Ring Around the Wreath!

Ever since I was a child, home decorations have fascinated me. My dad went for plastic Santas and colored lights, and he passed that gene onto me.

However, it was the crusty French Canadian woman who lived down the street who taught me the most about transforming found objects from nature into the most incredible wreaths and other ornamentations for every season of the year. (She also taught me how to make creamed salmon and peas on toast still one of my all-time favorite meals, but that’s a topic for another guide!)

Throughout the seasons, she would pile her sons along with any neighborhood kid who wanted to come along into her Beechwagon and off we’d for long walks. Sometimes we’d head for the beach but her specialty was the woods where all sorts of surprises awaited like meadows filled with daisies, dams built by beavers, and huge dark areas where we’d gleefully harvest a wonderful natural ground cover called Princess Pine.

While the younger kids ran off to play when we returned, I’d sit fascinated as she magically fished through boxes for one found element after another until we were surrounded by piles of finished beautiful objects. It wasn’t until I was much older that I learned those piles represented a good portion of her family’s annual income.

I try to keep up the decorative traditions of my youth, and I’m willing to admit some years are easier than others. EBay is my saving grace. Mrs. M would be astounded to see how the world market has opened up.

Just the other day, I celebrated Halloween with a door decoration put together with goods “found” on eBay from new friends around the world as well as a few items I fond on the ground. And, I was delighted when I discovered there was still at least one more 8-foot inflatable ghost out there in eBay-land when I decided to decorate my front lawn at the last minute. (Okay, admittedly a far cry from my beautifully hand-made objects, but my dad would be proud.)

As little fairies and mermaids and ghosts and goblins skipped up and down my lawn giggling and waving at the ghost, I just knew my dad was smiling down from heaven giving me thumbs up! (In fact, I was so gratified by the experience I went on line today and ordered a giant inflatable Pilgrim Turkey for Thanksgiving and Snowman for Christmas.)

Oh, but I digress. What I really want to talk to you about is wreaths, particularly the kind we put on our doors. No matter how rich or poor, each of us can afford to put together a wreath that distinguishes our home, condo or apartment, just as our street numbers do.

I’m an artist who specializes in found objects (thank you, Mrs. M) so I’ve been known to humiliate my ex-husband with rusty barbed wire twisted into rounds with a big red bow. When everyone who came to our annual Christmas Party oohed and ahhed its creativity, you would have thought he invented it himself. The point I’m trying to make is that whether you live in a mansion or the humbler home by the marsh I have now, you don’t have to go out and purchase anything to make a lovely wreath.

That said, I’m an eBay seller (LOL) and I’d be lying if I didn’t want you to take a look at some of the wreaths the elves at The Meadowview Collections have been working on with the found objects we’ve collected from the marsh, seashore and woods near where I live as well as from eBayers around the world.

Did you know wreaths have been traced back to ancient Persia when circles of fabric called diadems were decorated with jewels and worn on the head? Later, of course, the tradition can be seen in Greek culture when wreaths made of laurel leaves adorned the heads of Olympic victors and do to this day.

While no one quite knows when wreaths made the leap from headdresses to doors and walls, we do know that in modern times they are mostly associated with Christmas and that is because of the Advent wreath. Its origins come from the folk practices of pre-Christian Germanic peoples who gathered wreaths of evergreen and lighted fires during the cold darkness of Eastern Europe Decembers as signs of hope and faith that spring and with it renewed light would come.

Christians kept these traditions alive and during the 16-century both Protestants and Catholics used these symbols to celebrate their hope in Christ, the everlasting Light. The traditional Advent wreath is made of four candles in a circle of evergreens. Three candles are purple and the fourth is rose. However, four white or four purple can also be used. Different religions light the candles at different times, but all traditions represent the coming of the Christmas celebration.

I love the tradition of a wreath on the front door to herald each season. It matters not to me whether you use it as a demonstration of your faith or simply to welcome friends and neighbors, the tradition of hanging an original one on your door is a tradition you can make uniquely yours.

Why not start today? Scan through eBay for finished wreaths or start one of your own. EBayers sell everything you’ll need to make one from glue guns, floral wire and wire cutters to unadorned wreaths on which to begin your decoration. Of course, my fellow sellers also purvey turkeys, Pilgrims, Santas, Snowmen, poinsettias, and other embellishments. A wreath is limited only by your imagination or your ability to “google” up an idea or two.

Good luck, happy holidays, and don’t forget to make a wreath for every season on the year!

Cheers,

Kathy Hannon



P.S. My original "Simple Starfish Twig Wreath" will soon make find a new place in the home of a midwest collector. Happy Holidays! Watch as I post new wreaths over the next few weeks. I am also putting together a small book on wreath-making for eBayers.