DIY: Christmas Decorating

Enlarge Image Image Gallery This herbal holiday tree is eloquent in its quiet simplicity.

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Bring Christmas into your home with simple pleasures. The sweet fragrance of cinnamon and clove, festive peppermint candy canes dangling from colorful ribbons, bright swags, and fragrant bundles of herbs can decorate a home and set a holiday mood throughout the season. For many people, this time of year is already associated with expense and debt, and so we went looking for some herbal holiday craft projects that can be made from nothing—or almost. We asked Don Haynie, a whirl of creative energy and co-owner of Buffalo Springs Herb Farm in Raphine, Virginia, to develop some quick and easy Christmas decorating projects for us.

He came up with two basic craft ideas that can be varied in an infinite number of ways to suit the materials you may have on hand, the look you want, the fragrances that remind you of Christmas, the amount of work you want to do, and even the mood you’re in. One is a decorative tree to hang like a wreath on a wall or door or to give as a gift. After the holiday season, it becomes an appealing but practical drying rack from which to hang your bundles of herbs from the garden. The other is a garland to drape or hang around a doorway or window, along a mantel, around the kitchen cabinets, or on any surface or corner that needs a touch of Christmas. Both are fragrant, festive, and adaptable.

A Simple Stick Tree

The framework of this Christmas tree is made from sticks, so take a stroll in the woods to find the materials. When choosing sticks, look for different wood types, and leave the bark on if you’d like the finished tree to have a rustic look. You’ll need three sticks for the framework and two or three more for the inside braces, depending on the size. (This one is about 3 feet tall, but the tree could be any size.) You can see the basic tree construction in the photograph on page 60.

Lay your sticks in a triangle on a tabletop and after you’ve decided how big a tree you want, cut them to the appropriate lengths, letting them overlap by an inch or two. Join the sticks at the corners by tying them securely with pieces of raffia, string, yarn, wire, or ribbon.

To decorate the tree, choose small bundles of dried or fresh herbs and everlastings, each tied with a bright ribbon or other material. Evenly space the bunches along the crossbars of the tree to see how they’ll look, then secure them to the tree framework with the same material as the bows or a different one. Our tree has ten bundles on the crosspieces and one at the top.

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