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in the simple

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DIY Christmas Decors

I love decorating and DIY-ing for Christmas! It’s my favourite season to do little creative projects and this year is no exception.

(Links to some of my past Christmas DIYs:  advent calendar when we still couldn’t afford a Christmas tree, Christmas banners, Christmas cards and more Christmas cards.)

My choice of Christmas decors used to be all bright red and green, and I had always gravitated towards “the more, the merrier” type of decorating. I have been slowly moving away from “more” this year and have been intentionally keeping everything as simple as I can.  I’d like to say I am a work in progress on this journey.

This year’s Christmas, I am embracing simplicity and minimalism too and was inspired to get that Scandinavian Christmas look. One Saturday morning, we drove to Crone Woods to gather my supplies for my interpretation of this look and surprisingly, we didn’t need to walk deep into the woods to collect my supplies. We found fallen pine leaves and branches in all their fallen glory just two minutes walk from the entrance. The ornaments were bought from Sostrene Grene, my go-to Christmas shop for Scandinavian goodies that do not break the bank.

Here, I present you the simple Christmas decors I DIY-ed for this year.

Christmas Wreath

Materials – 2 wooden embroidery hoops, real pine leaves, real pine cones I collected from two winters ago, twine, white ornament to tie everything together.

Prep Time – 5 minutes (I was surprised how fast it can be done!)

Christmas Banner

Inspired by this banner in black, I made my own version in gold.

Materials: gold art/craft paper, twine, washi tape, pine leaves and pine cones

Prep Time: One hour including cutting and hanging the banner.

Hanging Christmas Branch

Materials – One or two branches with pine leaves, pine leaves as fillers, Christmas baubles and ornaments, thread

Prep Time – Two hours because we had to dig a hole first in the kitchen.

 

Christmas Star and Pine Leaves in a Vase
Materials – Branches of the same thickness and length, twine, twinkling lights, vase
Prep time –  30 minutes.
The downside. By the time I write this post, the real pine leaves are now drying up so it would be nice to keep a stash of pine leaves at your back garden so you can refill your vase or just fill in some fresher pine leaves and stick them into the branch or the wreath.
The good side. I am delighted with these decors and truly have nature to thank for. If we only take some time to look around, Mother Nature offers us a plethora of materials we can work on for our Christmas decors.  These are materials that are 100% biodegradable.
 The beauty of learning about minimalism is that I realized how our only earth is drowning in plastic and the best Christmas gift I can share to this world, in my own little way, is to try and tell my circle of friends to consider natural elements when decorating for Christmas.
This is the message I certainly will convey to my little boy as he grows up. Wouldn’t it be grand to go the forest and pick up pine leaves and cones to our hearts’ content at winter time? After all, I want him and his future children to experience the beauty of this world for more Christmases to come, and it starts with taking care of this place we called earth one small step at a time.