Christmas wreaths

Why not look to your garden for some traditional Christmas decorations, and make the festive season truly organic and personal, says Anne Swithinbank

- Anne Swithinbank

BRINGING evergreens indoors when all seems bleak outside is an ancient Roman and Celtic tradition for celebrating the winter solstice. Early Christians adopted the custom for Christmas, and the Christmas tree itself, having originated in 16th century Germany, was a family favourite for Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. Decorations became more elaborate, and whereas we used to put them up a week before Christmas and take them down on Twelfth Night, most folk now seem to start early and pack everything away on Boxing Day. My personal celebration is to gather foliage and flowers from our garden to mark the shortest day on 21st December and freshen them again for Christmas.

See what the garden has to offer

These fresh clippings don’t have to travel, they aren’t made of plastic or glitter and can rot down on the compost heap after use. Best of all, I am lured outside to see what the garden has to offer. There could be fragrant Christmas box, the neat black berries of semievergreen Lonicera henryi ‘Copper Beauty’ or witch hazel whose buds might pop open indoors.

If your garden is short of tempting snippets for door wreaths, posies and mantelpieces, now’s the time to make a shopping list of plants to add. And if you remove the odd stem here and there of these newcomers it will promote sturdy new growth in spring.

Make your own frame

Florists’ frames clad in damp moss are good for substantial, long-lasting door wreaths, but they take a lot of stems to make and can seem cumbersome. For a more ethereal effect, use a light metal or wooden frame, or make your own out of a circle of wire or flexible stems.