How To Make Nature-Inspired Christmas Decorations

When it comes to Christmas decorations I love all things rustic!

I moved out from living with my parents some years ago now. My first Christmas in my new home was a very exciting time for me. I couldn’t wait to hit the shops and begin my own Christmas collection. Rather naively I went out expecting to return with a full collection of decorations that were exactly what I was looking for, however it didn’t take long for me to discover just how expensive it can be! I quickly accepted that there was no way I was going to have my tree decorated how I wanted that first year, and that in fact I would probably be collecting decorations for many years. Since that discovery I have stuck to adding just a few new decorations to my collection each Christmas.

Traditional reds, greens and golds fill my tree, along with wooden, knitted and felt ornaments. This year I wanted to make a few of my own decorations to add to the collection. Nature inspired decorations were the theme I was going for.

Off I went, into the woods to collect some sticks. There’s a sentence I never thought I’d say!

I kept my eyes peeled for sticks of a similar thickness, along with some thinner twigs to add particular detail to some of the decorations.

Once home, the first step was to wash and sterilise all I had collected. I simply rinsed off the sticks in the sink with warm water, using my hands to rub away any dirt and moss.

Next step was to sterilise them. I heated the oven to 220 degrees and baked the sticks for 2 hours. This made sure that any micro-organisims and bacterial spores were killed.

Now I was ready to begin crafting. The main supplies I used were:

• Hot glue gun
• Garden pruning shears
• Twine/String

Any other materials I used were to add detail and can therefore be tailored to meet anyone’s taste in colour and texture.

First up was Rudolph the red nosed reindeer. His nose I took from a faux stem of holly & berries. I also purchased a small packet of googly eyes. I used some of the thicker sticks to form the “V” of his face, cutting a smaller piece to glue horizontally. I then took some of the thinner twigs to add further dimension to his antlers. I finished it off by adding some twine to hang him.

Next I tried my hand at a house with a snowy roof. I made the roof first, as this gave me my foundation in determining how much I needed to trim the sticks to make the body of the house. I simply lined the roof with glue and dipped it into loose faux snow to create this look, and repeated this step for the frame of the door. Following this I glued the body of the house into place on the reverse of the roof, and finished the house off by gluing the door and its frame onto the front. The door itself was made from ribbon and the colour choices here are endless. I used twine to hang the decoration, however you could of course choose ribbon if you wanted.

Next up was a star. The only differing detail I added here was the ribbon I used to hang it. Again, you could choose any colour here, or even stick with twine. I glued each branch together before concealing the glue with wrapped twine, adding a nice detail to the points.

And now, a Christmas Tree. For this decoration I first trimmed the sticks and laid them out, deciding on the shape I wanted, before gluing them in order to a piece of cardboard. I added glitter to some of them by lining them with glue and dipping into glitter. I then cut the cardboard away to fit the shape of the tree, so as not to see any from the front of the decoration. I finished it by cutting a small piece of cardboard to make a base for the tree, and wrapping it in ribbon before gluing into place.

Finally, I finished up with a snowflake. This was the fiddliest of all the decorations I made, as it involved handling the smallest pieces of wood. I have to admit, I gave myself a few blisters from the hot glue on this design. I added some final touches by wrapping the center in twine, and gluing on some faux holly with berries.

And there you have it………five very rustic Christmas decorations. They are not perfect by any means, but rustic isn’t about being perfect really is it? That’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it! Failing that, I’ll go with blisters.