christmas garland refresh

Artificial greenery can be EXPENSIVE! If you are looking for a strand of nice garland for your mantle or to drape on your mirror, it’s going to cost a pretty penny. Today, we are going to take some basic garland and spruce it up using evergreen stems and bush bundles.

Don’t limit yourself to just the Christmas section when looking for greenery. Mixing holiday greenery with everyday greenery will make a nice full strand with added dimension.

To start, you will need a six to nine foot strand of garland. Then, you will need to shop for some green stems or bushes at your local craft store. Hobby Lobby usually has their floral stems and bushes fifty percent off every other week. Many stores have deep discounts on Christmas stems right now. I prefer to select a couple of different styles. Look for stems that drape well and have some movement. These will be easier to work with and incorporate into the garland you have on hand.

For this project, I chose a 20” greenery with iced white berries and a winter eucalyptus bush. I purchased four of each kind. You will also need some floral wire and wire cutters. You can use floral tape if you prefer too.

Please take note that my garland is the SUPER cheap kind that can be purchased at the dollar store. You can also find very inexpensive garland at thrift stores or yard sales. I just want to emphasize that you do NOT have to start with a nice quality strand of garland.

Next, you will lay out your garland and start working to place your stems. You want to make sure that your ends drape well and do not look stiff, so I like to start by placing the draping stems at the ends. I actually used the wire stems of the garland to wrap around the ends of the greenery I was adding, as you can see in the photos below. That is a great thing about this project…everything pretty much has wire in it, so you can easily secure everything in place.

Once my ends are wired in, I start adding the draping stems in the middle, filling in gaps with the long pieces. Try to weave in the long pieces among the garland stems to help blend both together. You can use the floral wire to attach long pieces to the garland as needed.

Here is what it looked like after adding in the draping greenery. It is already looking so much fuller and not so symmetrical and stiff like most varieties you find in store. Again, as you can see, I definitely used a cheap garland that sheds easily. Ha!

After attaching all of the longer, draping stems, I then start incorporating the shorter stems. I separated the eucalyptus bush to have individual stems to work with. Then, I scattered the stems throughout the garland, making sure to blend it with the other greenery. I used the wire ends of the eucalyptus stems to wrap around the garland wire to secure them in place.

In the end, I had a nice, full strand of garland for a fraction of the price of a new one! It can be left as is, or you can add ribbon, lights or ornaments for a pop of color. I decided to add some little battery operated lights to mine.

Y’all…I just love it! It reminds me of some much more expensive varieties that I’ve seen online!

I hope this brought lots of inspiration to you!!! It is amazing what you can do on a budget with a little creativity!!

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Last Updated on December 2, 2022