Use Recycled Christmas Garlands to Decorate Your Home
Photo by jek in the box
Instead of dreaming of a white Christmas, why not have a green one? There are so many things you can make from materials you would normally throw away, from wreaths to garlands. Garlands are particularly well-suited for making out of recyclables. Here are some ideas for home-made garlands.
1. Packing peanuts
Remember popcorn chains? You can make the same kind of garland with styrofoam packing peanuts. Simply thread a needle and run it through the packing peanuts until it’s as long as you like. Then cut it off and tie a knot. It looks very festive and snow-like.
2. Christmas cards
Christmas cards can be used a couple of ways to make a garland. You can simply use a hole punch and punch a hole in the upper fold-side corner of each card and string them with ribbon or colorful yarn. This is especially pretty in a doorway or below a mantle. Or you can cut the cards into strips, bend each strip into a loop, and connect them like a chain.
3. Wrapping paper
Remember making construction paper garlands in gradeschool? This is the same idea, but it makes use of wrapping paper that is beautiful but often torn up and thrown away. It’s up to you if you want wide or thin loops in your garland, but once you decide, cut your wrapping paper into strips of roughly the same width. It’s a good idea to use a glue stick or clear tape to fasten the loops; you don’t want staples weighing down the delicate wrapping paper. Make each one loop through the one before it until you have the length you want.
4. Ribbon
Families often accumulate a big bag of ribbons each holiday season, destined for the trash bin. But ribbon can make a lovely garland. You can do the loop-and-chain technique with loose ribbon, or string ready-made ribbons together using yarn or thread. You can also combine loose ribbons with ready-made ones, which usually have an adhesive backing. Use the leftover stickiness to attach a few loose threads to the ribbon, then bring the loose ribbons up and attach them to another ready-made ribbon’s adhesive back. Repeat until you have the size garland you want.
5. Boxes
Cardboard boxes can really pile up during the Christmas season. You can use them to make a garland. Cut out shapes from the cardboard and decorate them – use glitter, puffy paint, markers, poster paint, or decoupage (cut out magazine pictures and paste them on the shapes with decoupage medium). Then use your trusty hole punch and string the shapes together with colorful yarn or ribbon.
5. Catalogues
Do you get a lot of catalogues in the mail each Christmas? Use them to make a colorful garland. Go through each catalogue and tear/cut out pages that have colors and designs you like. Then, cut each torn-out page into three strips. Proceed as for the wrapping paper garland above.
There is no need to spend a lot of money on mass-produced Christmas garlands. You probably have everything you need in your own home.
