You know what word is one of the best in the world? Free! Just in time for Christmas I’m showing you how to make a Christmas swag for free.
Granted I had a few of the supplies needed on hand. But if you don’t have them, this whole project will still only cost you a few dollars.
I’ve really been into fresh greenery this holiday season and love the festive simplicity it brings to our home and spaces. You don’t have to go overboard whenever you hang up a fresh garland. Just plop it down and decorating is done.
While I have lots of fresh greenery in my home for Christmas, I also wanted to put some fresh greenery outside as well.
Our house is a little backwards. We walk up and enter our house on the backside after parking in our driveway. Hardly anyone except the postman comes to our front door.
But the stairs leading from the driveway to the back patio and where we enter the house is the perfect spot to dress up for the holidays. You can see how I decorated them for fall last year below.
So I decided to make a couple of Christmas swags to hang on our gate doors and dress up the posts as well. I love pulling up and seeing them greet me when I get home!
Here’s how I made them, they are really very simple, require only a few tools, and the best part? Mine were free.
Christmas Swag Supply List
- Garden Shears
- Floral Wire
- Cedar or pine branches
- Red ribbon
I took my handy garden shears and drove through my village looking for some cedar and pine trees that weren’t in anyone’s yard. I found some along a paddock fence line and snipped off a few branches that were easily accessible. So these were free!
I also stopped at a Christmas tree lot and asked for any branches that they had cut off and weren’t using. I got a bunch of the noble fir branches this way again for free!
How to Make a Free Christmas Swag
It’s really easy to make the swag.
Lay out a piece of floral wire on your work surface.
Then stack up branches on top of the wire. I tried to layer my branches with the leaves facing downward because I was planning on hanging my swag on our patio gate doors.
You’ll want to keep layering the branches until you get the look you’re going for.
Then wrap the floral wire around all the branches a couple inches below the top. Just keep twirling it around. I recommend giving the wire a twist each time you wrap it around the back to help hold everything in place.
Once you get everything tightly wound together, twist the remaining wire several times in back of the swag.
Finally, I added a red ribbon bow. This was mostly to disguise the floral wire, but I love how the red pops off of the greenery.
After I had both swags made I put a small nail in our patio doors and hung the swags over the nail. You can also use any leftover floral wire in the back of your swag to wrap around the nail.
Where Can You Hang These?
I love how they turned out and love walking up to them every time I come home.
To dress up the gate posts I wrapped the same ribbon around each post and used a staple gun to hold it in place.
Now I’m thinking why haven’t I done this last Christmas? Love the look of these and love that I made them for free because I foraged the branches and had everything else already on hand.
If you make one I’d love to see it. Just tag me @thedailyhostess in your picture on Instagram.
These work great for my patio gate doors, but would also work great on a front door, inside doors, kitchen cabinets, or I may just make another one to put on our front gate, you know for the postman to enjoy since he’s the only one that ever comes to the front of the house.
If you’re hanging these indoors, a simple 3M Command hook would work great to keep them hanging all season long.
Happy crafting your free Christmas swags!
