Wednesday 18 December 2013

A new approach: the Christmas Wreath



I am so excited that my family will come to the UK to celebrate Christmas with us. That will be the first time, that I will host Christmas at my home. Luckily Steve is a great chef, which will save us from any dissappointment of me cooking. I am now all about decorating the house; we even bought a real Christmas tree, which fills the living room with the scent of pine twigs. 

There are some differences in how Germany and the UK celebrate Christmas. The best known one is probably that in Germany presents are given in the evening of the 24th, where in the UK it's in the morning of the 25th. Germany versus UK, it's Christmas markets, Vanillegipferl, Stollen, Advent Wreath versus Christmas crackers, Mince pies, Christmas jumpers and Christmas pudding.

One of my current craft projects is a Christmas wreath. This popular Christmas decoration represents the everlasting life given by Jesus. In Germany it is more common to have an Advent Wreath, which has four candles, each representing an Advent Sunday. Each Sunday a candle gets lit until Christmas has arrived. 

Besides the traditional colours of green, red and gold, it recently becomes more popular to have a colourful approach on Christmas Decoration with pastel shades and neon colours. A shopping tour to Paperchase inspired me to do a Christmas wreath myself, using sparkling sequins and Scandinavian design. 

 What you will need:
- Black jewellery wire (0,6 mm/10 m)
- Clematis willow wreath (40 cm)
- Pierced multicolour sequins
- Wire cutter


Start by threading the sequins on the wire. You can pick each sequin with the wire cutter and twist the wire until the sequin seats tightly. Leave 5 mm space before twisting the next sequin. 


You can divide the wire in parts of one meter lengh. Now it is easy to wrap the sequined wire around the willow wreath. To avoid loose ends just twist the ends of the wires together, where they meet. 


You can decorate the wreath with a ribbon bow and hang baubles, Christmas figures, jingle bells or a written blessing in the centre.

For the final touch I decided to sew a white dove, a symbol of peace (the dove that returned to Noah's ark with an olive leaf). I made it out of white felt and embroidered it with pearl cotton (pink, orange, turquoise) and some lovely ribbon I found in my favourite sewing shop Naden und Faden (Needle and Thread) back in my hometown Lübeck in Germany.


I hope you all have a lovely time decorating your homes for Christmas and getting excited of spending some lovely time with your family and close ones! Countdown is running! x

No comments:

Post a Comment

Thank you for taking the time to comment on my blog post. I hope you have a lovely day!

Google Analytics Alternative