed to the fragrant "warm spices" effect at the Library's holiday party yesterday by failing to prevent the mulled cider I was heating from boiling over!! Everyone commented on the delicious scent, but when the stove cooled down, I had a big mess to clean up!!! (Accidental potpourri!)