Hinterland Homesteading
with Racheal Pascoe
We just love homemade and homegrown goodies at our place! This includes Christmas décor. Homemade items take time though, so it’s important to make a plan soon, so you are not rushed. You’ll need time to collect what you need. Think about your style. What do you like at your place?
Our style is a bit ‘vintage’, I guess. Not because vintage is trendy, but because we can’t bare to part with our old daggy stuff! Ha. Our Christmas tree is 25 years old and is a visual feast (eyesore) each year! Ha. The decorations are all different colours, we need a few new pieces of fresh tinsel really, but we just love our style. When we are putting the tree up each year, it is a walk down memory lane as we re-discover the ornaments and hang them on the tree. Never once have I felt the need to toss our tree out and get a new one that has only one colour decorations on it. I see this in the shops and it can stay there! Our Christmas tree is part of our family story and we all enjoy it so much each year.
Christmas wreath
I see the videos showing people making beautiful wreaths out of willow they have grown themselves. Dreamy. I don’t have any willow growing, but I have an ever-giving petrea vine which needed a haircut. Same thing? Not really, but the long tendrils of the petrea made a fairly good substitute. I just started shaping one into a ring and then kept adding to it. I tucked the ends in tightly and have decorated it. Maybe you have a vine that needs trimming and you could use the off cuts for a wreath? NB: I did find with the petrea vine that I needed to use the cuttings within a couple of days, otherwise they went too dry to bend without breakages.
Pinecone fun
If you can get your hands on a few pinecones, you can certainly whip up something cute. This would be a fun one to do with the kids in December when they have finished school. With sharp secateurs, cut pinecones into slices, making flowers with petals you can paint. A full pinecone can be used to hold up a name place card or a bowl of spraypainted cones is a simple and cost-effective way for a table centrepiece. White spray paint on pinecones makes them look wintery like it’s snowed. When it’s no doubt over 30 degrees celsius for our Christmas Day, you can have a little northern hemisphere feel on your table.
Christmas star
Sticks and string are all you really need to make a very cool, handmade looking star! Cut 6 sticks to the same length using secateurs. Lay 2 triangles out and secure them with string. Then place one triangle on top of the other to complete the star. A little gold or silver spray paint will make it really look Christmassy. Make a BIG star to hang on the front of the house, or tiny stars could be used as name place holders at Christmas dinner. A set of solar fairy lights would be wonderful on the star on the front of the house!
What ideas have you got for Christmas decorations at your place this year? I love the challenge of thinking of fresh new ideas and also using different items to make it all come together.
Happy Christmas Homesteading everyone!