When making a homemade Christmas garland, there are only a few essential materials that you need.
- Baubles or other Christmas decorations
- Greenery
- Twine, wire or ribbon (any of these will work)
- Scissors
- Wire cutters (optional if using wire)
How To Make Christmas Garlands
Over the years I have experimented with a few different types of Christmas garlands for decorating our tree and our home. The reason I love them so much is how they can transform a space so dramatically with holiday cheer.
You can decorate your tree or other areas of your home using garlands, often in no time at all!
But there are many different ways to create your own holiday garland. Here are a few different DIY Christmas garland tutorials to help you create your own:
Method 1: Bauble Garland
If you want bright and cheerful holiday decor, a bauble garland is a great way to add pops of colour around your home. With this type of garland, you don’t need any greenery. Just lots of baubles!
To make a bauble garland you will need a lot of Christmas baubles in different sizes and colours and something to string your baubles onto.
If you are planning to hang your bauble garland around your home, using a thin wire might be the best option to ensure it is strong enough to hold the weight of your baubles over time. If you are planning to wrap your garland around your tree, twine or ribbon are fine!
Simply thread the baubles onto twine, ribbon or wire using your baubles of mixed sizes and colours. Once complete, make sure both ends are secure and decorate with your garland.
Bauble Garland Tips:
- If using wire, create loops at each end so that you can hang from hooks or via ribbon around your home.
- Your local dollar store or discount variety store is a great place to get bulk baubles in different sizes and colours.
- If using to decorate your tree, consider making 2 or 3 shorter garlands rather than one really long one as they will be easier to store and you can easily hide the ends within the tree branches to make it look like one single garland.
Method 2: Bauble Garland With Greenery
Greenery garlands are perfect for a more rustic look. They are also beautiful for decorating shelves, walls, staircases and doorways.
This type of DIY garland is created in the same way as the bauble garland, then twisted around a length of greenery.
You will need a long section of greenery for this type of garland. Of course, you can use a real garland but if you want a DIY decoration you can reuse each year, an artificial garland is perfect for this.
The type you use will depend on your preferences, whether you want a really bushy pine garland or a more modern and simple holly or eucalyptus leaf garland (for a very Aussie Christmas).
You can get plain garlands at most discount variety stores or craft stores around Christmas time as well as online. The ones I am using are a mix of Kmart Australia, AliExpress and Amazon.
You will also need baubles, wire, ribbon or twine and scissors, as above.
Follow the instructions to make a bauble garland then twist your bauble garland around your greenery. Secure this at each end of the greenery.
You may also need to secure in a few places along the length to give it some extra support. You can do this with zip ties that are cut off or by using small sections of wire twisted around the greenery stem.
Greenery Garland Tips:
- Add extra festive touches by adding pinecones, holly berry sprigs and other decorations between your baubles.
- Allow a little more space between baubles compared to when making a garland just with baubles. This will allow you to twist around the greenery without causing your baubles to pop off.
- Twist your bauble garland tightly around your greenery if you want to avoid the string or ribbon being visible.
Method 3: Greenery Garland With Bauble Clusters
This type of garland is perfect if you want to use fewer baubles but still add a pop of colour along your greenery garland.
This is the type of garland I use on top of shelves and anywhere that I want to hang my garlands as it is much lighter without as many baubles. You can also change out the baubles easily each year if you want to change your holiday colour schemes.
To make this type of DIY garland, you will need the same supplies as for the greenery garland (greenery, wire, ribbon or twine and baubles) but with far fewer baubles.
Create clusters of 3-7 baubles (or however many you want to add to create the perfect look for your clusters) on sections of ribbon, wire or twine. Secure the clusters by tying them off.
The size of your baubles will depend on how many you want to use. Smaller baubles might need a few more to achieve the full look you want.
Attach bauble clusters at regular intervals along your faux Christmas garland or natural garland to add pops of colour. You can also add in other decorations such as sprigs of holly leaves and red berries, pine cones, fairy lights, poinsettia flowers and gold or red bows until you have the perfect look.
Cluster Garland Tips:
- A cluster garland is the best option if you are looking for a garland to hang from walls, doorframes or staircases as it is much lighter than the other two handmade Christmas garlands.
- Your clusters can be as close or as spaced out as you like.
- Decorating your tree with clusters will give your Christmas tree a fuller look also compared to using individual ornaments.
- Pipe cleaners also work great for creating ornament clusters.